ZBrush Character Creation

Two new Sybex titles dispel myths of ZBrushs difficulty and helps 3D artists fulfill their potential

ZBrush is an emerging 3D design tool that eases some of the technological burdens of artists and helps them focus more easily on creating art, but its still an application that needs some explanation. Some artists are intimidated by what they see when they look at the ZBrush interface.

Introducing ZBrush (Sybex; May 2008; $39.99) removes that fear and launches the reader head-on into fulfilling their artistic potential for sculpting realistic human, cartoon, and organic models in ZBrush.

ZBrushs innovative technology and interface can be intimidating to both digital-art beginners as well as veterans who are used to a more conventional modeling environment. This book dispels myths about the difficulty of ZBrush with a thorough tour and exploration of the programs interface.

Engaging projects also allow the reader to become comfortable with digital sculpting in with a relaxed and fun book atmosphere. Introducing ZBrush assuages the apprehension and gets artists quickly involved in creating their own work, as they complete tutorials on painting, Meshes, organic sculpting, hard surface sculpting, textures, lighting, rendering, working with other 3D applications, and scripting.

ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting (Sybex; June 2008; $49.99) covers targeted core topics that give ZBrush users a good overview, along with dozens of hands-on, practical examples that show the breadth and depth of the program. The text focuses on using ZBrush to create exciting and detailed 3D characters and organic objects, with many accompanying full-color illustrations to drive home how to apply the foundations of traditional sculpting and painting to a 3D medium. This book is unique in presenting the steps necessary to sculpt and paint in ZBrush as well as the why behind the artistic decisions made at each step. Readers are exposed to the foundation artistic principles that guide their choices of tools and methods. It also shows them how to take their creations into other popular 3D applications such as Maya.

Introducing ZBrush

Published by Sybex

Publication date: May 12th, 2008

$39.99; Paperback; 416 pages;

ISBN: 978-0-470-26279-5

To download a sample chapter, or for more information visit:

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470262796.html

ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting

Published by Sybex

Publication date: June 9th, 2008

$49.99; Paperback; 352 pages;

ISBN: 978-0-470-24996-3

To download a sample chapter, or for more information visit:

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-047024996X.html

About the Authors

Introducing ZBrush

Eric Keller (Hollywood, CA) 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, Cinemax, CBS, and ABC. He has worked at some of the top design houses in Hollywood, including Yu and Co., Imaginary Forces, The Syndicate, and Prologue Films. He also created animations for scientific research and visualization at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has written numerous articles and tutorials for industry magazines (High-end 3d and HDRI3d), is the author of Maya Visual Effects: The Innovators Guide, and was a contributing author to Mastering Maya 8.5 and Mastering Maya.

ZBrush Character Creation

Scott Spencer (Burbank, CA) is Digital Art Director at Gentle Giant Studios. He works in various media including digital characters for film, broadcast, games as well as physical sculptures. Credits include Iron Man, Harry Potter 5, XMen 3, Species4, Pumpkinhead 3, and others. Scotts latest project is working on the creature and character designs for Segas remake of the classic game, Golden Axe. As a leading Digital Sculptor and a longtime beta tester and consultant to Pixologic, Scott is the author of the Official ZBrush to Maya ZPipeline guide as well as several popular video tutorials. He holds a BFA in Animation with a minor in Drawing and Anatomy from The Savannah College of Art and Design followed by further study of classical figurative sculpture at The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy. He has lectured at Weta Workshop as well as Pixar.

About Sybex

Sybex has been a leading publisher for the global Information technology community for nearly 30 years. Known for its high quality publications that are translated into more than 20 languages, Sybex published about 100 new titles a year and has an impressive backlist of over 450 titles in the graphics, digital photography, operating systems, programming, and gaming categories. Sybex enjoys a very strong presence in the areas of IT and Business certifications and has close relationships with a number of leading technology companies, including Autodesk, Microsoft, and Juniper. For more information, visit sybex.com. Sybex is an imprint of Wiley.