What is ZBrush software?

When we talk about 3D modeling, we find different tools that can be very useful. Among all these tools is Zbrush. Of course, if you are just starting out with these topics, the question of what is Zbrush may come to your mind. Do not worry, because in this article we will learn what a 3D modeling program called Zebrush is and what it is used for.

What is ZBrush and what is it used for?

The ZBrush program is the industry standard tool for digital painting and sculpture. In this program we can find different categories that will help us to use fully customizable brushes to shape, texture and paint virtual clay in a real-time environment.

The use of this program is completely more intuitive and experimental than other 3D programs. It is ideal to have a tablet to work better when using the Zbrush program. A good thing this tool provides us is that it detects the pressure of drawing tablets like Wacom for example. The level of detail we can achieve in this tool is incredible. It is often used to create characters, but can certainly be used to create objects or scenarios.

If we want to start learning how to use this tool, we can do it on our own, because it is a popular tool, there are many tutorials on the Internet. So learning is very simple for any user.

Who uses this program?

As mentioned earlier, the ZBrush program is an industry standard tool. For this reason, many well-known companies or artists use this working tool. From movie studios, video game developers, toy makers, collectors, jewelry designers, car or aviation designers, illustrators, advertisers, even scientists, others often use this tool for their work.

An interesting fact is that this program was used to make movies like Lord of the Rings or Underworld.

What can be done in ZBrush?

Now that you know what zbrush is, let’s move on to everything this tool allows us to do.

Basic networking

ZBrush provides a repository of tools to help create the basic mesh of the character or object we are going to make. This ensures that we have a place to start work.

Network detailing

Once we have the entire generation of the underlying mesh, we can begin to detail the character or object we are working with with the program. To do this, the Zbrush program provides us with numerous tools to achieve the levels of detail we want for our work.

Inside these tools we find sculptural brushes, of which we can find a wide variety. We also find a noise generator that helps us provide a system for procedurally generating surface details through noise patterns. The noise system is ideal for both hard surface work and organic details.

Finally, we find the HD geometry; This means that Zbrush can easily handle models in the polygon range of 20 million on most computers and up to 100 million on a high-end machine. That means more detail than an 8K map can hold. But sometimes you want more and that’s where HD geometry comes in. With this feature, ZBrush can work with models up to one billion polygons.

3D painting and texture creation

The Zbrush program works with tens of millions of polygons in real time, so users can paint directly on the surface without having to assign a UV or texture map first. You don’t even need to turn on the UV before you start painting. In fact, you can have a fully painted model before you even finish an animation mesh, thanks to ZBrush’s ability to mirror details (both sculpted and painted) from one model to the next.

Creation of models, characters or objects

It’s normal for us to want to show it to the world when we’ve finished the job and achieved the final results. For this reason, the Zbrush tool offers us the opportunity to render thanks to the rendering system called BPR (Best Preview Render).

When we render in this tool, we can use panoramic images as a background in Zbrush to integrate the model with the color of the lighting and environment during rendering.

The conditions we must meet in order to use the program on our computer

Now you know what Zbrush is, what we can do with this 3D modeling tool. But now, of course, you are wondering what requirements the program requires in order for it to work properly on our computer. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the system requirements below.

The program is available for Windows and MacOS platforms, a very interesting thing is that it has dual licenses; this means that we can run the program on both operating systems or switch between them at any time.

It usually runs well on the vast majority of computers, as it has a processor-based engine.

As I said earlier, it is ideal to have a graphics tablet that helps us do the job in a simpler way as it will give us more control over the 3d model we are making. The recommended 8GB of RAM is also required, with a minimum of 4GB.

Now you know exactly what Zbrush is and all the work that can be done in this incredible 3D modeling tool.