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ZBrush has received an Academy Award for revolutionizing the world of cinema and special effects. Its many innovations let artists quickly and accurately create the filmmaker's vision. Learn how ZBrush can revolutionize your world as well!


The world of cinema is changing at a lightning pace. Directors and producers insist that the industry goes faster and farther. Audiences demand that it must be visually richer and that the final result be very detailed so that the boundary between what is real and what is virtual no longer exists.

ZBrush is one of the biggest contributors to this virtual revolution, allowing artists to produce concepts and realize them in a few days or even a few hours.

Create both creatures and environments with strong credibility. You will also be able to produce more iterations or variations before going into production. Its incredible speed and versatility even make it possible for the artist to work with the director in real-time, applying ideas and changes on the spot.


ZBrush offers a unique blend of 2D painting and 3D sculpting tools that make it a concept artist's dream. With PaintStop you can draw and paint using brushes that simulate real-world media and QuickSketch makes it possible to actually sketch with symmetry. Meanwhile, DynaMesh allows you to quickly build out volumes and silhouettes without stretched polygons and 3D Layers offer the freedom to try new ideas or mix and match between details -- even altering their intensity with a simple slider.

Once a concept has been decided upon, ZBrush is then used to create models with all the details that are found in life – even skin pores. And thanks to ZBrush's HD Geometry feature, this is all done with true geometry of up to 1 billion polygons rather than being a painted or simulated effect. Additionally, build your own brushes made with Alphas or extract greyscale information from real geometry before reusing it to build even more fine details.

With PolyPaint technology, 3D painting is also part of this pipeline. This feature frees the artist from technical constraints like UV's, letting them paint with freedom. You can add UV's later to convert this to texture with ease. You can even change the model's UV's or geometry without losing the painting that has already been done!

ZBrush is fully integrated into production pipelines. Its import/export features make it fully compatible with any program that supports OBJ, STL or MA. Yet ZBrush also takes things a step farther: For many programs (Maya, Modo, 3ds Max, C4D and many others), the GoZ bridge allows your creations to be sent back and forth with a single click. Your models will be sent out of ZBrush with the necessary shader trees already set up and return just as easily. In fact, if you alter a model's geometry in another program, GoZ will update the ZBrush version upon your return, adapting all sculpted and painted details to fit the changed mesh. All of this gives the artist more time for real production and creativity.


Today ZBrush is used in virtually every film that requires special effects work. Here are just a small number of the films that impressed audiences visually and where ZBrush has played a key role: Avatar, The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, Tron, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man, Pacifc Rim, The Amazing Spiderman, the Chronicles of Narnia series, the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Its versatility has also made it an integral part of more cartoon-like productions such as Wreck it Ralph, Rango, Despicable Me, The Lorax, Dragons 2, Tangled and more...



Whether creating with ZSpheres, ZSketch, DynaMesh or conventional subdivision surfaces, your ideas will materialize as quickly as they come to you. One of ZBrush's greatest strengths is to truly free creativity by hiding technical processes where they're out of the artist's way. For example, in the concept phase of production you can ignore how your polygons are organized because what matters most at this point is the visual aspect of the model. With ZBrush's DynaMesh technology you can unify the 3D model's polygonal structure whenever you wish -- and in the blink of an eye -- if areas are becoming stretched.

Once the concept is settled on, topology of course becomes important. At this point ZRemesher and its intelligent algorithms can automatically retopologize your model in mere seconds. Of course if you want finer control you can also guide its results. Either way, the result will be a quality close to that of manual retopology but in a fraction of the time. You always have full control over your production, but why spend any longer than necessary on repetitive tasks? If there are areas that need further care, ZBrush also provides the tools to let you rework them.

ZBrush was developed by artists, for artists. Its tools are consistently designed to inspire creativity and streamline production. In fact, the many sculpting functions are also relevant for 3D painting. Enjoy automatic detection of cavities, use the advanced digital noise generator, work with 3D layers for a non-destructive workflow or create your own brushes to optimize your artistic style. ZBrush understands that as an artist you have your own creative groove. For this reason, ZBrush provides multiple paths to reach any given result, giving you the freedom to create in the way that works best for you.

Of course, what good one a billion polygons be if you couldn't get that detail out of ZBrush? Generate normal and/or displacement maps, including vector displacements to export from ZBrush along with a low resolution cage that will be animation friendly. At rendering time all the fine details from ZBrush will be clearly seen on the big screen. Another alternative is to use Decimation Master to optimize the polygon count without losing your model's fine details, bringing your creation to a count that other 3D software packages can handle.