Hello,
I have been using zbrush about 2 month, and I am getting used to it. I usually use zbrush for organic sculpting, but this time I am trying to use it on hard surface modeling.
I am a self thaught, and I need some help from you guys.
What brush do you guys use most for hard surface?
I am trying to the surface edge sharp, but I am having hard time…
Any tips or advice on sculpting hard surface?
Thank you very much
have you tried using a mixture of pinch and smooth on the edges I find that is quite effective for getting a nice edge.
There are also the new Planar brushes in 3.5 these are very useful for hard surface I have not been able to fully explore them yet but from the little time I have spent with them they should more than do the job for you.
There are some good videos of these on the pixologic site
http://www.pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/
One method is to model your object with a low resolution mesh first and then ‘Divide’ it without the smooth (smt) button pressed. You can then later manually smooth out any bits that you do want smooth.
Oh and don’t forget the Crease edges feature! That’s another great way of preserving sharp edges of a low poly model when using ‘Divide’ with the smooth button active.
Thank you for the all the advices.
I haven’t used any pinch or clay brush yet, but I will use them and work on them.
Divide subdi level without SMT is new to me. Thank you for the advice.
Even though I subdivide level 6, line is not clean…even though I used lazy mouse…is this normal? or did I set up something wrong?
I just can’t make all the lines really clean.
Mine looks like this…I circled the area that I am not satisfied with…
you need to divide your model some more there is basically not enough resolution to get the clean lines there. Another thing you can do is once you rough out your sculpt is retoplogise the mesh so your edges follow the hard edges on your sculpt this will help in getting cleaner lines from your sculpting
Ah, that’s not really what I would call sharp edged, but no matter. I suspect the model in the thread you had linked to has its polygon edge flow running in the same direction as the grooves on the humanoid’s body. Carefully planned edge flow makes the clean edges much easier to do without having to use a billion poly model. 
Ah, thank you for the replies.
Now I got it…when I make a model, I have to think about how I would sculpt in zbrush too, so I can make the clean edges…got it, got it…
The model is available to look at. The author nickz is very generous. No flaw of his, a lot of work like this looks great from a distance but is not able to sustain a closer scrutiny. Personally making the hard surface in another app or retopo like ced here is the way to go. I like the control of a middleware app myself, but I have a great deal of respect for both nick, vadim and ced.
“I just can’t make all the lines really clean.”
I have seen this question asked many times, and I will give you my thoughts on the answer.
Most of the hard line stuff you see here is not done in zbrush but is done in other modelers ie wings 3d a free modeler that can really do what your lookin for.
Take a week, down load wings 3d for free, spend a little time in it, and your hard line problems will be over.
Flame away lol.
