ZBrush & Photoshop HOW TO SCULPT A REAL DINOSAUR

Glen Southern breaks down his sculpting workflow and techniques when tackling a concept sculpt of an aquatic, aggressive dinosaur

- Glen Southern

ZBrush is my favourite sculpting package by far, but people can find it intimidating when just starting out. Here I show how to tackle creating a large dynamic dinosaur sculpt.

There are so many ways to start a project like this in ZBrush, and there are lots of confusing tools and feature names like Dynamesh, ZRemesher or the popular ZSpheres. To get you up to speed and simplify the process, I’m using the most basic of techniques, which is to add simple primitive shapes to block out the primary form and then use just three or four of the most popular Brushes to add detail. Understanding this sort of workflow, where you block out primary forms and pin down scales and dimensions, then focus on secondary forms (which includes large muscle groups and major landmarks) will help you grasp the fundamentals of ZBrush.

The final step (tertiary detailing) is the one that I love the most. It’s where you get to add the finer details such as scales, wrinkles, pores, creases and cracks in a large dinosaur’s skin. I’ve made alpha images to use with the detailing brushes and I include them with this workshop’s resources. With a range of detailing alpha-textures, you can really make your sculpt ‘pop’ off the screen. Whether you go on to paint over the model for an illustration or use it as part of a 3D print project, you’ll have some amazing details on the underwater creature.

1 Reference is king when creating realistic art