Hello,
I am new to Zbrush and am excited about the possibilities. I am interested in learning modeling and want to create bas reliefs.
Will Zbrush be able to create reliefs like this or is this something that needs modeled in a program like Maya?
Thanks for any feedback you can give 
Yes, ZBrush can create reliefs. There are actually a few ways to do it.
One thing you can do is sculpt your figure in full 3D and then use Tool>Deformation>Size to flatten it. The result will be that your round mesh becomes a relief instead.
If you want the relief on a plane, you would use Projection Master to drop a high poly plane to the canvas. You would then select your 3D model and lower the Draw>Z Intensity setting before drawing the model on the plane. Youād then use Projection Master (with Deformation on and Normalized off) to pick the plane up again. The 3D model will be transferred to be part of the plane. The plane does need a pretty high polygon count to do this well. Afterwards, you could also use the retopology features to construct a new mesh and project the details from your original onto it.
These are just a few ideas to get you going. Check out the āZBrush Architecturalā section at http://sebleg.free.fr/ to see more of what can be done.
Hello Aurick,
Thank you so much for taking the time to post. It is much appreciated!
I used the projection master in the demo and created a relief but did not receive the detail I was looking for. Perhaps I need to subdivide more of the plane before I introduce the alpha?
I am not sure that going this route will give me the detail I am looking for. I may need to learn modeling to achieve the results I desire.
One quick question if I may. If using the projection master and an alpha image to create the relief on a plan, what would be a good way to achieve smooth rounded edges. It seems the perimeter and edges are more like a vertical wall rather than the smooth rounded edges I am looking for. I can try to manually smooth using one of the brushes but thought there might be a way to achieve this differently.
Thanks again for your time and feedback.
Duplicate
Iām a rank novice when it comes to this stuff, but in my experience so far, the Deformation Submenuās āFlattenā will not produce the effect you want. Careful Masking, the Inflate, Clay, Standard Brushes with the Z settings set very low will give you the control you need to raise the relief gradually. Hereās a relief in progress done with a 4 grayscale image Alpha and the techniques mentioned above:
Hope this helps a bit,
Katherine Dewey, aka recent ZBrush addict
This looks really good and is exactly what I am looking for. How long did this take you to manipulate in Zbrush?
Thanks for your feedback 
It took longer to selectively mask the background than it did to raise the relief. I was constantly masking and unmasking areas as I worked. I also used shades of gray, rather than just black on white, in the line art so the lines in the face and dress of the sprite didnāt cut too deeply. Setting Z value to 4 did most of the work; the letters, frame, and most of the blades of grass remained untouched and were masked at the outset. Hereās a screen capture of what I call selective masking done near the end of the process: 
Hope this helps,
Katherine Dewey
Rank, Raw, Still Learning
Very, very cool, I checked out your siteā¦ your work is absolutely amazing! You make reliefs in Zbrush look deceptively easy
My goal is to create reliefs from 2d art and convert to stl files for my cnc machine.
Thanks so much for your feedback. Every little tidbit of info helps.
Wow! Thanks.
I love Bas Relief, and so wanted to see if I could do it in ZBrush. This was my first relief and it took three attempts before I understood the tool needs to be subdivided (maybe 4 times), the real power of masking and that a light to mid-range gray in the Alpha would be helpful. Hereās a dumbed down close-up of the original template without the square black background to show you what I mean:
Note the gray musroom stalk, leaves, letters and frame, as well as the lineart within the sprite. Oh, the original template was huge.
Hope this helps,
Katherine Dewey