Customer Reviews

ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As someone who has been studying Zbrush for many years, I can whole-heartedly recommend this book. Scott Spencer covers pretty much everything you need to know about Zbrush in this one, with a lean towards the focus of the amazing digital tools and sculpting methods.
I can see this book being a favorite among tradition sculptors looking to make an easy transition to sculpting within Zbrush, as well as digital artists that want to improve their traditional skills and human anatomy.

The chapter on creating displacements from Zbrush data is worth the price alone, in my opinion. Thanks for that.

This book is going to be a great resource for me when teaching classes on Zbrush this year. I wish I would have had this book years ago, it would have saved me a thousand nights of trying to figure out how to do many things inside of Zbrush. Scott really has unraveled many great working methods that will save me a great deal of time.

Also of note is a chapter written by Alex Alvarez (the owner of the Gnomon School of Visual Effects and the Gnomon Workshop) that details his working methods when creating a cool illustration inside of Zbrush and Maya.

Happy Zbrushing!

Scott's update to this classic ZBrush book is a must have. Scott was my mentor at the Gnomon School of visual effects before he moved on to Weta. I learned so much from him that he let me take over teaching the class! He is one of the elite instructors and he knwo the program inside and out. On top of that he is an amazing artist in both traditional and digital arts. I love how he has adapted classic hollywood monster making techniques into his ZBrush workflow and he shares all of these techniques with you in this book.

Below is my review for the original edition which came out in 2008:

A truly incredible book, written by a master of both traditional and digital character sculpture. This book contains lessons that go beyond the software drawing on Scott's experience in the industry and artistic and anatomical training. I've studied with Scott personally over the past few years and I've gained a great deal from his teaching. ZBrush Character Creation encapsulates his own style and ability as a teacher and includes many extras submitted by the best Zbrush artists in the world. This book is intended for intermediate users, Scott goes through the basics of the software very quickly so this is not recommended for people who are new to the software. If you know enough to get around the interface and create a simple figure then your ready for Scott's book.

In a world flooded with basic introductory books on major 3D packages (cough*Maya*cough), Scott Spencer's 'ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Sculpting Techniques', while quite a mouthful is a breath of fresh air. This is not a book that focuses on a pure beginner. Understanding the concepts of a 3D environment and mild experience with ZBrush are huge advantages in getting the most out of this book. That is not to say this book is not accessible to those who are not proficient in ZBrush. It covers many of the basic concepts, but covers them in such depth, that it would be easily overwhelming to a beginner.
The book begins by explaining the relationship to traditional sculpting techniques, to those applied while digital sculpting in ZBrush. This is one of the great strengths of the book. It covers not only the technical aspects of ZBrush, but also the artistic, the true driving force and advantage of ZBrush. From this initial chapter, you will then be lectured on such topics as; Sculpting Techniques, Detailing, PolyPainting, ZSpheres, and Displacement mapping, among many, many other topics I will let you discover for yourself.
Another great strength of this book is the mini-tutorials from various other artists that are added into the already information-packed pages. Contributing artists include; Cesar Dacol, Ian Joyner, Jim McPherson, Zach Petroc, Alex Alvarez, Ryan Kingslien, and Fabian Loing. Having all of these different techniques and perspectives on the art of digital sculpting, adds a lot of knowledge and expertise to this book.
I cannot say enough towards the value of this book. It is hands down the best ZBrush resource available in print as of this time. I hope that Scott and company with continue to share their extensive knowledge of the arts and of technology with the digital art community.

Being new to ZBrush and 3D character modeling, I've been looking for a while for a good resource that would, (1) give me a good jump-start into these worlds, and (2) be advanced enough for me to grow into and keep me interested. Scott Spencer's "ZBrush Character Creation" book is just that...plus more.

The content of the book is excellent; explaining everything from traditional sculpting techniques, anatomy, ZBrush fundamentals, topics of character creation, and on to advanced ZBrush tools. There is so much great info in this book! Additionally, Scott includes a cool DVD which contains the corresponding source files and video demonstrations. I can see why Scott is an expert in the field from the level of detail he demonstrates in the video presentations. One amazing demo in particular is how Scott sculpts a human face -- He starts out by creating a skull from a sphere and then intricately builds up the rest of the face, layer by layer, with the muscles, fat, and skin. This demo is just in chapter 2 so you can imagine what other great content there is in all the other chapters of this book.

Thank you Scott for creating this book!

I'm a college student and now I'm taking the advance character creation class. I never touched ZBrush before I took the class so I had a lot of troubles keeping up with the ZBrush techniques that my teacher showed me. The other teacher recommend this book to me. And I found out that this book covers many useful stuff that my advance character teacher taught in class. Though I don't have the time to really get into the book yet, but I'm sure it's great for learning advance modeling techniques.

I give it a 4-star to catch the attention of those who are ZBrush beginners. You might need to learn your way around the basics and interface of ZBrush in order to use this book to its full potential.

If you are completely new to ZBrush, I recommend 'Introducing ZBrush' by Eric Keller first. When you feel more comfortable with ZBrush, I'd highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book Scott Spencer covers a lot of great techniques and tutorials i have used several versions
of zbrush books out there and i can tell you this is one of the better ones. although it may be a little much for those who never used Zbrush before i think that they would still benefit from it quickly. And the steps are clearly told to you in a precise manner for the tutorials as well as techniques that apply to sculpting. The dvd that accompanies the book is great to. Overall if you are a new to moderate user of zbrush this is a must have book if you are hesitant to buy this book dont be just buy it Scott Spencer is one of the best charter Creation artist out there BOOK WELL WORTH PRICE.

Hey I'm a 3D Artist finishing up college at sva and this book is a must own

Pros:
Gave me all the insight needed to complete my thesis modeling concepts. Teaches you the production pipe line using zbrush From start to finish. Very thorough on typology, uv mapping, & rigging preparations. Def a must own for soft body modeling artist and z brush intermediates who are looking too go pro. A perfect reference book for zbrush application users.

Cons:
Thought I could use the teaching principals in other software packages but most of the content learned is exclusively for zbrush so u take nothing with you into other software applications.

This is a great book for learning ZBrush. Scott Spencer did a great job putting it together - I plan on getting his other book too.

I have to say this is a great all around book it covers everything in zbrush. This revision includes zbrush 4 and shows examples to follow along of each tools to use. Its a good book I'm still reading it but I am impressed and will always keep it by my side when I do work not to mention the dvd and workfiles it comes with each video is about an hour or so long you might get 2 or 3 in each chapter. I would recommend this book to anyone who is serious about upping their zbrush skills.

The text is a tad small, but everything else is grand! Comprehensive, thoughtfully organized and beautifully illustrated. I love this book.