FACIAL ANATOMY FROM ZSKETCH BY TY SHELTON ch1 ~ Zbrush Tutorial

1. IntroductIon

I don't know many artists out there who would rather extrude edges all day than have the ability to mold and sculpt organic, digital clay, quickly and efficiently creating any shape the heart desires. With ZBrush 3.5 and the astounding new ZSketch features, this idea has now become a reality. The following tutorial is a quick glimpse at one of the many work flows for using ZSketch to create a study of the human head. My hope is that you will be inspired to take the processes and ideas shared in this tutorial and expand upon them with other, far more awesome creations of your own!

Be sure to check out «Sketching with ZSpheres Basics» in the Pixologic ZClassroom Homeroom to help familiarize yourself with the basic functionality of all the different ZSketch tools.

http://www.pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/

2. the Skull

Lets begin by loading a new ZSphere onto the canvas.

To do this, simply select the 'ZSphere' button located in the 'Tool' palette.

Once the ZSphere is drawn onto the canvas, make sure that the 'Edit' button, located on the top left hand side of your screen, is toggled on. You can also enter in to/out of «edit mode» by hitting 't' on your keyboard.

Now, hit 'x' on your keyboard in order to turn on symmetry in the x axis.

Sweet! A fresh new ZSphere ready to go!

To begin creating the skull, we are going to jump straight into ZSketch mode. Go to the tab labeled 'ZSketch', located in the 'Tool' palette. Click the tab once to expand the ZSketch sub palette and toggle on the 'EditSketch' button.

You can also enter «ZSketch Mode» by simply hitting 'Shift+A' on your keyboard.

You will notice the ZSphere on your canvas change to a smooth shaded sphere when working in ZSketch Mode. We now have full use of all of the ZSketch brushes.

Lets add a few ZSketch spheres onto the surface of our original ZSphere in order to start building up an armature/base for the skull. Select the 'Sketch 3' brush.

Now, click and hold on one side of the ZSphere, then, lightly drag your mouse in any direction until you see two single spheres pop on to the surface.

In most cases, while ZSketching, you will find yourself laying down long, smooth strokes, creating chains of spheres that form together like strips of clay. However, for this step, using a light touch, we can easily create single spheres, which, at the moment are exactly what we want to work with.

These first two ZSketch spheres will be used as placeholders for the eye cavities of the skull.

Similarly, we will be using the original ZSphere as a placeholder for the Foramen Magnum, the hole in the base of the

skull through which the brain would connect to the spinal cord.

Go ahead and add a third sphere directly in the middle of the original ZSphere.

To draw exactly in the center, move the brush cursor closer to its symmetrical twin until the two snap together as one and the brush cursor turns green.

This newest sphere we will use as a starting mass to help fill the volume in the center of the of the skull. Think of it as a balled up wad of tin foil that will be used as a base for adding clay.

With the three spheres now created, switch over to the 'Move' and 'Scale' tools in order to position and size them all cor-rectly. You will find these located on the top left hand side of your screen, just to the right side of the 'Edit' button.

Begin by scaling up the eye cavity spheres and placing them out to the front.

Scale up the «volume» sphere as well and place it above the original ZSphere but behind the eye cavity spheres. This sphere will be the largest, however, keep in mind that it will still need to fit inside of the of the cranium.

Keep your brush size relatively small during the move and scaling process. This will help make sure that you only modify

the desired sphere(s) without effecting the others close by.

Here you can see a more visual representation of how the spheres should eventually fit inside of the skull.

Once you are happy with the proportions and placement of your spheres, go ahead and switch back to «draw» mode.

Do this by selecting the 'Draw' button, located directly to the left of the 'Move' button on the top left hand side of your screen.

Or, simply hit 'q' on your keyboard.

Now the real fun begins!

Using the 'Sketch 1' brush, begin roughing in the edges of the eye cavities. Remember, the smoothness of your brush stokes will directly effect how even the ZSketch spheres are drawn on the surface.

For example, a really fast brush stroke will lay down spheres that are further apart, whereas, a slower brush stroke will

lay down spheres that are much closer together.

I find that a nice, even stroke, somewhere in the middle usually works the best for me.

You can also hold down the 'Shift' key and gently smooth out/together your ZSketch stokes.

Next, lets start roughing in the front part of the skull. Using the 'Armature' brush, begin shaping out the sides of the nasal bone, continuing all the way down to the top of the upper teeth.

Keep in mind that, while using the 'Armature' brush, the direction of your brush stroke is based off of the current camera angle. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly rotate to different angles of your model until you find the best angle for each specific stroke.

Once you've laid down a few solid strokes with the 'Armature' brush, switch over to the 'PushPull' brush. This is a perfect

tool for refining the curvature of your armature strokes.

The 'Move' and 'Scale' tools are also still available to help you massage your ZSketch strokes into place.

Don't forget to clean up your ZSketch stokes using the different smoothing brushes. When smoothing out the open ends of a well placed armature stroke, be sure to use the 'Smooth 3' brush in order to keep the placement of the armature intact.

Continue using the same exact methods to build in the cheek bones, temporal bones and outline the edges of the nasal cavity.

As the front part of the skull begins to take shape, go ahead and start filling in some volume in between your main arma- ture strokes.

Using the 'Sketch 2' brush and smoothing in the results with 'Smooth 1' works very efficiently for this. Use this brush

combination to give the forehead some mass.

Often times you will find that your first few ZSketch strokes are purely used for creating the volume that you need. Then, once you have the necessary mass, you can lay down some cleaner strokes on top to define the final shape.