Top Tips for Improving your ZBrush Sculpts 

Something this video illustrates really well that a lot of artists tend not to consider is that you need to know the rules in order to break them effectively. If you want your art to be stylized and surreal, you still need to be capable of the default, if you don't know what you're abstracting it's just not going to read the way you want it to.

I love the dynamic of your voiceover _discussions_ , great insights thanks.

Probably the most helpful Zbrush video I've seen

Okay, that was the best anatomy lesson I've ever seen

so basically, to sum up this video, learn anatomy.

Your channel guys is one of the best things that ever happened to my pursuit of art. And this video is extremely eye opening, like you have no idea. I know where to start now. Thank you so much!

Your content has an unbelievable value due to actual, professional and tested tips on how to get into the industry. I appreciate that you share your knowledge and valuable experience with the rest of us, on every single level. Thank you

Been using the software for 8 years, but you guyst still manage to teach me at least 2 or 3 things with every single video. Good channel.

bony landmarks, rib cage, scapula, hip bone, skull, ankle, and then overlay volume/mass, then refine that into muscle / digging in / accentuating those landmarks was the way i learned it from gesture drawing. there are just certain things that 'stick' to you about the human form; the curvature of it, how the hip bone has that indented area for the acetabulum, etc, how the pecs connect up to the clavicle, that stick with you forever and help you obtain that realism vs a sculpt that is 'the pecs are carved in here, literally, as a triangle, the delt is carved in here', there is no sense of weight or fat or anything. i don't really understand the in depth function of a lot of the tiny muscles in the body, but the giant landmarks i do, and you guys really hit on this. whenever i fail a sculpt, i always try to go back to what i know gives the human form its humanness

I loved the video🤩 because it’s not about throwing random clay but knowing the functionality, volumes of each muscle and bones

Im so happy I found this channel, I feel inspired and encouraged and I'm legitimately seeing results!

I... had never seen muscles as parts connecting between specific points, and it's a very very helpful thing to do. Thank you for this, really. Some likeness sculpting tips and tricks would be awesome as an idea for a future video. Cheers!

Just getting into 3D sculpting and found this very helpful. I was stumbling towards bony markers and muscle origin and insertion points as a method by accident so putting a name to it and seeing it's the right way to go has given me some direction for learning.

Thanks for all the tips! I just started working in ZBrush sculpts. Love your tutorials!

Started Zbrush before 10 days and my faculty give me assignment for creature modeling. I took lots of reference to do human type modeling but every time i cant show my best for muscles and volumes and all. Now i learned a lots from you guyz i cant say how much but seriously i learned precious thing from you plz more videos on anatomy or creature volumes and their fundamentals please. Thank you so much

I genuinely never thought a physical education degree would help with my art, but everything about knowing anatomy to knowing which muscles to use for a particular movement is in here. It's weird that stuff ingrained from one discipline has helped me so much in another.

This helped me, not in a i learned to improve my sculpting way but in a "i'm a new teacher and i've said so many of the same things as this vid so it's good to know i was helping". Like a confidence thing that these guys agree with me so I was teaching my guys right.

First of all I really want to thank u guys from bottom of my heart,for working so hard on this tutorial and bringing up new content for our cg community.. especially who are new.. btw great tutorial 😄

I find you guys both extremely helpful, and entertaining.

I just want to say a huge THANK YOU, i've been in to drawing and now getting in zbrush and i always search for reference but i never find good ones, and u helped me here in a lot of points, literally every minute of this video teached me more than dozens of hours of searching and other videos. Even the reference software, i didnt know it and is great that u say it. The silhouette tip, 3dscanstore, everything. THANKS, this video goes in to my list so i rewatch it later.

You guys are so damn respectful and nice to each other - I suspect hearing your voices is the primary reason I'm watching so many of your videos and as a by-product I'm also learning a lot :) Great video

I'm 8 minutes through and already have learned such a fundamental process of creating the skeletonal structures, thank you.

Really well articulated. I'm totally impressed with how concise you guys are for something that seems very "real-time".

The first thing I noticed on the model was that the arms were too far apart from the head. I think even the fix needed that. The anatomy tips are SO important. Great video again!

i know this is not a technical tutorial, but it also really helped me as a beginner in ZBrush because you also explain everything you do while doing most basic sculpting! usually intermediate tutorials and sped-up sculpts assume you already know which brushes and hotkeys to use which can cause quite a barrier. would probably also help if you showed on the screen which buttons you are pressing, but otherwise amazing! thanks!

This is the first time I actually had a chuckle from watching an anatomy video. You guys are great!

I really love the video and I spent entire 42 minutes 12 seconds watching it. And loved every bit of it. The laughs and jokes lets out great humour and creates a friendly environment. Also loved the sculpting and anatomical references and the bone muscle mass connectivity. I am currently learning zbrush and this will definitely help me remember and save me from future pitfalls. The video was so educational and amazing I also now know to use the smooth brush the least and build form and structure rather than smoothing it out and losing detail and form. So helpful so educational and professional. Loved your video I hope you do create a video on basic anatomy practice for beginners like me and also refer us the short keys while sculpting. Thank you so much.

really the most helpfull video on sculpting i have seen been using blender 2 years sculpting 1 year i think now i learn actual sculpting i always thought the muscle was all :) so bones then muscles then fat and learn muscle functions this is gold for animating too

This was amazing Tutorial. Wish there was a tutorial that you do the whole body as well on a slow pace.

Your lesson helped a lot, after that i wrote my first lody. Thank you very much.

This video kept coming in my recommendation and i always thought i don't need it but now that i have watched it i now where i messing up my sculpt. it was entertaining and helpful. it definitely was not boring like other video out there.

You guys are amazing. You are now my goto source for 3D tutorials. I don't know how long you've been doing this but I am truly impressed.

LOL, original sculp looked awesome, just to show how good they are, to go at that model :P DAMN!!! When you put it side by side... yeah its clear, looks alot more beliveable, amazing skill, and so fast

Amazing, Love the fact that the discussions continue to reinforce your concepts as you progress you naturally come back explain again and remind use why these body parts are the way they are, the basic function explanations are superb, honestly I love that its laid out this way, I have no intention of being a physio or a doctor, but the way you guys use the names of the groups is really great for artists that do not have medical or human structural knowledge. this is one of the best sculpting videos on YT, the best feature is the way you guys show and display how to sculpt with anatomical model on top of a stylized character. simply sensational.

Just the thing I need to make my pecs, biceps, triceps and muscles in general pop up the way they should!!! Thanks a ton guys!!!

Excellent! This is an insanely useful talk for beginners, and advanced sculptors as well. I would have stressed a lot more on the flow of the silhouette and the rhythm lines, I’d like to see more from you about this topic, because this is another point that beginners completely miss , even when they learn anatomy. Great channel guys. Keep it up!

This is fantastic! Would you guys ever consider doing an entire extremely in-depth Anatomy lesson series about the skeleton and muscle systems (with proper terminology and everything) on the average man and woman from top to bottom demoed entirely on ZBrush? This is super informative and would be crazy helpful to the community for a proper 3D Anatomy academy series! 🙌

I started off at the beginning thinking “it looks fine, what are they complaining about?!” Then when you did the comparison around 19:33 Now I understand, lmao. Really impressive work

Great job on the explanation of the muscular structure. It has given me the idea to sculpt a muscle figure. I've developed a base skeleton figure for my Zbrush figures already but haven't decided on doing one for musculature.

What an amazing well explained video. I usually get pretty intimidated by the subject of anatomy but you guys made me understand it so much more in this video. Most videos on z brush just show you the software and what to use and when to use it. But your videos help justify that so much more making the process more transparent. Thank you

Dudes i just find your channel and fall in love with it....keep the good work

Really cool and enjoyable summary of the main points of good sculpting. Nicey McNice! Thank you both!

I've heard it so many times before "LEARN ANATOMY!!!" but, I as simple as it is....the first thought isn't "How are these muscles connected?". Seriously, this video was a really big help! Sometimes it just takes a certain string of words to make all the difference. I'm really going to start focusing on Anatomy for a while and see what I can do. Sort of seems silly to NOT think about how the muscles are connected but, then again, everything seems simple once we hear the solution.

you guys are awesome . I love it!!!!

Guys, your tutorials are super helpful and imo by far the best on youtube. A ton of thanks, keep up this amazing work please!

That was refreshing. It was a quite some time since i was diving into the anatomy. Hope to see more like those. Have a good day .

This is one of the best instructive videos about character sculpting I have ever seen. Nicely done guys!! Keep up the good work!

Love this channel. The input from two artists is so good. Never enough tips on anatomy

Amazing, this is just what I needed to improve with sculpting. kept getting my muscles wrong but now I finally know why! Thank you so much guys! Now it's time to order a book to study some anatomy 😅

you guys are good thanks for the tips i have just started sculpting and man time goes by was struggling with the mouse and finally got my pad today wat a difference busy doing my firs Hulk character and the is a lot that i need to fix thanks for the cool Tutorials

U gotta make it look so easy, thx bro!

this is the best tutorial i have seen yet in this channel.

Excellent video! Thanks for the laughs

Dude you are the best. It is safe and 100% works

Great video!

This is great. Please consider a series where you guys teach anatomy for sculptors. I would pay money for it. Not a lot cause broke. But you know, money.

You know the art is amazing when Joe Mad is involved :)

This is something i needed atm, picked on new thing "abs are just a single sheet", i had a hard time making abdominal muscles look like the packs, but mine would end up flat and boring, Thank you for that tip.

Awesome sculpting lesson. Thx.

Nitpicking, but the "abs" is definitely divided into different sections by tendinous intersections and it is not just a long continuation of the same fibers from top to bottom. The full extent of their function isn't entirely well known, but we know for certain that the number, size, and depth of those intersections varies from person to person (from cadaver research), and we know that individual segments of the rectus abdominis can be activated to varying degrees (via EMG, i.e. the "lower abs" can be activated more strongly than "upper" and vice versa, depending on resistance). Much of this goes beyond what's really important for artists, but I do think it's important to keep in mind the variation point. Some people have 4-packs, some people have 10. This is entirely genetic, and no matter how hard someone tries to build more mass or lose body fat, they can't change this number. It's worth keeping that in mind if you are making very lean characters where the full extent should show: there's no "right" number of intersections. Anyways, just wanted to throw that out there. Great video, it's quite helpful.

This video just gave me so much life!!!

Really brilliant videos love your guys work, I was always fond of the old flipped normals videos, im glad theirs loads of new ones here!

Thank you for all your video's teaching us this. Subscribed.

I could hear you clicking on a key to change your brush size and I would love to know how you make a hotkey for resizing your brush so fast. I know "s" but I don't think that's what your doing. I just getting into anatomy and found your discussion and workflow fascinating and so relevant to where I'm at. Thx.

GUYS! I'm so glad I found your channel! you guys are awesome. Especially this kind of video helps a lot. Correcting other artists work...would be nice to see more like this! Thank you

I can relate, as my sculpts looked very much like that. Gotta get learned up on anatomy

Being an artists' model (I've done that!), Bunneh Death with Scythe, and nifty tips for reference materials. Genius! :D Oh yes, and pounding in the "Know Your Anatomy" stuff. So necessary.

Very cool video. I'm trying to get back into sculpting so will be watching and mimicing techniques for a little bit. Anyway, 33mins in you made reference to Death of animals etc, just thought I'd point out in Pratchet's books in Discworld there is a Death of Rats, because they believed there was one so there was.

Pure quality knowledge! awesome channel... keep going on please.

As always spot on. Thanks for the great video guys.

Hey guys, just found your channel and it's great ! Keep making content like you have been the last couple of months it's super good stuff :)

You guys are the best!

thank you! i love your tutorials also your conversation in the video.

Amazing video... definately one of the best....would love to see some houdini tuts as well....

Thank you so much for this treasure! Keep going very, very good work. Sucess!

You guys are amazing.

Guys, you are awesome! Thanks

Very useful video, thanks a lot for the info.

Great video. I would like to see more anatomy stuff.

i am so god damn happy that i found this channel, thank you

Awesome video. Really helpful too picking a model that already looked pretty darn good and showing how you get from that to the "special layer of polish" you want to make the model really jump off the screen...though I'd be pretty scared if that dude actually jumped off a screen at me haha

This video is great, happy to find your channel

Subscribed, you two have great knowledge about what you do , the second guy always comes up with some good tips as well. Love it, just started sculpting for the first time, getting some good results and this will really help a lot, most of the things I see I have in my model, never really thought too much about it but I think it's subconscious from painting a lot :P

Great Video, Have learned a lot key points.

Awesom tips!! I was sculpting a pandaren from Wow. After watching this, I started over and reshaped the entire body from bone to muscle, which made it so much better. I do wonder where do I go from here? Because a pandaren is covered in layers and layers of fat, including an huge beer belly. Do you guys have some tips on adding fat while maintaining some of the bone&muscle features?

This course is amazing and helpful

Won't you guys consider doing a more complete overview of the main markers/placeholders that needs to be sculpted in a character? The section you guys did in this video is really great, and explained well, would be great to have an extended edition covering the mid section and legs also. I'm not suggesting doing an in depth study of anatomy, there are a lot of tutorials out there on that, but that kinda ties in with my point...most of the tutorials out there goes so deep into all the details, what is great about this video is the quick references to certain landmarks, so laying a proper foundation. That kind of thing can be done in a ten minute video, just adding the important landmarks, and how it all connects. Maybe it sounds like I'm lazy, but it's not that at all...I have a lot of tutorials and reference for anatomy studies, but the problem is they all go in depth...I think it would help if people had a way to just understand how to quickly lay down some landmarks that can then be added to later on. Well that's my suggestion, I think it would be beneficial to a lot of people, myself included. Either way, this video was really helpful, thanks for it!!

Guys, I'm doing a 3d modeling class and you guys are some serious teachers. I saved a lot of useless work doing this.

Thank you so much for these helpful tips !

Thank you for the amazing video! very helpful! The end result is just so cool looking.

Great Video as usual ! and your voices are an appeasement for the soul lol. Thanks you guyz.

Loving your videos :) was wondering if there's any chance you could do a cloth / fabric sculpting tutorial for zbrush, perhaps highlighting some of the principles, in addition to showcasing how you go about achieving them, such as what brushes help you to achieve the best result.... Im doing a back pack at the moment, and finding that not only is it difficult to select where the folds occur , but also the brushes dont behave how I want them to, any tips would be great :) I dont want to use like premade brush fold brushes as that wont help me to understand/learn and so often end up looking bad. so many tutorials out there use that kind of stuff, which is fine if you already understand etc... Just wondering if you have any tips for this, or could possibly consider making a video on this, which would be fantastic :) , ......back to learning... :D

I absolutely love these videos guys! I do have one question that I'm not sure if you've addressed yet, I'm wondering how do you scale down a section of the mesh if you realize its way too big, or small? I keep running into the problem of bad proportions and I'm not sure how to fix it. THANKS!

Man! you guys are always awesome....

Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge! Awesome!

Nice and helpful video !

" press hard for harder bones "

damn, i didn't know that you could keep pureref on top of zbrush the entire time, thanks guys!

Went ahead and watched all of your videos, by far this one is the most useful one, I'm just wondering if you are making a fantasy creature that doesn't resemble human or animal, let's say something like ghosts or wraiths that basically don't have a body to resemble with. What should we focus anatomy on in this case?

Can you guys or someone in the comments clarify what the anatomy resource was that you were talking about? It sounded like "Scans" or something from a specific source? I'd really like to find out what they are and use them!