Pro Zbrush artist sculpts in Blender for the first time

Hey everyone, I'm Laura Gallagher and this video documents my first steps learning how to sculpt in Blender. If you're looking to learn character art, check out my classes at: outgang.studio
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[@Stillenacht3D]

I really like how the sculping feels in Blender and I think you'll like the multires modifier since you have subdivision levels to step up and down towards. The only thing missing for me at this point is sculpt layers. There's a paid addon but I would prefer it be native in Blender. One tip that I might suggest is setting up your brush hotkeys the same way you have them set up in Zbrush. Just right click on the brush and "assign shortcut" That sped up my workflow big time. Great video!

[@Outgang]

Thanks for the tips Anastasios. I'll give Multires a spin next time and that's a much faster way to set my shortcuts. Cheers!

[@samdavepollard]

thanks - i've never used the 'assign shortcut' feature in blender but it's super useful for sculpting brushes; i've been putting my brushes in my Quick Favorites list, but your way is much quicker; thanks again for the tip

[@Stillenacht3D]

@@samdavepollard Of course! :)

[@MondyTS]

Can you tell me how is that addon called?

[@samdavepollard]

@@MondyTS i can't be sure but i think it may be a reference to Sculpt Layers, available on the Blender Market

[@vivishii_]

You have such a different sculpting style from what I’m used to seeing and it’s so refreshing! Definitely picked up some tricks hehe thank you Laura!

[@KeyFrame11Media]

Because of this video I was able to reach a level of comfort inside Blenders sculpting that I hadn't quite found. Thank you!

[@Outgang]

Nice haha! Hopefully I'll get there soon too.

[@BryantNaro]

So cool to see a professional sculpt something in Blender! What a beautiful sculpt. I really appreciate your take on being agnostic with software, and the perspective of ZBrush being in competition given the price point.

[@0780-b1r]

Agnostic with software..ha ha that's good. But what you say is true because according to what I read from people's opinions about their favorite software, many behave as if they were part of a cult.

[@michaelorlev9925]

OK, I'll be totally honest. I try to watch every artist who moves from other software to Blender. I am emotional, not objective. I love Blender on a moral, philosophical level... So here's the truth, I've subscribed and liked the video (cause it's great, and you're great! Good job!) but I'm really here only to follow your Blender journey... Looking forward to the next installment!

[@KobanWanko]

I've personally found that blender works better with mid to high res sculpting using the multi-resolution modifier instead of the subdivision modifier when using a low resolution, poly modeled base mesh. Multires is also easier to get more detail with less verts than subsurf while sculpting, can be easily removed if you wish to restart your sculpt from the base mesh, and will maintain your sculpting detail as best it can when turning down the subdivision settings of the multires. The only thing to keep in mind when using multires modifier is that you can no longer reliably poly model your base mesh without permanently applying the modifier or removing it, whereas sub-surf can modify the base mesh at any time without error. So it's more of a matter of what stage of development the project is in that determines which to use.

[@Outgang]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Firro, yeah it seems multires is what's preferred by others too.

[@MondyTS]

If you use subsurf then you are still sculpting the base resolution and a subdivision is applied to it after. With multires you are actually sculpting more geometry

[@joshua42777]

it appears that Multires forces you to commit to the shape of the object before using it.

[@MrBolioman]

As of yesterday I´ve started my journey on blender. I love how accesible it is. Even thoug I started my carrer in 3DMax and Maya. Blender is slowly but surelly winning over me. And watching this type of artwork only motivates me more. Thanks a lot! Amazing work!!

[@joanhailey8969]

It's probably because this is your first Blender post and I tend to mainly watch Blender-centric 3D videos, but WOW, how have I not come across your channel before?! You're so incredibly talented and your insight is fantastic. Can't wait to see more of your work (as I work my way through your existing channel content, lol). Subscription added! 💜

[@keithkirby7376]

Uea outgang is top tier stuff about all programs. One of my favorite content creators for 3d knowledge.

[@blackjam2683]

Searching for new artist on KZbin is a pain, its usually, they feed you the same artist you had looked at and you happen to only find a new artist by scrolling on the related videos on the side bar, or some artist links in the description.

[@awesomeniac]

Regarding poly paint equivalent make sure to use the new Sculpt Painting in 3.2 release they rework the vertex painting system

[@Outgang]

I'll do that, thanks!

[@birianination7097]

@@Outgang then make a new update video of your experience

[@rektifyr...]

The fact that Blender is even being talked about as a competitor to ZBrush when it comes to sculpting work is insane, especially taking into account that it's only been a main focus of the project for the last few years. Having said that, Blender's main strength (and weakness) is that it's a jack of all trades (did you know it's also a video editor? why is it a video editor!?). I don't think I would encourage sculptors to change from ZBrush to Blender, but instead to explore the non-sculpting features and incorporate Blender into their workflow.

[@Arjjacks]

The video sequence editor is really just poorly named, in my opinion. Its primary function is actually not to edit videos, it's just incidental to its actual purpose: sequencing the scene strips for a film. The idea is that an entire film can exist inside a blend file all broken up into however many individual scenes, all of which can then be sequenced in the "video" editor. But the editor needs to then be able to also splice in audio and render it all out to video, hence its ability to handle those things as well. It should be the scene sequence editor, really, but I imagine that stacking everything into one blend file led to serious bloat and instead the Blender studio just rendered from separate files and imported the image sequences or videos all into one master, making it more of a video sequencer than a scene sequencer in the end.

[@chaosordeal294]

@@Arjjacks I believe it was originally for animating renders (flythroughs) for archviz and similar.

[@Arjjacks]

@@chaosordeal294 Ah righto, that's quite interesting.

[@cory99998]

"Ultimately its up to ZBrush to justify its price" Well said. ZBrush is losing out on hobby devs like myself. What happens over the next 5+ years as blender adds more functionality? Even if it's missing some of the polish, a price tag of free is hard to argue with. Especially in non-professional environments.

[@spydergs07]

I switched from ZBrush and Maya to Blender after Blender 2.8 launched. I couldn't stand Blender 2.79. The interface was terrible. After like 2 months of using Blender 2.8 I cancelled my subscriptions and have worked solely in Blender. Being it's free too is a MAJOR plus.

[@bbrother92]

@@spydergs07 show your works then

[@Mocorn]

What a distinct and cool head you came up with here. I love the angular planes! I'm tired of seeing the same female anime head in sculpting videos so this was refreshing to see :)

[@WallyMahar]

I am so glad to hear you were able to use Blender Laura!! There was an individual who was in charge of the sculpting area and blender and it still goes unsung about what an impact he had. I didn't realize until now someone with a focus on function and UI, was finally at the helm on a small part of blender. Blender, It is the only tool I can afford that I constantly am screaming and pulling my hair out ..how I have to look up on the internet for the most basic simplest of tasks ..with hidden keystrokes and all the other madness that is the blender interface & manual. To hear from a pro coming from a well laid out & designed program, who was able to easily understand with minimal fuse what they wanted to accomplish in blender sculpt...it is heartening. I hope someday , there is someone who will be able to redesign the rest of blender akin to the sculpt section.

[@Outgang]

UI/UX is sooo important right? It's often overlooked, as you say. It's a shame. I'm also experiencing like you those moments of... "Of course function X is in Blender...." and then looking for it and being like, Oh! This basic feature isn't there. It's a quirky software.

[@CyanHusky]

Glad you touched on the camera. ZBrush's camera has been pretty frustrating at times while learning likeness sculpting. The camera is the only reason I've considered trying Blender.

[@cractor6307]

The camera is the reason I don't try zbrush

[@djpcradock]

What I hate about Z brush is that I'm from England and I say it "zed" whereas everyone everywhere else says it "zee" brush. and EVERYTIME I hear "zee" I have to repeat "zed" in my head :D

[@Outgang]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2i8oWWCa8hlga8

[@sidar87]

By default the camera focal length is at 50mm, I would recommend putting it between 80mm and 100mm so that the mesh doesn't warp as much and you have a bit more of an accurate reading of your model. You can find it in the 3d view on the right side ( if it's collapsed you can click the small arrow top right or hit 'n' to make it show up) then in the view tab the focal length option can be set.

[@Outgang]

Thanks for the tips once again Disar. The default focal length really isnt too bad. The perspective flattens when zooming out of a model.

[@etdle7]

[@Outgang]

Thanks Etdle!

[@makitakitukutuku586]

If you look on the road map, there's actually plan in Blender to achieve as high polycounts as in Zbrush done in similiar way of rendering as Zbrush does (withing 3.x.x version). It was also pointed out that it would be separate program connected with blender. But atm it actually can achieve very high polycounts, most poeple just remember 2.8 performance and didn't look at it now really or dont know the subdivision(multi-resolution) workflow. I'm glad u're looking into it, looking forward to more content from Blender

[@Outgang]

Cool to know that 3.2 is out, let's hope that high polycount workflow happens soon. I'll give multires a spin next!

[@makitakitukutuku586]

@@Outgang Looking forward to that!

[@tlilmiztli]

Can you point to source? Because last time I checked all they were planning was making sculpt work well in eevee. ZBrush is using propiertary, patented "pixol" technology. So saying they will do something similar is... doubtful at best.

[@Arjjacks]

@@tlilmiztli I think he's talking about a fairly old roadmap now where there were plans to have more modes for handling different workflows (like a dedicated CAD mode, for instance) and one of those was a high poly mode for sculpting insanely high densities that would only exist in that mode, and have to be baked or retopoed "down" for use in any other mode, or something like that. But this was all contingent on Pablo Dobarro being lead developer for the sculpting module. Now that he's left, those plans have entirely fallen through. Pablo Vasquez was actually asked about this in a recent Blender Today livestream.

[@seragx99]

Hey! It always feel good when some experienced artist has so much to say about blender! You can see a small preview resolution of the dyntopo remesh with shift+r, a grid will appear and you can drag the mouse in or out to change the voxel size, once you're happy press ctrl+r to actually remesh. To add lights simply go to the first tab (I think it's layout) and change to object mode, shift+a will bring the add mesh menu and you can pick the lights there, position them with G (as in grab) and press x, y or z to toggle the axis, left click confirms the motion, right click cancels, a new tab will appear with light properties in the right side panel with the light properties, you can manipulate the camera in the same way with G, press R to rotate and again x, y or z to toggle axis (scale works the same way but you won't be need them with lights or camera), you can also press 0 on the numeric pad to change to camera view, split the viewport to manipulate the camera on one viewport and see your shot on another! You can easily switch modes (sculpt, object, edit, etc) with ctrl+tab, but I modify the shortcut to simply tab to access all modes, actually you don't have to modify the shortcut, using tab to view all modes is an option in the shortcuts section of the preferences, I also enable a pie menu add on to turn all contextual menus into pie menus! It's included with blender but you have to enable it on the add on menu on the preferences. 😅 Hope I could help and thank you so much for bringing awareness to the Blender community!

[@Outgang]

Haha that's a mini crash course on Blender right there! Thanks for the tips they'll definitely come in handy.

[@seragx99]

@@Outgang it came too long sorry 😅 I thought a lot more 😅 I already subscribed! I learned to be software agnostic a long time ago and you're right, I got zbrush (beginner's version, don't recall the name) but I haven't touched it since blenders fits my needs right now plus I'm a hobbyist who has got a couple commissions, and no one asks what software you use, although I know it's different when you're trying to land a studio job, I learned a lot from artists like you so thanks for that and you got a subscriber. Again a long comment, sorry. 😅

[@dannyfranco199]

Just a heads up, you can’t use voxel remesh when dyntopo is active :P

[@Zaptruder]

Blender continues to improve since 2.8 faster than I've seen other 3D packages. Also some good plugins available from the community that is able to make up for the out of the box shortcomings - in both sculpting (remeshing tools) and texturing (a few good layer based PBR painting tools around), and many others.

[@phralma1000BC]

100+% agreed

[@redfruit1993z]

I see good future for blender. Since 2.8 they really started to be on par with pro software. I don't know if they received money to hire more industry pro dev.

[@Zaptruder]

@@redfruit1993z They definitely have received funding from big industry players like Nvidia and Epic to the tune of a few million for development... it's recognized as a tool of growing importance - a free, high quality and complete 3D package is a fantastic way to light fire under paid tools that need to justify their pretty high costs against free - especially to a growing cadre of new users. Ultimately, the industry will benefit hugely, far more than the few million spent (and that money is being used exceedingly efficiently based on the output), as more people are able to hone 3D skills to high levels as afforded by a free and complete software package. Previously a lot of skill development would've been gated behind expensive software, in turn requiring access to education, or just flat out piracy to get them - which in turn fractures the sort of information available to users. The free nature of Blender tends to beget more free tutorial content as well, so with just KZbin and Blender, you can go from scratch to a pretty high quality standard if the will is also there.

[@keithkirby7376]

Blenders development cycle is not on a semester type thing like other programs. So it just looks like they develop faster because the community is involved in the testing phase. When a new major release of zbrush or houdini comes out. You get like a million new tools. And you realize blender isn't really faster. Just different

[@stratos2]

What would those layer based PBR painting tools be? Could you give some names for useful tools?

[@ShaunMeechan]

The snake tool with constant detail setting ticked within Dyntopo and a resolution around 15+ is so good for creating stuff really quickly with nice feedback! Great vid!

[@Gaamer-r9b]

blender is great what i love is the fact that it has eevee ,and textruing ,sculpting it has so many tools and you can just see all of that in realtime

[@khalatelomara]

and this is only the tip of the iceberg , blender has surprisingly became a beast ! I am an architect and for me bender sculpting is giving me more than I need , I used zbrush for like 8 years in architecture and .... it was painful with 3ds max yet the interface of zbrush is so weird that my industry standard muscle memory can handle 😀it has impressive hard surface modeling , yet sketching , compositing and incredibly fast renderers (Cycles and EEVEE) I really like the cloths anatomy video on this channel as this was the first video I watched , but I would really like to see more blender content as you have impressive talent and yet nice presentation

[@Outgang]

Thanks for the insights and the compliments Bassem. There's more Blender content coming :)

[@MrSanson]

Thank you so much for this demo and PRO P.O.V of Blender . Looking forward for more Blender sculpting videos. Blender NEEDS to have a native "zremesher. IMO.

[@Outgang]

Haha yeah that sounds like an oversight. Even Maya has it now.

[@xalener]

The issue there is securing licenses for those geo simplifying algorithms for use in a free open source software. There's stuff out there, but that's the big hurdle right now.

[@TheDanielConsole]

​@@Outgang Hey Laura, glad you gave Blender such an honest review! About Zremesher, unfortunately there's nothing in blender that compares to it natively, but you can get a copy of Exoside's QuadRemesher for 60 bucks that's really close to Zremesher, as it's actually developed by the same guy. If you'd like to check it out, there's a 2 week free trial too I think. Again, a bummer that's a paid extra, but considering it's a one time purchase for an otherwise free software, I found it to be well worth it. Cheers :)

[@TheDanielConsole]

Also, hijacking this thread but you can place lights in object mode by pressing Shift + A. And Z brings up the rendering pie with Eevee render view by default :)

[@xalener]

That being said there's a ton of alternatives in the form of add-ons. They're all paid but you're straight up paying for the license to use the standard algorithm, which is rolled into the price of any other software you'd buy that has it.

[@owenrichards1418]

Thanks for this. I sculpt in ZB and model/render in Blender and I've been wanting to get into sculpting in Blender just because I'd like to not keep dinking from one app to the other. Thanks for the non-biased overview.

[@thelaw3536]

Starting out sculpting and Man that clay strip plus deep fill combo looks golden

[@Glowbox3D]

So incredible watching timelapse sculpting. I'm not a sculptor, but watching this kind of stuff makes me want to get in to it. I enjoy Blender quite a bit, and never have used Zbrush.

[@theotries]

Hi Laura, yeah Blender based Tutorials would be so great! I will start with sculpting in the next week, so learning from you would be really nice!

[@pieterrall1289]

Awesome overview, thanks Laura.

[@Badlynamedchannel]

At the retail level, Z-Brush holds the torch of being the standard for character sculpting, however I would argue that Blender can pull ahead because how scalable it is. For example, the ability to bake high-res details onto low-res models in very few steps is extremely useful, and all the addons needed to create an almost 1-to-1 replica of Z-Brush would cost less than the program itself. By trade I'm a Generalist who's getting into the sculpting side of things and because of the nature of the jobs I'm interested in, people such as YanSculpts have extremely valuable workflows to look at and adapt. *The option to add individual functions to a favourites menu (Q) is an absolute life-saver.*

[@mastjappa]

Awesome and fair deduction! The way I work with lights in Blender is as follows; In Layout add a light by pressing Shift+a, pick the light type you want from the menu. Once added and selected in the outliner, type N to get the right sidepanel open and go to "View" tick Camera to view. Then press CTRL+0 (numpad) this way the light becomes the Camera and you use this technique to light your objects. Once happy or want to see through the camera, click the camera icon next to the camera object in the outliner. There are better ways I guess but it works for me.

[@Outgang]

Thanks for the camera/light tips, I'll give them a try next time.

[@yannmassard3970]

hello, just stumbled uppon ur video. Been a maya / houdini / Zbrush / 3dCoat etc user for 22 years now. Both in Game studios and FX studios. 3 months ago, I gave a try to blender. Changed my whole perception of the 3d pipeline. the fact that you never leave the software to complete a project is absolutely astonishing. Blender is still far from doing all, but it will surely do. It step by step integrates all the fundamentals of all the softwares, including Houdini s powerfull node system. It s not the fact that the software is free that attracts me, it s the mindset.

[@Outgang]

The mindset is very interesting indeed.

[@sf4603]

Blender has done great things for this industry but its content creators like yourself that are to thank for the flourish we are seeing with independent digital art. I hope you give yourself a big pat on the back everytime you upload because you are doing great things for the community. Outgang is an invaluable resource and I recommend you to all my cg artist friends no matter the skill level :)

[@Outgang]

Thank you so much for helping me out SF. I don't do marketing so I try my best to make useful content and I rely a lot on word-of-mouth to bring people to this channel.

[@CoryDeVore]

When you work with Voxel remeshing, make sure to try hitting "Shift+R." This gives you a voxel size preview. Coming from Zbrush I found that to me AMAZING as I got sick of trying to find a resolution sweet spot. Love this video!

[@CoryDeVore]

Only gotcha is that voxel remesh depends on your object scale so if you have an object you scaled in object mode and isn't 1x1x1 percent scaled, just remember to Ctrl+A and apply scale if you want to commit your local scale edits. Scaling in Edit mode or Sculpt Mode affects points and not the Object scale so this won't be needed in those cases.

[@TheTomimt]

I started using Blender back in the day when it originally became open source. It has evolved insanely much from those early days, not only by features but also by performance and the interface. Back when it originally got the sculpting features, I did give Zbrush a spin as well, just to compare them, and nothing about Zbrush really convinced me, that even "a serious hobbyist" like me would ever really need a paid application for it. I'm certain if you do sculpting professionally, then yes, a specialized application like Zbrush is going to justify its price tag, but for everyone else, it's a harder call.

[@Bordie3D]

you're really good at defining the shape of the skull.

[@Outgang]

Thanks Bordie!

[@papasalvo]

if you ever decide to sculpt or do anything else in blender friendly tip. There is a built in add on for blender that allows you to press W and get a nice little wheel of the brushs that I find to be very smooth and simple to use to swap between brushes. Also you can assign things to your favorites by right clicking them then when you press Q it will bring up a menu with all of your favorites

[@Outgang]

I have so much to learn. Thanks Litt!

[@Rellbot]

I was crazy about starting to sculpt on zbrush until i found out it was paid and VERY expensive for me, who has no experience in the field and is young and on a budget, then i found out about blender and boom, now not only im learning 3d sculpting but also finally getting on 3d animation and mixing my 2d art with my 3d models, yes zbrush is the standard but blender is perfect for people without money for that and for people who wish to explore other areas of 3d!

[@noblesse6785]

Hello I'm a student in university doing games art and from the pass years I have been working with both programs but mainly with blender (my teachers all think I'm the weird one), I think both are great tools and when I jump from one to the other I always find myself missing something that one has and the other doesn't so my 3 tips I found are: 1. the amazing Zremesher tool is not exclusive to Zbrush and the developer made a addon for other programs so their is a way to have these amazing tool in blender as well 2. another addon that really helped me is a addon that lets me send my projects from blender to zbrush with incredible ease, idk the name but flipnormals has a amazing video on how to use it 3. im not a 100% sure but I think Zbrush brushes work in blender, I downloaded a pack of brushes ones that were named orb brush's for ZBrush and they opened fine in blender, I have not tried in other brushes dou to not needing but at the time I found it amazing, hopefully im not wrong since it would be amazing but if I am apologies.

[@unicornhuntercg]

If you want to change the viewport camera settings while sculpting, you can press N and a tab will open up from the right side (or you can press the tiny arrow next to the Gizmo top right). There in the View tab you can play with stuff like the camera settings like FOV

[@bakedbeings]

The toughest thing about Blender, as a pro, is one of the things that makes it appealing at first: Blender's sculpting features tend to mirror those in ZBrush, but at a development lag and with a performance hit. Sometimes they'll have an innovative feature before ZBrush, but for the most part you're going to have a less productive (sculpting, specifically) tool than a ZBrush artist. Still, *it's critical we have open source options* for all key software tools, just like we need affordable, box-store power tools for regular people. Most people aren't ensconced in a studio that will pay big license fees when software is acquired by publicly-traded companies.

[@smartduck904]

I really like that in blender everything just gets really pixelated when I try to do anything in it

[@laeianimation]

Oh yes! Please, do more content about sculpting in Blender. I've been scared out of my mind to start sculpting in ZBrush. I used to use Mudbox a bit, because it was more intuitive for me, I'd love to see how it goes with your skills as a sculpting artist. So thanks for that, looking forward to the next video!

[@keithkirby7376]

Don't be afraid of zbrush it's not scary. It's like trying to learn roler skates when you have only roller bladed your whole life; a bit different but very similar and you will pick it up fast.

[@laeianimation]

@@keithkirby7376 So I'm a generalist, I tend to have to do everything, from modeling to animation. I am truly terrified by Zbrush's interface. I know it makes sens to people, and it would probably end up making sens to me, but for now, even the workflow going from sculpt (in any soft) to offline render is so opaque and cumbersome, especially for animation. I see how fast it is to concept, but how massively complex everything else is. At least in Blender, it feels like you learn one interface and everything clicks. From real-time lighting to compositing and rigging... this is why if I go to sculpting, I'd rather go the Blender route, I reckon, rather than Z-Brush + Substance + 3DS Max (or Maya) + Marmoset - and probably some other baking solution.

[@keithkirby7376]

@@laeianimation so am I...zbrushes benefits far outweigh having to deal with tools that just aren't as good in blender. And it only takes a couple nights of practice to get down. And you will be several orders of magnitude more efficient

[@HanSolocambo]

The biggest thing missing is the Transpose Tool. No way to move an unmasked selection in Sculpt Mode. But except that, it's so great that it didn't take me even a week to forget 5 years of ZBrush once an for all. Blender rocks. (Huge thing also is the vertex painting, It felt great and smooth in Zbrush, was constantly using it... and sadly I abandonned polypainting in ZBrush and, do that instead later Texture Painting the retopo.

[@jsantos1220]

OMG this is the proof, the 99% of sculpting things in blender out there are like childish characters and toon like, we neeeed more of this, that head, the process that you use, how you use the brushes, i need a class on all that, please 🙌🏼, the blender community will love you 100%

[@noosman16]

Gosh I really love the way you present video now! IMO you've reached this level of confort in talking to an audience in a natural way. I love it. BTW I've been using blender professionally for quite a few years in the game industry now as a character artist and it brings all I need with the little extra that is (as you mentionned) it's a 3D software! I can switch to modeling to sculpt every time I need and I have all the tool of a 3d package too

[@3d-illusions]

I’d recommend dragging the brush panel a bit wider so you get two columns instead of one long thin one that goes off the screen.

[@Outgang]

That's a good tip, I'll do that.

[@3d-illusions]

@@Outgang you might like to try Adobe medium too if you haven’t already. Its the most fun a digital sculptor can have without de-robing :D

[@freewaytf]

Hey Laura, i've been binge watching your channel and i'm cursing at youtube's algorythm for not showing me any of your vids before, i'm a junior in the industry and your videos are incredibly informative, if you didn't make this video i probably would never have found out about your channel. Making blender content is a surefire way to reach a lot more people, plus it's fun to explore new softwares! I hope your videos get the attention they deserve, cheers

[@Outgang]

Thanks a lot Free! Don't be afraid to share my videos with your colleagues if you think they can also benefit from them. I'm having a lot of fun learning Blender, there's a lot more content on that coming to the channel. Cheers!

[@JTLN25]

love your blender content. you are an amazing sculptor 🥰

[@Skyliner_369]

so your setting the remesh so dense is kinda like setting subdiv much higher. I can say dyntopo has a few settings to mess with. relative detail is good for doing little touches. constant detail is good for keeping topology at the same density everywhere. With constant detail, the dropper tool helps you pick up the detail density of the mesh.

[@AnewDayWillCome]

If you need any brush that's not in the toolbar you can take any brush and apply a texture (simple black and white alpha image)to it to achieve the results you desire.

[@leothomeart]

I started to sculpt using Blender but after i try Zbrush that is no doubt that Blender has a lot to improve to be in the same level as Zbrush but i like to use both.

[@user-on6uf6om7s]

I started in Zbrush and moved to Blender. Not because Blender is better for sculpting, there just wasn't anything I felt I really needed in Zbrush that I couldn't get in Blender and I can do so much other stuff in Blender so why use more programs than I need to? But I also keep things pretty simple in terms of brushes so I use only maybe 1/4 of the brushes available in Blender.

[@Tertion]

@@user-on6uf6om7s yeah going back and forth between Maya and Zbrush was killing me.... so happy to be back with Blender....

[@pixbstudios]

Awesome as always❤️

[@Outgang]

Thanks Sat!

[@brunocastro4558]

8:51 - dudes, just hear this... crystal clear comment !! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@kendarr]

I've been using blender for past 5 years, I wish I could give tips in sculpting, try the muktires modifier, and I noticed you're not using a matcap, there are some you can use, they come with blender

[@gloriouslumi]

Much of the performance issues Blender had in Sculpt Mode has been radically improved over the last couple years by rockstar programmer Pablo Dobarro. He's also the genius behind the Multiresolution Modifier, which not only makes working with higher subdivisions easier, it can bring meshes directly from Zbrush and move up and down the subdivision chain without any issues. One of the main things to take note of is that Multiresolution is almost exclusively for retopologized meshes, while Voxel Remesh is primarily for initial sculpts. The Blender sculpt workflow is generally: Base Sculpt>Remesh>Refined Base Sculpt>Retopo>Multires>Fine Detail. You can Voxel Remesh anytime to get a higher overall poly density, but Multires and Remesh(as well as Dyntopo) do not play well together. Vertex Paint(Polypaint) in Blender is much improved in 3.2, but I haven't really used it in a production environment yet to really put it through its paces. I think the two biggest reasons to use Zbrush over Blender are the Insert Mesh Brush (which is supposedly in the works for Blender), and the ZRemesher tool. ZRemesher does have a Blender version, but I haven't used Zbrush enough to tell how it compares.

[@naseh446]

Most animation studios in my country use blender, they are really successful with the result and the series is showing on our television

[@ernesthader1109]

I wish the blender foundation would notice this and feature these series for the world to know how blender is used on production in other parts of the world.

[@SeonasStudio]

I have been using zbrush for sculpting for many years and studiously avoiding it in blender because I thought how could it be as good? I finally bit the bullet when pixologic sold zbrush to a company that inevitably put an end to perpetual licenses. I refuse to pay ridiculous premiums to have my artwork locked behind a paywall, so decided to figure out blender. It is so close to zbrush that I kept forgetting I wasn’t in zbrush and used the wrong hot keys! Now it’s just second nature after only a few months. I haven’t opened zbrush in a good while 🤷‍♀️ and probably won’t go back. Dyntopo is great, followed by a remesh and the multi-resolution modifier for sculpting is aces. Millions of polys and no performance issues on sculpting. 👍

[@bradleyp3655]

I have been using blender since version 2.80 and currently at version 3.2. Not sculpting but modeling. I created a 3D model of my kitchen in my small (450 sq ft) one bedroom ground floor suite in a house. I have also in the middle of create a fan lyrics video for a emerging band I have been following for the past 3 years.

[@Arthr0]

You really beat my 1 year experience of sculpting in blender with your 60 mins blender experience 🙂 And main thing about amount of poly matters is RAM and CPU, you have enough ram and cpu so you are not facing any issues

[@Outgang]

Haha! I went over 120 milion yesterday with 64gb of ram ^^

[@Arthr0]

@@Outgang I can go upto 6-7 million with 16 gb ram. After that blender hangs 😅

[@etdle7]

Now we need the video where Laura sculpts with real clay

[@Outgang]

I don't think I'd enjoy having sticky hands.

[@FesterThanLight]

CTRL+R to retopo and Shift+R to shape the voxel grid in a visual manner

[@Outgang]

I'll give that a try next time, Thanks Fester!

[@FesterThanLight]

@@Outgang ☺

[@Meteotrance]

im a zbrush user for a long time, also same for Blender and the sculpting tool on Blender is ain't no joke, it's a power house, maybe not as powerfull on high polycount for surfacing finish work, but it's almost equal to Zbrush, with less custom brush and probably not as fast, that make Zbrush still usefull. In fact i started the skeleton of my work as low poly as i could, in Blender, i add more on Zbrush, finish on Substance, and animated and finish render on Cycle or Eevee on blender; as a Layout setup it's realy a cool one.

[@FenkaiMike]

For better performance with high poly sculpts, I absolutely recommend using the multires modifier - which is a great subdivision modifier. I've messed around and gotten to 30 million polys and my performance was still good. I could sculpt without much issue at that point.

[@janvollgod7221]

i do more and more sculpting in Blender. What i miss from zbrush is a simple custom toolbar, where i can put my fav brushes into, and get it on the screen with a hotkey. Another thing what i miss is the Field where i can see and switch the alpha. In Blender this process is more trial and error.

[@thenout]

I really enjoy your presentation / way of narrating and explaining. Also looking forward to more Blender stuffs ;-)

[@vast634]

So when sculpting you actually apply the muscles after a basic skull shape. Interesting. I see some artists who directly model that out.

[@sameditch9499]

If I heard you right, you mentioned that all software is controlled by some company. This is not the case for software like Blender, that uses an open source licence, in Blender's case GNU Public Licence aka GPL. Those licences have been created specifically to ensure that nobody can control how the software is used or developed. For some people this is one of the reasons to use Blender, since it ensures Blender can never disappear -- anybody is free to continue its development.

[@Outgang]

I generalized a bit too much there yeah, it's really nice that Blender is open source.

[@salzkraut8176]

you are such a beautiful human

[@Outgang]

Thanks Salz, I appreciate that :)

[@ZephrusPrime]

Blender having PBR lighting and decent retopo tools along with solid UV tools is something I wish ZBrush had.

[@karelchytilart]

In ZBrush retopo in many many ways (ZMODELER, guide brush, retopo with ZSpheres, Topology brush,.... and UV Master (with great Polygroup function in few seconds.

[@nathan4438]

Hey great video, thanks for making it! I had a similar experience going from Blender into ZBrush and thought ZBrush was fairly intuitive and easy to pick up without having to look at documentation or tutorials. Would love to see more Blender content on this channel.

[@dusnmatr]

One of my biggest gripes with Blender is the lack of "sane checks". It's very easy, when you're in the zone to over-adjust remesh detail and cause cpu hang.

[@RobertChambers1522]

I was so used to Blender sculpting that I hated Zbrush at first. Espicially the inability to navigate through or inside a mesh. But the ability to have 10 million polygons on even a potato PC and still have it run smooth, that's what sold me on Zbrush. Quite a few of the Blender equivalents lag (on my particular PC, anyway) whereas Zbrush it's almost instant.

[@AtoomikDzn]

Hello, you're in the middle of a new update that has a huge focus on sculpt and polypaint in Blneder. You should try 3.2 :)

[@Outgang]

Will do! Thanks!

[@brokencreationlordmegatrol3037]

i love these unrealistic but highly detailed styles on characters. almost caricature looking

[@nnatsios]

Been using Zbrush since 2007. Although there are things zBrush does better and maybe faster than blender I switched without looking back. Most people think it's the price. It's not. The reason is that blender will never be bought by another entity and be killed/maimed. It is also FOSS, which means that anyone can make any change/addon they need, and even if for some reason development stagnated, chances are someone else in the community will pick up the slack. I am still using zBrush when a client requires it, and I love that too, but not going back.

[@Tertion]

its the same reason why I'll be switching from Zbrush to Blender for sculpting too ! Maxxon does'nt have a good track reccord regarding buisness practices .....

[@ajlbeer]

Thanks for sharing your objective evaluation.

[@FloTasser]

Thanks for your valuable time Laura, really nice and honest review. I can only agree. For the camera: it is *crazy nice* to set up your screen so you can see the object you sculpt from different angles all at once. Sculpting performance is totally acceptable for the most part, but the comparison to ZBrush always comes down to the nitty gritty details and extreme resolutions. Thanks and have fun with the upcoming Blender stuff!

[@Outgang]

Setting up my screen to see the sculpted object from multiple points of view at once is a pro tip right there. Thanks Flo.

[@deniselisboa1]

aa this is epic! i really wanna get into 3d sculpting just for the fun of it but my laptop is a potato. plans for the future!!

[@Straw_Dog]

As a person already sculpting in blender. but who is on the fence about zbrush, I'm very keen to see your comparison video in regards to performance.

[@TheKevphil]

Thank You, Laura! New subscriber here. I look forward to watching you dope out Blender, as it is something I am on the cusp of using myself.

[@Outgang]

Cheers Kevin!

[@gustavopaio7877]

This is amazing! Please keep going! I'm really on the edge considering if I should invest on zbrush or just stick to blender!

[@Outgang]

I think that only depends how serious you treat sculpting as a career path.

[@gustavopaio7877]

@@Outgang Well, I'm really just at the beggining of my career. But I do see it as something that I want to take more seriously! I'm just pondering what would be the best next investment for me in this area. Maybe a better computer (16gb->32+gb of RAM), better software, online courses (out gang for sure is on this list), etc This comparison you're making is really helping this decision because I can see a concrete comparison between the two softwares! Thank you so much and please keep this up! I'll be looking forward to each and every update 😌

[@alexvalkyrie.6487]

Ty bro. Really the fastest install what i see.

[@TheAmazingJimmy]

Shift + A adds objects, lights, cameras, ect. Selecting two objects and then pressing Ctrl + J joins them, you can then remesh those.

[@Outgang]

Nice! Thanks Jimmy!

[@noxagonal]

By default, 1 unit of length in Blender is 1 meter. The default cube is 2x2x2 meters in size. At any field that take a position or length, you can use any metric you wish, eg. "5 cm" will convert to 0.05m or "1 in" will convert to 0.0254m. You can change Blender to use Imperial measurements too if you wish.

[@Outgang]

Thanks Nox! I took a look at that today.

[@CoolSmek]

Thanks Laura. I use Blender for putting together the final assets of a 3D model but all detailed work is done in other software. Zbrush for sculpting, topogun for retopology, rizum uv for uvs, substance for textures. Blender is where everything comes together for the final model and rig. Marmoset for rendering, but I admit Blender's Eevee is really nice looking as well. Thanks for the video!

[@AradijePresveti]

Laura? Weird name for a guy.

[@aritchichakib4744]

@@AradijePresveti they're playing pretend, god the west is fucking lost

[@Chevi014]

@@AradijePresveti she’s a woman, are you blind?

[@AradijePresveti]

@@Chevi014 I'm pretty sure it's just a man pretending to be a woman.

[@rangolastarfarajevic7151]

@@AradijePresveti he is

[@unicornhuntercg]

WOW usually new adopters of blender fumble with most of the things but I'm surprised you were able to find most things by yourself, like pressure sensitivity settings and stuff.

[@Outgang]

I've used a lot of 3d softwares.

[@ionpal9568]

F-in hell, Laura. For a first time sculpt in a new software, despite your prior experience, this result is amazing. Rushed through the video a little bit, but shall save the rest for later. Sculpting is my biggest weakness, so I love these expert videos (which also means no tips, sorry!). That said, your anatomy is also very good.

[@Outgang]

Thanks Ion! I really don't think there's anything special about my skills, I can point to a lot of better sculptors than me. It's all just constant practice.

[@samdavepollard]

98% of the time i'm using one of maybe 6 brushes; i put those in my quick favs menu; quicker than hitting spacebar and seeing a looooong list of brushes most of which i'm not looking for (although that option is still available of course) thanks for sharing your thoughts on blender

[@PaulMoyseArt]

Great video! After retopology, use the multires modifier to subdivide. This will get you to the high-poly counts. With the multi-res you can separate the low-res mesh in edit mode, increase the subdivisions, then rejoin at the end. The multires is your best friend for blender sculpting. The only thing it lacks compared to zbrush is sculpting layers. There's an addon but it's not very intuitive. If the developers made a layer system as good as zbrush's then it would compete 100% as a professional tool.

[@Outgang]

Multires it is! I'll play with it and vertex paint next. Cheers Paul!

[@PaulMoyseArt]

@@Outgang Unfortunately vertex paint doesn't work with Multires, you'll need to UV unwrap. If you've already sculpted with the multires and you still want to use vertex paints, you can apply the multires in object mode (make sure viewport preview level is same as sculpt level), but I prefer to unwrap and then texture paint. Looking forward to seeing how the vertex painting handles the high poly count if you go down that road. I assume you're using 3.2? They've just made some big updates on the vertex painting, you can now paint directly in sculpt mode! :)

[@noel_curray]

thank you for giving blender a try. I enjoy your video.

[@almost_harmless]

New tool, same master. Well done!

[@Outgang]

Thanks Almost!

[@bakedbeings]

Zbrush was a lot harder to get started with before they added the starter dynamesh project to the lightbox. Just open zbrush, double click the dynamesh sphere project and start sculpting.

[@bbrother92]

What is dynamesh is for

[@IrocZIV]

Tried Zbrush back around 3.0 I think. It was so unintuitive to use, not unlike Blender 2.79 and earlier. I was so happy to find how easily it was for me to pick up Blender after the the 2.8 update.

[@deqa]

Also, do you like Blender's camera? Sculpting in ZBrush for 4 years and then going to Blender for me was definitely weird. I have to experiment more with the sculpting, but I feel like I like the camera more after doing more hard surface work in Blender and not using ZBrush as much? ZBrush has that "fake 2D to 3D" look... but is it really that bad? Did you like the camera when you sculpted in Blender? I think what stopped me from being a Max or Maya cuck was the in viewport rendering of Blender, HardOps (HOPS), how powerful that is, in addition to its live booleans, the sculpting stuff, Blender is just incredible. I got over my obsession with Max's navigation. Also, check out the RetopoFlow plugin in Blender to retopo your meshes if you haven't (although you can also retopo with planes snapping to the surface either way but the plugin does a lot more and is more fluid).

[@Outgang]

I love Blender's camera! It works like it's supposed to. I really don't miss the zbrush fakery. I do miss layers and morph targets from Zbrush though, not gonna lie, not having those in Blender makes changes to the model feel dangerous.

[@deqa]

@@Outgang True, Blender has shape keys but they don't affect the Multires modifier if you're doing pore passes, whereas ZBrush can go back and forth with MorphTargets to undo pore passes on your geometry. AFAIK I know the shape keys in Blender ONLY modify the base mesh on Multires modifier... I could be wrong though. If it doesn't, then it's like MorphTarget in ZBrush!

[@mr.j7899]

​@@Outgangdon't forget Layers! ZBrush really is amazing, but only in sculpting. (i'm looking at you, ZModeler) Blender can also sculpt good, but MORE! 12:31

[@commanderdante3185]

Blender is very strong for establishing quick designs.

[@The3Dsmash]

I really enjoy sculpting in Blender but the main frustration is the lack of a proper hPolish equivalent. You got some lovely hPolish-y effects using Blender's scrape brush. Did you have to tweak the settings a bunch or do you just have the magic touch, haha? Thanks for this fun, well narrated video, Laura! If you're up for it, I'd love to see you do hand brushed cloth wrinkle effects in Blender like you do in zBrush. I'm still blown away at how realistic your wrinkles/crinkles are.

[@canyousee5692]

you can drag out the brush panel on the left.

[@Skyliner_369]

also... why did you export to make a render? One of the goals of blender is to be a complete studio package. you can go from 0 to film so

[@digitalconsciousness]

I am a game developer and I switched from Maya to Blender for the sculpting as well. ZBrush was unusable for me because of the camera. I just could not wrap my head around why they would make a camera that would end up at weird angles with no obvious way to reorient it. I constant felt like I was fighting against that. One of the best things you can do in Blender for large objects, like a human or tree, is to take basic shapes like cylinders, squares, and spheres, select them all and hit CTRL+Shift+b (with bool tools addon, which comes with Blender, but is deactivated by default) to get the general volume. Then in the Modifiers tab on the right, add a Remesh, switch to wireframe view to see how dense your polys are, adjust the setting in remesh as needed, apply it, then go into sculpting. It's a wicked fast way to get the basic volume of your shape quickly, with acceptable topology. Also, if any brushes ever seem like they're not working right, do a CTRL+a apply all transforms and see if that fixes it. Holding CTRL for many brushes does special operations as well. Blender's Decimate Modifier is also one of the best in the industry imo.