TUTORIAL: Sculpting Wood in ZBRUSH - 3 EASY STEPS! | Polygon Academy

In this video I show how I have been sculpting wood in Zbrush for my ArtStation challenge. I use 3 basic brushes (trimbordersmooth, claytubes, DamStandard) to create an aged, damaged wood piece. This basic zbrush tutorial is designed for beginners or experienced artists.
Tips: focus on the large to medium forms, and avoid a noisy pillowy look. Also fine details can be added in substance or Unreal to save time.
If you want to follow my ArtStation Challenge video series: • ArtStation Challenge -...
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About me: I am an environment/level artist who has been working in the game industry for 10+ years at studios such as Ubisoft, EA, Relic, Capcom and United Front. I have worked on games like FarCry 4, Watch Dogs 2, Splinter Cell, Sleeping Dogs and Spacemarine.

[@alexc7857]

One of the best ZBrush tutorials I've seen

[@PolygonAcademy]

Alex C thanks!

[@hamzarafique4404]

It's a great tutorial for me, as I am a beginner it's very hard to find a tutorial like this. I love the way you simplify the process of sculpting that any 1 can learn this very easily for their career, Thanks again for this knowledge

[@VallyWake]

You're the real hero here, man! keep on doing that stuff!

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks for the love :)

[@nrdpc5975]

Wood has always been something I need to improve on greatly, and after a day of playing around with this technique, it's all finally clicking and I'm happy with the results I'm getting. Now I just need to work on the wood ends. Big thanks for this video it has helped me big time.

[@yazanyazan7018]

I love this Tim, wonderful work. Could you please do some similar tutorial but with rocks? Keep these videos coming, I love watching them!

[@dasdfaadasdsad2547]

I'm so happy that I found ur channel! Before I thought work in Zbrush for props really hard, but now I convinced that with the help of simple steps that I can create cool realistic models. I grateful to u for these tips!

[@Sandra-hc4vo]

thanks i have been pretty nervous to jump into zbrush sculpting for some reason and this was a really nice easy not overly intimidating video to follow.

[@PolygonAcademy]

you're welcome, glad to hear the tutorial was easy to follow :) thanks for watching!

[@tonyc4777]

I found your channel recently and I just want to thank you for all this knowledge. Your videos are super useful!

[@PolygonAcademy]

love to hear that, hope you enjoy the rest of the videos :) thanks for watching!

[@McBigPack]

Really nice Video, thank you so much. There is a way to get a lot of wood detail within seconds in zBrush. Try the noise modifier in the surface menue. its so amazing how quick you get a lot of wood detail. There is also a predefined wood-preset coming with zBrush, that get those whobbly circular lines which you see on planks and boards sometimes right down on your sculpt. This looks amazing!

[@PolygonAcademy]

oh cool, thanks for the heads up! I will try that out :)

[@Spyro_2076]

My most used brush is Trim Smooth Border :) Luckily I found it when I first started using Zbrush. I can't think of a better brush for sculpting rocks and wood. Awesome tutorial

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks :)

[@xroman_]

I really like your videos, Tim. Please keep em up! :) Thanks for sharing this technique

[@PolygonAcademy]

burningJoe thanks joe, that means a lot to me, glad people are enjoying them, i’ll have more to share soon 😉

[@moutrave]

Thanks for the tips, I'd never used the Smooth border, have to try it out (always used Trim dynamic, and also the Orb cracks sometimes as an alternative to Dam standard, still pretty cool)

[@robertrutkofske8929]

Thank you so much! Working on a final project for my sculpting class and this has taught me stuff I wish I had known at the beginning of the semester.

[@Quick5Picks]

Why are you so underrated? Aren't there enough environment Artists out there huh?

[@PolygonAcademy]

hahaha thanks! its a pretty small niche I think compared to the more mainstream stuff on yt, but I love every one of my subs! small but dedicated community!

[@Quick5Picks]

@@PolygonAcademy yes. And I'll wanna live that life what you are living right now(😄).. I love these stuffs.. I'm good at props making but horrible at environment art😑

[@forestpump3]

Great video Tim. Really easy to follow and understand. Thanks for sharing!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Pall Smenis thanks pall, glad its easy to follow that was my goal haha

[@System070]

It was very helpful! Short and on the point. Thank you! Keep videos like these coming!

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks for the feedback :) will do!

[@marwanalhashimi6589]

Thanks a lot for this Video, Tim, these 3 steps are very easy and fast!

[@PolygonAcademy]

quick and easy is my middle name baby!....wait what does that say about me?! ahaha

[@marwanalhashimi6589]

@@PolygonAcademy 😂😂😂😂

[@CubeRepublic]

if you gently use the spiral brush on your grain, then flatten the lump left behind you can make some nice eyes on the wood.

[@Evangelos_Bl]

Thank you very much friend!!!!

[@SimplyCrazySid]

Loved the video Tim. This one made my life easier. Thank you!

[@PolygonAcademy]

dope! thats the goal :D

[@ArmaniGW]

These videos are fantastic Tim, keep up the good work!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Armani G-W cheers armani, appreciate the feedback, more to come for sure :)

[@lukeskywalker1657]

Awesome tutorial man! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and I love the kick ass outro beat!

[@Cyberdemon1542]

You have no idea how much you helped me!

[@kovra1305]

Very good, I have big problem to sculpt stylized wood and make it look good. With this dou got it on the first try. Great tip, thanks.

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks for watching! I am happy to hear the tutorial helped you out :D

[@Fabi0laa]

So good video, simple and easy to follow! Thank you! :D

[@Viskovitz]

my new fav channel

[@PolygonAcademy]

Petrovic thanks! That means a lot to me :)

[@Viskovitz]

@@PolygonAcademy the content you are puting out it´s just awsome! keep them coming!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Petrovic will do!

[@StylexSai]

Never knew about the Trim brush. Going to be using that for my rocks now. :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

StylexSai oh hell yea, i learned about it from one of the artists who worked on god of war....yea ill take their advice 😂 super powerful for sculpting rocks

[@juannavarroperez865]

Thank you so much! The result is really awesome, very clean and organic

[@nate2dnn]

Thanks for the tutorial. i used it about 3 years ago and find i still think its one of the best. i will say i think trim dynamic does work better for wood than trim smooth boarder, but that might just be my subjective tastes.

[@xLxOxRxDx]

Great vid and great commentary! Looking forward to seeing some more :D

[@PolygonAcademy]

Bartek Nowak thanks dude, more comin soon :)

[@PaburoVIII]

thanks for this great tutoprial I will follow it when I start working with the trees I almost finishing the inorganic structures :)

[@TehPascu]

These videos so far are amazing. I truly appreciate the effort you put on them, thank you!

[@PolygonAcademy]

you're welcome, thanks for the feedback, glad you are enjoying them :)

[@DanVogt]

Terrific video, so glad I stumbled over your channel.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Cheers! Thanks for watching, i hope you enjoy the rest of the content!

[@DanVogt]

@@PolygonAcademy absolutely fire stuff 🔥👨‍🚒

[@MarmaladeMaki]

You realy did not over sell this video. Just what i was looking for.

[@PolygonAcademy]

awesome, I tried to keep it simple and easy to follow so anyone of any skill level can try sculpting some wood :)

[@falloutworldrecord]

This was a huge help. Thanks!

[@PolygonAcademy]

no problem, thanks for watching!

[@nineseveneleven]

Hey Tim! There are very useful tips so thank you so much!

[@RealVergilSparda]

Trim smooth border is useful for some awesome cracks

[@kaydown6040]

Really nice video, thanks a lot for this.

[@PolygonAcademy]

You’re welcome :) thanks for watching

[@tjalle199]

Lovely video Tim, I've been using a similar workflow for a while now. Sometimes having some TrimDynamic instead of SmoothBorder is nice to, it produces some smoother dents, like something bumped into the wood rather then chip it off.

[@PolygonAcademy]

awesome, nice tip :) I like that brush too, especially for polishing and smoothing things.

[@tjalle199]

@@PolygonAcademy Another cool trick for wood is keeping the Planar brush on your Shift key with a square alpha, great for chipping away edges or filling concave areas. If you use it on edges you've TrimSmooth before you can create a really nice splinter-like effect.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Tjalle oh cool, ill have to try that out! No super familiar with zbrush so thanks for the tip 🔥🔥🔥

[@geripogeripo]

Could you make a video of substance painter with baking, import and export? Thank you anyway nice vlog.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Gergő Pócza yup, will do that soon!

[@amalbubble7812]

Yes, please Tim next video

[@ZhengYuanz]

where is the video of import and export baking anyway?

[@zinzolin14]

Amazing tutorial! It was a huge help 😁

[@SuperPeacebreaker]

I like your videos. I hope there's a lot more to come. Could you make a video in which you show various stone sculpting techniques? Cheers!

[@PolygonAcademy]

sure I will put it on the list, I have some large rocks coming up, and some broken stone stairs so i will try and make something about those too at some point.

[@romaingauthier8648]

Excellent! thanks for your time.👌

[@PolygonAcademy]

you're welcome!

[@kidehoward93]

Wicked tut!! Always forget there's brushes and alphas in the lightbox

[@PolygonAcademy]

Kide Howard yea i always forget to check lightbox for new useful tools too :)

[@alexandera.7127]

Great tutorial, 47!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Hahaha thanks :)

[@shneastley7373]

Thanks for sharing this,learned a lot from your work

[@PolygonAcademy]

you're welcome :)

[@BledsoeBluvd]

Great videos, really valuable information. Keep it up mate :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

R.Young thanks!

[@sinbrat977]

Thanx you man!

[@AndiBigglesworth]

Thanks! Very helpful lesson.

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks for watching :)

[@hunterwang2825]

THANKS BRO!!!! NICE VIDEO

[@BumbleBee087]

Thanks for sharing your work flow

[@PolygonAcademy]

BumbleBee087 my pleasure! Hope it helped

[@hammad-ilyas]

You are the best. Thanks man.

[@GymN3D]

absolutely great

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks so much! appreciate the love :D

[@videotopology6587]

nice techniques ♥ i love it

[@PolygonAcademy]

Cheers!

[@videotopology6587]

@@PolygonAcademy حبيبي يا زمالة ♥

[@bretthamelin8974]

Thanks. Looks cool.

[@ItIsNathan3D]

Okay, this is epic. lol. Ill have to try that trim border, I mostly got away with trim dynamic with square alpha and a big focal shift.

[@PolygonAcademy]

yea I recently discovered it after asking one of the artists who worked on God of War what brushes they used for their rock and wood.

[@ItIsNathan3D]

@@PolygonAcademy So what you're saying is, if I use that brush I am Kratos. K thanks!

[@PolygonAcademy]

@@ItIsNathan3D hahah hell yea!

[@codemoor]

thanks man for sharing us this information i am realy motivated i hope you make more videos

[@PolygonAcademy]

ABD JALIL Danane will do! Got some new content up on the channel, check it out!

[@yurialves9582]

Great video! Nice hitman tattoo too.

[@robertschroer5794]

Tim you are awesome

[@PolygonAcademy]

HEROIC doci cheers! Glad to hear it was useful :)

[@arielshtern4125]

You're amazing, thanks!

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks! glad you enjoyed it :)

[@Slotfan1]

Hey that was pretty useful for me, thanks!

[@PolygonAcademy]

Valkyrie SRTWO thanks for watching!

[@andriicgi]

Thank you! :)

[@nikhildhanka7912]

Nice one Love from India 👌

[@OokamiSamura]

Thank you! Very usefull.

[@jeremydemarco8697]

Thank you man !!

[@ilath8840]

Thank you so much.

[@nashonightmare]

Super useful.

[@iiyaman69]

Nice one !!

[@ShmabaArt]

this is great and concise. Any plans to go other other materials types like stone, or metal? I would also love to see how you went about creating your foliage too.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Shmaba yup, will have vids on the rocks and trees soon 👍

[@a_nocturnal_artist]

thanks man it really helped me :) !!

[@PolygonAcademy]

cheers :)

[@shanjeevan142]

thank you very much for sharing

[@stylizedart668]

I'm ashamed of myself for discovering this now... Thanks for the tutorial!

[@rickeymcgowan5938]

Thank you this made sculpting less intimidating.

[@PolygonAcademy]

you're welcome! thanks for watching :)

[@raol635]

Thank you.

[@PolygonAcademy]

You're welcome!

[@fnbs-l9o]

Can you make a texturing and baking high poly to low poly tutorial ?

[@PolygonAcademy]

will do ;)

[@fnbs-l9o]

@@PolygonAcademy Cool great work :)

[@theranike]

amazing!

[@saleh_afkhami]

great thanks :)

[@giovaniivasco6637]

very helpful

[@Alex-PG]

Very cool technic, thanks! Can you ansver one my question? How I can decrease step in a brush? I use FreeHand type and steps inside stroke is very wide, the line is too unstable(( The mouse stroke gives an even line - I guess it's more a matter of setting up how ZBrush interacts with the stylus.

[@sahilbert]

Tim, thank you so much for documenting this process... Really super helpful!!! As an aside...do you happen to train Brazillian Jiu Jitsu or some other type of grappling martial art?

[@PolygonAcademy]

you're welcome steve. haha you are talking about my cauliflower ear? nah thats just courtesy of my little brother smacking me in the head with a ps1 controller back in the day XD I wish I was that tough to train Jiu Jitsu ahaha.

[@texartz3362]

Hey really nice video ! it helped me a lot ! I was wondering, do you retopology the plank after in maya ? Cause it looks like you are breaking the shape a lot or are you using decimation master to get your lowpoly asset ? I never know if I have to use retopology to get all my details when I'm baking. In the doubt I always do but if I don't need it I will really save some time ! Thanks again for the great content you add to help us ! :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

in this case I just baked it to a super simple box tht fit the shape, the normal map gives enough detail on the edges for the size this object would be on screen, you would never even see the tiny little indents on a mesh in a game. but for larger objects I will usually just decimate and then do a little cleanup if needed, and then bake it out. re-topo is time consuming and for most concrete/wood assets, a quick decimated mesh works perfectly fine in game.

[@texartz3362]

@@PolygonAcademy Ok so I'have been loosing soooo much hour recently ! Thank you for your really fast answer ! It will help me a lot for the Artstation challenge !

[@freeairdrop4704]

thanks alot bro

[@PolygonAcademy]

No problem, thanks for watching :)

[@GAMERCONZ666]

Hi Tim, what tablet is that because I seriously need to invest in a better one. Also love the vids, the artstation ones have helped a lot in my personal projects :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

Its an older intuos 3 I think, at work I use a smaller Intuos 4, and prefer it to the huge one I have at home haha.

[@GAMERCONZ666]

@@PolygonAcademy thanks man appreciate it !

[@SolarbuddyTV]

Hey Tim! I've loved your videos for a long time, and haven't commented on them yet. Firstly, I love all of your content, and honestly, these are so valuable to me as a soon to graduate game art student. I've learned quite a lot from you that I hope will help me get into the industry post-graduation. Anyway, I had a quick question on what you do after this sculpt. What do you do after this process? Would you export the lowest subdivision level for your low-poly and the highest subdivision for your high-poly? Then after that would you bake the high-poly detail onto the low-poly mesh in Substance?

[@PolygonAcademy]

Thanks! Yea you could use the lowest subd mesh as the lp in most cases or go and retopo it to a clean mesh for hero assets/animated objects, and the process is what you described. Low/high bake in substance painter and texture it up :)

[@SolarbuddyTV]

@@PolygonAcademy No problem! I watch them almost everyday in order to really memorize the processes for when I'm working on similar projects. Thanks for the reply! I kind-of figured, but I wasn't sure what process you did. Now after watching your trim sheet pt 3 video, now that I'm more educated on Substance, I realized I didn't need to ask here haha. But truly, truly I love your videos and you're a big inspiration! I hope one day to reach the level of skill that you have. :) Practice, practice, practice they say! Hope you're doing well.

[@dmitrygrigoriev8977]

thanks for the video

[@DarkAutumn3D]

I've often wondered when one would decide to actually sculpt wooden things such as this... I mean surely one wouldn't sculpt every beam of a wooden shed or a fence as that would take a month lol.

[@therealKrak]

I'd like to know how the lowpoly version you bake the normal map for looks like. Especially the edges... Actually the whole workflow would be interesting

[@WraithDesignz]

Curious, you have any Mudbox tutorials? i havent looked yet but lol. if you don't....would love to see some of those. Sadly, i dont have a tablet and stylus to use Zbrush the way its ment to be so Mudbox is my thing atm.

[@PolygonAcademy]

Wraith Designz sorry, i havent used mudbox since it first came out :(

[@BurakkuHishou]

A little tip for Zbrush: If you go under the Transform menu, you can activate brush symmetry, which would make the trim edges go by much faster. If you don't care too much about variation on each side of the board this could really help as well with just quickly filling out scratches and chips on each side.

[@PolygonAcademy]

BurakkuHishou yea good call! I use it sometimes but also sometimes just enjoy spending time dinging up all the edges haha. A bit of zen zoneout kinda work but pretty timewaster lol ;) thanks for the tip!

[@gamerplayer6523]

nice

[@fractalelement857]

Make tutorial about sculpting hair

[@starrk92]

Hello again Tim. I have a questions about Your low poly model workflow. For example - If you have high poly model like this in zbrush how You usually made low poly? by decimate/zremesh it on Zbrush, or just baking high poly information from this model to low poly rectangle made in maya 3ds max or something? I'm asking because sometimes if we have diffrents in height on high poly model ( like left and right sides on this wood) Its looks weird on low poly rectangle without additional shapes. I hope You will understand this message :D Thanks.

[@PolygonAcademy]

yea it depends on how it would be used in game. 3rd person, and if it was going to be small on screen, probably fine to bake to a simple rectangular box. if its going to be seen larger/up close on screen, a quick decimated super lowpoly mesh that matches the shape better would work.

[@starrk92]

@@PolygonAcademy Ok. Thanks for this. I have one more questions (yea i know, a lot :P ) about Your workflow in substance. Do You make materials procedurally in substance when You have low poly mesh i baked normal map or using custom textures? Because i noticed it when i used some custom textures pack from poliigon or something like that it seems to hide normal maps details, they are under textures - like dissapear. But when i'm making procedural materials using only SP resources normal map are looking much better. I wanna know What is Your workflow, just wondering. thanks again and regards ;-)

[@ttandc]

I have only just downloaded Z brush for the first time and noticed you are not using the kyboard and mouse much. What is that tablet you are using and is Z-brush better off if you use that tablet?

[@PolygonAcademy]

yea almost all sculptors in zbrush use a tablet with pressure sensitivity, makes like waaaay easier haha. It called a wacom tablet, there are different sizes, but even the basic wacom bamboo will be good if you have never used a tablet before and its not too expensive.

[@ttandc]

@@PolygonAcademy thanks mate I'll google search them :) do we need to install z-brush on it or do we just plug it in to the pc like a mouse or keyboard ? Any tablets worth avoiding?

[@jimbutta5444]

Is it best to sculpt 1 side of the wood then mirror the UVs to use the same detail? Or do you sculpt all sides so there's more variation?

[@PolygonAcademy]

Jim Butta depends on how it would be used in game. Most of the time you could probably get away with mirroring it yea, depends on how tight your memory/texture budget is and how it will be seen in game

[@jimbutta5444]

@@PolygonAcademy Thank you! Love the videos and channel.

[@PolygonAcademy]

@@jimbutta5444 thanks Jim

[@maksimsverdlikov4185]

I'm using the same brush settings and strokes but my result is different? I noticed this with many other brushes. Breaks the pacing with the tutorial...

[@Madiash]

how to create a low poly out of it ?

[@jeromyperez5532]

Any tips on Hard Surface modeling techniques? I'm pretty confident with 99% organic shapes and details, but Hard Surface has been giving me a tough time.

[@PolygonAcademy]

I struggle with hardsurface as well haha. There are a few decent tutorials on youtube, most of them really focus on the trim and polish brushes. I will do some experimentation and maybe do a tutorial in future :) tor frick has some awesome hardsurface tutorials.

[@xjchen2489]

Hello, I am a Chinese zbrush enthusiast. Can I move this video to bilibili (a website similar to youtube) and introduce these tips to Chinese audiences?

[@mariafomina9004]

ty

[@benimo6]

Heya, I have this issue where whenever i subdivide a Box while turning off Smt, it gets edged faces. But with most of these videos I see, it remains clean.. Anyone know why?