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Sculpting for 3d print question

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

Just to start I am very new to Zbrush. I’ve spent time modeling in Maya. Primarily I work with traditional media to create my sculptures. I have been playing with Zbrush about a few weeks now, learning from Gnomon videos and books to get myself a little comfortable with the software. I want to use it to replace my procedures of clay sculpting and casting to create my statues. I have recently had a baby and my old workspace has become the nursery. My wife doesn’t want the mess in the house anymore. So I think this can be a solution. I can sculpt and have the model 3d printed.

My my question is… What do you think is a better way to model? Should I sculpt my figures in their final poses right from the beginning? Or should I sculpt the figure in a neutral pose and then use transpose to position the model in the final dynamic pose for print? Or is this just a preference?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

Jorge

#2

I learnt the hard way that it’s better to sculpt the figure in a neutral pose first then pose it. After you have posed it you’ll have to z remesh and reproject detail back to the model because the topology will get distorted. When you pose the model try not to pose the head but the body, you might want to use symmetry on the head, if you keep the head at the z axis the symmetry will keep working on it. Then you’re good to go at the details and bulging muscles etc.

Oh and when you z remesh your character, use a very low poly count on the model because it’ll be easier to pose. And do take advantage of the z remesher guides on parts of the body that might need some topology guides.

#3

It’s just a preference, and it depends on what you want out of the experience, and of the final model.

Fine arts sculptors looking to replicate a real world sculpting experience, that want to produce pieces with a “hand worked” quality, and not wanting to lose any energy from their compositions, might forgo a number of helpful digital cheats like automatic symmetry and work on the piece as a whole from the beginning. They might not want machine-perfect figures that are too symmetrical, or to look like something they couldn’t produce in real life.

If your focus is for elaborate figures that are part of a production pipeline, you’ll almost certainly want to work with the strengths of the digital medium, and take full advantage of all the time saving tools at your disposal. This will almost always mean creating a figure in a neutral, symmetrical position, doing the bulk of the work on the figure in this position, and posing it or preparing it for animation afterward.

In his tutorial on the Pixologic website, Scott Eaton splits the difference, posing a rough, simple symmetrical figure early in the process, then doing the bulk of the refinement on the piece as a whole.

There’s no right way. Just do whatever lets you get your work done, that you also enjoy doing.