ZModeler Brush

The Zmodeler brush was briefly mentioned in a lecture so I decided to do some research on it. I started with Pixologic's website and watched a video they posted where they went through a few updates on the tool. I was blown away with all the capabilities packed into this one brush. The basic functions seem comparable to the modifiers in Maya, but the brush is compatible with several other brushes in ZBrush as well.

I watched a lot of videos first to try and understand how the tool works. Pixel Logic and CGMeetup have the best introduction videos for the Zmodeler brush. I went through all of them before I jumped into the software and played around with the brush.

The Zmodeler brush is a polygonal model tool set that allows you to modify topology of any polymesh subject without subdivisions. The tool is contact sensitive which gives the brush different options depending on where the pointer is located. A different menu set is available for edges, vertices, and polys.



The initialize menu allows you to setup any primitive shape to start modeling and use the Zmodeler brush. You can change the amount of polys on each axis to start the polymesh however you choose. When you first select Zmodeler, the default action is to extrude polys, insert edge loops, and to move vertices.



The top box is the action set menu. You can select a number of actions such as bevel, crease, extrude, mask, polygroup, and so on.

The middle box is the target menu, you can change your selection to a single poly, edge, or vertex or all surrounding, infront, quads, triangles, etc.

The bottom box is the modifier menu. The modifiers allow you to change how different actions are applied to the surfaces the model.



Here's a short video for a better view of the menus:

The Zmodeler brush may be my new favorite brush once I get more experience with it. Zsphere helps build a basic model to work with, but Zmodeler allows you to get very specific with all the capabilities it has. Pixologic's video showed the Zmodeler also works with other brushes and modifiers and I haven't even had the chance to experiment with those options yet. It seems complicated at first, but the results Pixologic demonstrated are amazing. I'm looking forward to experimenting with this more and hope to understand its full potential soon!


Resources:
Pixologic's ZModeler Presentation
CGMeetup Videos