Hello fellow ZBrush users.
When sculpting miniatures for production in plastic, some details like rivets need to be well defined, oversized and, if possible, separated from surrounding surface with a groove.
There is a pretty straightforward technique I like to use to get those grooves at the same time as the rivets.
I hope somebody finds this info useful. I tried to keep it simple so that users on any level could follow.
The difficulty is in making the groove follow the underlying surface.
The trick is to use an Insert Mesh Brush, go into Brush settings > Modifiers and set Projection Strength at ~70.
You can use the brush I made or any IM brush you make yourself. This setting will make any IM brush conform to the surface. For best results keep the brush simple and the surface not overly uneven.
This method works well with the simple sphere and torus because even if the rivet gets somewhat distorted due to projection, it’s easy to inflate and smooth it back into shape.
Feel free to download this simple Insert Mesh brush
And here’s my artstation
Some examples:
