ZBrushCentral

Equine sculptor considering ZBrush

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m an equine sculptor and have been making a living from it for the past 12 years or so. I have done all my work in the past by hand with clay. Digital sculpting intrigues me, and I am pondering whether or not I should take the plunge. Here is a photo of one of my recent pieces, cast in resin and painted by myself:

[Carousel_web.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘182296’,‘Carousel_web.jpg’,1,0))

What I would want to do is be able to sculpt very detailed horses and be able to produce them in resin in various scales. I would also like to sculpt a few ‘basic horses’ and then use those as starting points for new sculptures. Is this possible with ZBrush, or would I be better off with a different program? If ZBrush will work, will I need additional software for the rendering of my horses?

Thanks in advance,

Sarah
www.rosehorse.com

#2

Hi Sarah,

I should think that ZBrush would be an excellent program for you to sculpt horses. For someone used to sculpting in clay, digital sculpting in ZBrush is much more natural than other 3D software and you can get a very high level of detail. The new ZSketch feature provides a way of building up a model in much the same way as adding clay to an armature. For digital printing or casting there are the Decimation Master and 3D Print Exporter free plugins to help you.

To create a basic horse mesh you can use ZSpheres. You could then this as a starting point for more detailed sculpting, even storing variations in 3D Layers if you wished.

For displaying your finished creation, ZBrush has an excellent renderer and material system. You can record turntable movies within ZBrush - see the Turntable Gallery for examples. However, ZBrush is not an animation software and doesn’t have the lighting and scene creation options associated with programs such as Maya or 3DS Max.

HTH,

#3

Thank you so much Marcus :slight_smile:

Sarah

#4

Any more questions, ask away. :slight_smile:

That’s a great horse. :+1: I look forward to seeing what you do with ZBrush. :wink:

#5

Hi, cool sculpt :+1:

I’m an artist in Kentucky, where horses are very popular. So I’m currently working on a library of horses in different poses. Some are for horse racing, some for the equestrian games, others are just for country horse scenes.

ZBrush is a perfect way to do equine art. From one, unposed horse model, you can create an unlimited amount of poses. You can make each one unique with it’s own attire, surroundings, coat, and so on. Exchanging accessories, gear, and even hair is easy if you use subtools. Fun :slight_smile:

Although I haven’t sculpted with clay, I have done a lot of art. The ‘feel’ of the digital sculpting and painting your model is smooth and artistic. Lots of control.

For rendering, you can create images with ZBrush with in depth, complex scenes. You can also draw and paint using the normal canvas or the PaintStop plugin, which is unique. Of course, you can also export for rendering in other 3d apps, but may not be necessary depending on the look you’re after.

#6

You can also output your zbrush creation to a 3D digital printer that can make a variety of resin (or other types) prototypes. I assume you could then hand paint the model - not sure of the archival qualities of these resin prints but I wonder if you might have them made with more permanent materials like bronze using the prototype to help you make the mold.

#7

I’m thinking I would take the 3D print and smooth it and use that to make our rtv molds and cast in urethane like we do now.

#8

Be aware that printing large figures CAN be expensive. But that may be offset by how quickly you can reuse base meshes as part of future figures.

#9

Can you give me an idea how much? I’ve been told that the smaller sized horses (1/32) are about $300-$400.