Page 24 - 3D Artist 110 - 2017 UK

ZBRUSH 4R8: THE BEST VERSION YET?

LIVE BOOLEANS for creating and exploring complex forms up your character design worklow. In almost
The number-one feature on the lips of pretty quickly and non-destructively.” Cki Vang also no time you could have a huge library of a
much every ZBrush 4R8 beta tester was Live loves the new feature, “Live Booleans is my number of different ears, noses and other
Booleans. Boolean operations are of course a favourite tool so far, extremely powerful and features (including variations – say, mouths
staple of 3D modelling, but as powerful as they easy to use. You can combine any SubTools open to varying degrees) which you can
are, they often require a lot of trial and error to thanks to the preview, which helps me to quickly apply to a model without sculpting
get your unions, subtractions or intersections visualise quickly what I want to design.” every time. Super cool, right?
just right. ZBrush 4R8 changes this – and the “My favourite feature in 4R8 has to be the
worklow improvement Live Booleans offers is VECTOR DISPLACEMENT MESHES Vector Displacement Mesh brushes,” says
hugely impressive. As well as using Live Vector Displacement Mesh brushes are pretty creature and character designer Maddie
Booleans with simple SubTools, you can use special, especially for character designers. In Spencer. “I love using them to kitbash models
the system with any model in ZBrush – true Pixologic fashion, it’s pretty easy to create and I also ind they work particularly well when
Subdivision models, DynaMesh models, a brush – there are a number of templates you sketching to introduce the ever-elusive digital
Dynamic Subdivision models, ZModeler can start with. What these brushes enable you ‘happy accident’.”
topology and Decimated topology. Regardless to do is quickly create complex models from a “Out of all the excellent additions in this
of polygon count you can see a real-time library of objects. You can create brushes for release of the VDM (Vector Displacement
preview of the resulting mesh when combining instance that will quickly add a nose to your Mesh), the Chisel 3D brush is one of my
multiple sculptures together. You can even characters – complete with all the details favourites,” says Vichar BN. “Being a sculptor,
sculpt on your models while previewing including overhangs – by clicking and dragging the highlight for me was the software’s ability
Booleans. And if you ever lose the model on a surface. Sure, it takes some setup to to mimic the feel of real clay, wood carving and
you’re subtracting or joining on your create your brushes, but once you have a oil painting and experience the real traditional
workspace, just hit the Polyframe button to get library of objects, through perhaps cloning and way of sculpting.”
it back. Naturally, once you’re happy with the editing a number of meshes, it can really speed
Boolean, you’re only a single click away from GIZMO 3D
converting the real-time preview to geometry. “At irst glance you think, ‘Okay, it’s just a
This environment enables artists to When you combine Live standard manipulator tool,’” says an excited
experiment in ways never seen before, Matt Flesher, referring to the new universal
whether working on hard-surface models or Booleans with other tools, manipulation tool within ZBrush that’s an
organic high-poly sculpting. It’s a hugely alternative to the Transpose Action Line. “But
exciting development. As Matt Flesher says, they become a hugely Pixologic can’t just do ‘standard’. Like every
“When you combine Live Booleans with some versatile combination other aspect of ZBrush, it has packed a load
of ZBrush’s other tools, such as Array Mesh, of power and usability into this new tool. The
they become a hugely versatile combination Matt Flesher ability to manipulate multiple SubTools

Silvana Guns by Clay render
Lucas Cuenca by Vichar BN

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