Pro Sculpting in zBrush | The Modular Rock Blueprint

Dive deep into the art of sculpting modular rocks in zBrush!
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In this tutorial, I break it down into 4 essential stages to craft the perfect modular rock:
1. Base Shape: Laying the foundation.
2. Secondary Details: Adding character and depth.
3. Refinement: Honing in on the look.
4. Tertiary Details & Polish: Finishing touches for a masterpiece.
Whether you're a seasoned artist or just starting out, this guide will sharpen your skills and have you crafting rocks like a pro in no time!
🔥👍 Don't forget to LIKE and SHARE if you find this tutorial valuable! Your support fuels more content like this.
🔗 Connect with the KingdomCrafter community:
- Website: (www.kingdomcrafter.com) - Currently down for development
- Discord: ( / discord ) for real-time discussions, tips, and insights.
Stay creative, keep crafting, and let's rock this together! 🪨🎮
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:48 Begin Stage 1 - Base Shape
05:35 Begin Stage 2 - Secondary Details
08:03 Timelapse of remaining Stage 2
09:40 End of Stage 2 & Review
10:14 Begin Stage 3 - Refinement
11:58 Timelapse of remaining Stage 3
14:41 End of Stage 3 - Begin Stage 4
16:24 Preview of asset in UE5

[@Trench_762]

You are the first person I've seen to break down the workflow so nicely and dive deeply into each tool and how it works. And all for free, thank you so much!

[@KingdomCrafter]

Thank you, glad it was a good one for you!

[@littlebird6066]

Oh Yeah, this guy is only one I found really break down the process. And so so easy to understand it. Love the break down process!!! love and love !!

[@kuljeetsingh5977]

thank you very much viking

[@KingdomCrafter]

Absolutely, anytime! I'll be more active again on here soon.

[@F10F11hm]

Thank you for the in-depth workflow overview. Awesome stuff I'll definitely try to put to good use.

[@KingdomCrafter]

Absolutely! And thank you, glad you enjoyed it

[@jamesbrady1930]

great video. I am refamiliarizing myself with sculpting rocks. I been practicing improving my techniques and this video definitely helped in that regard. It is amazing how far you can get with just a single really well done rock or boulder. lol. I know this first hand wiht my own project was blown by how many times I was able to repeat it and not have any real repetition in the shape language.

[@cedricodigital]

Very nice breakdown Ethan, love the music as well!

[@KingdomCrafter]

Glad you liked it!

[@artificialsystem4228]

@@KingdomCrafter whats the music in the timelapse of stage 3?

[@Vixit]

Thanks for this, tons of useful info :)

[@KingdomCrafter]

Definitely welcome, and thanks for checking it out 💯

[@dreamwave1994]

Awesome stuff! looks great in ue5

[@KingdomCrafter]

Much appreciated, definitely was coming together!

[@rishabhjain3379]

Premium content!! Looking forward for more.

[@KingdomCrafter]

Thank you! Definitely looking forward to getting more out soon, been a busy couple of months

[@cameronshepherd2562]

are the in engine rocks (before the tileable was added) baked low poly versions? they look amazing

[@KingdomCrafter]

Yeah that's exactly right, and thank you!

[@a916J]

I'm not sure what you mean by tilt your pen... I have a Wacom but tilting my pen is doing nothing different... is there a specific setting for that?

[@KingdomCrafter]

The angle in which you tilt your pen will impact the sharpness and aggressiveness of different brushes in zBrush. Notably the trimsmoothborder in this case.

[@shamusmoore]

unrelated, sweet beard dude

[@KingdomCrafter]

Ohh yeah, thanks Shamus! 💪

[@marcus2002able]

Thank you very much, this is very helpful to me, I am a landscape designer and my projects are basically rocks, waterfalls, plants. I've tackled plants and rocks, but haven't found a good waterfall asset yet. Do you have any waterfall assets that you recommend?

[@KingdomCrafter]

Definitely welcome! And that's a great question. (TLDR; I'd try EmberGen) I've heard similar feedback among different projects, and usually the solution is a tech artist making a custom sim in something like Houdini. With that said, i've used Fluid Flux and have liked the results from that, however i'm not sure if the capabilities will create the waterfall look you want. I'm going to start deep-diving EmberGen more, and I think this is probably where your solution is.

[@KingdomCrafter]

Also to add to this, we are currently working on asset packs behind the scenes, and I will add this to the list 💯

[@marcus2002able]

@@KingdomCrafter My project is more like architectural visualization. I only have to consider the real effect of the final exported animation. Water flow simulation, performance, etc. are not my considerations. Fluid Flux now achieves the effect I want, but I would like a more realistic effect. Thanks again for your reply and advice.

[@KingdomCrafter]

@@marcus2002able Absolutely! And okay nice, yeah it's likely doing a sim would be the next step up, transferring data from Houdini to Niagara in UE

[@armandel8621]

the livestream u mentioned, I could only find the part 2 of it on your channel

[@KingdomCrafter]

Yeah the 1st part isn't on the live section at the moment (quality was not so great), but I did edit it down and capture the key points in a Part 1 and Part 2 video

[@armandel8621]

@@KingdomCrafter thanks for the reply

[@supe5931]

Wouldn't you want to reduce the vert count before using it for games? Or rather bake it to a low poly?

[@KingdomCrafter]

You can definitely optimize it to meet your needs. I'd always recommend some form of optimization pass. How far, and if you need to bake it depends on if you're using baked normals with or without tiling textures, or even using baked textures.

[@peter486]

it still looks dirty. and not usable. it can be used for shapes, yes. but you wana slap on a real texture on it. that has real details. i would spend alot of time in making the geo when it comes to Uv , Zbrush unwrap sucks.

[@KingdomCrafter]

Really depends on your needs. There is not really a reason to spend an enormous amount of time UV'ing on assets like this. For example, my actual pipeline involves an Auto UV setup in Houdini which also will do other things such as collision or bakes if I need it to, and delivers very high quality results.