Introducing ZBrush

Product Description

If you want to take advantage of one of the hottest CGI tools available, Introducing ZBrush is the perfect place to start. Professional Hollywood animator and ZBrush artist Eric Keller dispels any anxieties beginners might have by offering the careful, step-by-step instruction you need to soon feel right at home with this revolutionary software. Each chapter explains core concepts, then reinforces them with fun, hands-on tutorials that will amaze you with your growing ability to create hyper-detailed, realistic, organic sculptures on your computer.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #147234 in Books
* Published on: 2008-05-05
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 464 pages

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: Eric Keller’s Top 10 Cool Uses for ZBrush


1. Blendshape Facial Targets: Create blendshape facial targets for characters for animation in Maya using ZBrush - it's fast and easy!

2. Tiling Textures: Use ZBrush to create tiling textures for 3D objects.

3. Normal and Displacement Maps: Use ZBrush to create normal and displacement maps - it's superior to Maya's native difference map generator.

4. Texture Maps: Paint texture maps directly on characters and 3D objects.

5. Illustrations: Craft amazing illustrations with ZBrush's 2.5D painting tools.

6. Compositing: Render separate passes of an object from ZBrush with different materials applied for compositing in Photoshop.

7. Sculpting: Add ZApplink to ZBrushes' sculpting power with Photoshop and Painter brushes.

8. Material Capture: Design specialized materials based on objects in photographs with ZBrush's Material Capture tool.

9. Modeling: Build digital models for 3D printing and fabrication.

10. Character Creation: Shape the most amazing characters and creatures possible using ZBrush's revolutionary digital sculpting tools.

From the Back Cover
Create Hyper-Realistic Digital Models

If you want to take advantage of one of the hottest CGI tools available, Introducing ZBrush is the perfect place to start. Professional Hollywood animator and ZBrush artist Eric Keller dispels any anxieties beginners might have by offering the careful, step-by-step instruction you need to soon feel right at home with this revolutionary software.

Each chapter explains core concepts, then reinforces them with fun, hands-on tutorials that will amaze you with your growing ability to create hyper-detailed, realistic, organic sculptures on your computer. From creating illustrations in 2.5 dimensions to sculpting with digital clay, you'll master ZBrush's powerful tools for creating fantastic images and 3D models for use in animation programs, such as 3ds Max and Maya.

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Understand ZBrush's unique painting and sculpting technology
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Take a tour of the innovative ZBrush interface and tools
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Master 2.5D painting, digital sculpting, and texture painting
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Learn how to set lighting, create materials, and render in ZBrush
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Go through a production pipeline, from modeling to rendering to exporting models, textures, and displacement maps
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Transfer your ZBrush creations into Maya and other 3D applications for use in film, games, and illustration

VALUABLE COMPANION DVD
The DVD includes example files and models to help guide you through each lesson as well as ZBrush Macro scripts and movies to show you the sculpting process used in each chapter. It also includes a trial version of ZBrush 3.1 for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

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Learn ZBrush's Material Capture technology to create surfaces from photographs
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Work with subtools to create creature sculptures from multiple objects
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Use lighting and rendering in ZBrush to create 2.5D compositions

About the Author
Eric Keller has been working professionally as a digital artist and 3D animator since 1998. He is a high-end animator for film, television, and scientific visualization with clients including Disney, ESPN, Warner Brothers, Hewlett-Packard, Sony Imageworks, and ABC, and has created animations for scientific research and visualization at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Harvard Medical School. Eric is the author of Maya Visual Effects: The Innovator's Guide, a contributing author to Mastering Maya 8.5 and Mastering Maya 7 (all from Sybex), and has written articles and tutorials for industry magazines.
Customer Reviews

Amazing book5
This is a great book for beginners in 3d, specifically modeling. I've had my share of video tutorials but having a physical book that i can take with me anywhere is priceless, anywhere i go i can keep on reading any particular subject i want to learn further.

The explanations are clear for beginners and intermediate users of Zbrush, might be simple stuff for advanced users but there's never too much information in any book, it comes with a CD which includes a 30 day trial of Zrbush 3.0 and the exercise files for the whole book.

Great product, recommended.

Excellent book!!5
As a fifteen year veteran of the 3D art world, I can say that ZBrush is the revolution I've been waiting for, and the Introducing ZBrush book is fantastic!! I was able to complete projects within minutes of opening this book that would have taken hours, if not days using other apps. My wife was so impressed with what I created in so short a time, she asked to try...so, with absolutely no experience, she started the book, and in a few hours had an excellent understanding of the app, and was creating some very nice mesh. I read in another review that the CD didn't work, but I had no trouble with it at all, running XP Pro. I would recommend this guide to all.

Awesome!!5
Great book. I couldn't wait for it. I found it at a bookstore and after looking through it I bought it. It did not bother one bit paying the cover price. Great book.