Creating a stylised head in zbrush

Tutorial / 11 May 2025


Creating a stylised head in zbrush – part 7 of the Centaur tutorial series

This is a Zbrush to Marmoset 3d sculpting tutorial, part 7 of a 12 video YouTube series on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob

Learn –

Zbrush head sculpting

Sculpting from a plane

Quick hard surface techniques

Basic blackouts for things like hair

Sculpting from large to small details

Creating fur using alphas in zbrush

General / 05 April 2025


Creating fur using alphas in zbrush – part 6 of the Centaur tutorial series 

This is a Zbrush to Marmoset 3d sculpting tutorial, part 6 of a 12 video YouTube series on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob 


Learn – 

Using maya to create the base shape of a alpha 

Creating alpha brushes in Zbrush 

Refining in PS 

Placing onto the model 

Use of eye

Refining the pose in zbrush

Tutorial / 23 February 2025


Refining the pose in zbrush - part 5 of the Centaur tutorial series This is part 5 of a series of 12 videos on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob, built in Zbrush. Learn – 

Creating a back plate 

Using the save view tool 

Resculpting form after posing 

Referencing anatomy with flow 

Creating brushes

Posing in zbrush using the transpose tool - part 4 of the Centaur tutorial series

Tutorial / 28 January 2025


This is a posing in zbrush tutorial, part 4 of a series of 12 videos on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob, built in Zbrush. 

Learn – 

Using the transpose tool with masking

Following form

Posing with form in mind

Sculpting in Zbrush! - part 3 of the Centaur tutorial series

Tutorial / 16 December 2024

This is a Sculpting in Zbrush tutorial, part 3 of a series of 12 videos on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob, built in Zbrush.

 Learn – 

How to sculpt with flow 

How to sculpt with form 

Use reference while sculpting 

Use lighting to sculpt

 Landmarks 

Subtleties of anatomical form


Zspheres - part 2 of the Centaur tutorial series

General / 11 November 2024

This is a Zspheres tutorial, part 2 of a series of 12 videos on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob, built in Zbrush.

Learn – 

How to use zspheres 

How to use reference when modelling 

How to build a Zsphere armature


Using reference with Pure Ref - part 1 of the Centaur tutorial series

General / 29 October 2024

This is a Pure ref tutorial, part 1 of a series of 12 videos on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob  

Learn – How to use reference 

Artistic landmarks 

What to reference 

Get Pure ref at - https://www.pureref.com/ 

3d.sk reference - https://www.3d.sk/ 

3d Total ecorches - https://store.3dtotal.com/collections/anatomy-figures?srsltid=AfmBOoqgIrSem5ftv_EdznDZRt6Lkkfu5O-SfLea6ZA2F3CheYZp6pGy


Creating a 3D Centaur tutorial preview

Tutorial / 23 October 2024

This is a Zbrush to Marmoset 3d sculpting tutorial preview a 12 video YouTube series on the creation of a Centaur from the lovely concept by Pauline Vob 

Learn – 

The use of reference 

The tool Pure ref 

Blocking out the body with zspheres 

Sculpting using clay brushes 

Transpose master 

Create a custom fur alpha brush 

How to create a stylised head 

Create a custom stylised hair brush 

Create stylised flowers 

Importing to marmoset and rendering as a high detail model



Mouse Color Pole

General / 25 March 2021

For my new game, it has a mouse.  So im taking a small pole on which color is preferred!  Could you comment with your favourite? :)  thank you 


  

Roman part 12 - the final roman.

Making Of / 03 February 2021

This is the last Roman Blog.  Sadly I have been meaning to do this for a month, but I came down with Covid, and other things took priority. 

Anyway here we are!  To begin, in the last blog we were left with a t posed model fully textured.

The next step is to prep it for presentation. 

Usually unless I need to rig it, for my own portfolio, in Zbrush I will use transpose master, masking, and layers to pose the model.  In this case, before hand, I took a video of myself in the various poses.  Just to see the best places for where the feet, legs and arms would position naturally.  Grabbed stills from the videos, and used them as reference while I slowly posed the model.

I showed this in more detail in my Jinx video tutorial recently, but when posing I usually move a few elements, take it out of transpose, then repeat the process for the next part to move.  This is since if you move far too much sometimes the transpose wont transpose due to errors. 


With layers to control the movements in transpose, if an element, such as a belt, gets mashed up in the pose, you can turn off a layer or too, till its correct again, and even use a morph and repose. 

The final step was to transfer the smoothing info in maya from the t pose to the new posed model since the smoothing is lost in zbrush.  Its a bit time consuming, but prevents any odd smoothing after the bake.  

After this, I sent the final models into marmoset toolbag in this case, to check the pose at all angles, and test some lighting setups.  I then produced some assets to lend weight to the scene.  When I had the idea of posing with sitting on a log and holding a torch, I blocked out cylinders to show these elements, but at this stage I modelled them up also and textured them.  Since I wasn’t concerned about if the assets had adequate topo, the main focus was the character, I also zremeshed and occasionally decimated to get the low poly meshes I needed for the camp fire and torch.

The only really difficult element, was something I hadn’t tried before.  The fire.  In the end I textured planes first, checking reference, and then placed them, testing it in marmoset.  The flames still weren’t appearing as realistic as I wanted, but what really pushed the fire was twisting and bending the fire elements, so that at all angles there was something pleasing to see, dropping it out of the flat plane look. 

The camp fire itself used a emissive I created from the ao, so in cracks and deep shadowy areas of the camp fire the embers would burn, and this jelled well with the fire itself.  Making the scene work well together.

Final lighting for all poses, the camp fire, the torch and the standing, I created in separate scenes, using a slight ambience lighting from the sky light, a key, rim etc.  and a light or two dotted around the fire itself to give that glow.


Again sorry for the wait for this last part, I became pretty ill (even though it was mild covid) so when out of bed, I just plodded on with modelling, since any real thought, and even composing a blog, was just too much for my wee brain at the time. 

you can see the final scenes here - 

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/18WkVL

All the best everyone and stay safe, I hope this blog was useful!

Thank you