ZBrush is a design program that can provide you with the power to create stunning digital art with a distinctively fine art feel. ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting shows you how to create highly detailed, lush, organic models using the revolutionary ZBrush software. Understand how to use the full array of ZBrush tools, including brushes, textures and detailing and learn how to apply traditional sculpting and painting techniques to 3D art. Gain inspiration and insight from the beautiful, full-color illustrations and professional tips from experienced ZBrush artists.

ZBrush’s popularity is exploding giving more CG artists the power to create stunning digital art with a distinctively fine art feel. ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting is the must-have guide to creating highly detailed, lush, organic models using the revolutionary ZBrush software. Digital sculptor Scott Spencer guides you through the full array of ZBrush tools, including brushes, textures and detailing. With a focus on both the artistry and the technical know-how, you’ll learn how to apply traditional sculpting and painting techniques to 3D art while uncovering the "why" behind the "how" for each step. You’ll gain inspiration and insight from the beautiful full-color illustrations and professional tips from experienced ZBrush artists included in the book. And, above all, you’ll have a solid understanding of how applying time-honored artistic methods to your workflow can turn ordinary digital art into breathtaking digital masterpieces.

Great

The DVD alone is worth the price of the book. I love the video on painting. Meats Meiers DVD on Zbrush is fabulous but I really like Scott Spencer as well. This book will get you up and running with the big boys in no time.

An awesome 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.

Recommended!

I would recommened this book to anyone looking to advance their digital sculpting skills further, regardless if youre a beginner, intermediate or expert. This is a very thick and heavy book with some great tips, tons of which I had no idea you could do. The included cd has a bunch of lessons and video clips to help illustrate processes, along with the great pictures in the book.
Finally Zsphere hands were explained and demonstrated easily!

Great Book

Very useful, and gives you a breakdown of traditional form to digital which is a must. The tutorials are helpful as well. But overall great book if you want to understand form and gesture, he also explains the interface of Zbrush and why the menus are organized the way they are.
Buy this book.

Great book from a great artist & teacher

A great book with a wealth of production proven information!

Scott approaches topics from both traditional and digital stand point. The book is packed with info covering just about any topic the aspiring or experienced Zbrush artist could ask for. The additional information included from other professionals really completes a great book.

The trial and error time that this book will save is enormous - highly recommended!

An amazing book from an amazing teacher

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.

Is "Incredible" too strong of a word to describe?

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!