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ZBrush in the Movie and VFX Industry
In recent years visual effects for blockbuster films have made massive leaps forward, bringing audience into the story with amazing visual effects. ZBrush has been at the heart of this revolution, many of your favorite characters, from Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean to the Na’vi of Avatar were born on the ZBrush canvas.
ZBrush enables artists at studios worldwide to meld realism with fantasy. You can see it in the fine wrinkles sculpted into a character’s face, the luminous quality of skin colors painted directly on the models, and the engaging performances of digital characters created from hundreds of facial morph targets easily generated by ZBrush artists.
Pipeline integration
The innovative technology at the core of ZBrush is what’s responsible for its ability to revolutionize visual effects. A model can be comprised of millions of polygons without affecting system performance. Artists can freely move between low and high resolution versions of a model while they work. Versions of these models can be exported along with detailed normal and displacement maps which capture high resolution detail. These maps can then be applied within rendering software for feature films or used by video game engines to make creatures and characters as realistic as they need to be to keep audiences engaged.
ZBrush has been integrated into all aspects of the production pipeline. Artists use ZBrush for concept design and shape research, high resolution digital assets, environment design, texture mapping, matte painting, rapid prototyping, tied in merchandise, illustration, and much more.
View ZBC thread
"Using ZBrush on Cloverfield allowed us to maintain not only a high degree of design flexibility, but also aided in keeping the budget on track. Although the topology of the models I delivered needed refinement on Tippet's end, they were, for the most part, completely usable and there was no need for a complete rebuild. The process, in fact, has made me more conscious as to how I prepare my models for delivery."
Neville Page - Creature Designer - Cloverfield
“ZBrush has been a major part of our pipeline for almost two years now, while many other facilities are just starting to consider its usage. Because of our early adoption of ZBrush we now have a major competitive edge in creating highly detailed models."
Payam Shohadai - VFX Supervisor
LUMA Pixtures - Underworld: Evolution
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ZBrush breaks down the barriers that limit pipelines:
- Using 3D layers, an artist can experiment with new concepts and versions non-destructively so that the original base model remains in-tact.
- Texture maps are painted directly on the model’s vertices without the need for UV texture coordinates. During the process UV coordinates can be imported, generated, and exported. This means that the artist is free to paint the model at any point without wasting time waiting for texture coordinates to be prepared.
- ZBrush’s 2.5 dimensional painting technology is used to add depth and detail to matte paintings giving digital backdrops a new level of realism even in wide angle shots.
- Retopology tools within ZBrush let artists focus on their creation first and worry about technical details later. The sculpting comes first and after it is done and approved, the toplogical layout of polygons can be rearranged to suit rigging and animation. Details carefully crafted by the artists are transferred to the animation-ready version of the mesh saving time while also removing creative restrictions from development process.
- The concept model can be prepared for 3D printing using decimation tools within ZBrush. This ability means that toys and other merchandise can be created directly from the original concept art.
- The GoZBrush (GoZ™) plug-in reduces the steps necessary to export a model and all of its texture and detail maps to the leading animation software to a single button click. The model appears with your 3D software with all the necessary shader networks automatically created. This eliminates the tedium and repetitive steps encountered by artists using multiple software packages. What’s more, topological changes can be made in the animations software and these will appear on the model back in ZBrush.
View ZBC thread
View ZBC thread
ZBrush provides artists with the "ability to get what you see. ZBrush gives you all the detail control you need to create really well-thought out maps," says Jeung-Soon. "I don't see any alternative to ZBrush for that."
Jeung-Soon Hong - Artist
Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest
