Simple play icon Course
Skills Expanded

Modeling a Female Hero in ZBrush and Maya

by Justin Marshall

In this tutorial, we will build a high-resolution female hero character from scratch using ZBrush and Maya. Software required: ZBrush 4, Maya 2012.

What you'll learn

In this tutorial, we will build a high-resolution female hero character from scratch using ZBrush and Maya. Throughout this detailed tutorial, we'll leverage the power of ZBrush and Maya to build a strong female hero character from start to finish. We'll use ZSpheres to block in the rough shape of our model and then send our geometry over to Maya using the one-click GoZ functionality. In Maya, we can recreate the topology of any of our pieces, create new geometry to send back to ZBrush, or modify existing geometry. We'll be going back and forth quite a bit in order to use the tools most appropriate for building the character's clothing and accessories. In addition to the modeling tools in Maya, we'll also use many of ZBrush's built-in modeling functions, including Shadowbox, mesh extraction, and the topology tools. Once we're done, we'll have a finished, high-resolution character that can be painted or prepared for rigging, and you'll have the knowledge to repeat the process on your own character. Software required: ZBrush 4, Maya 2012.

About the author

Justin thrives as a lead modeling author at Pluralsight. Growing up, Justin found a deep interest for the computer graphics industry after watching movies like Jurassic Park, Toy Story, and The Abyss. His ambition would lead him to work at Sony Imageworks in Los Angeles on movies like Monster House and Surf's Up. Justin has also had numerous articles, tutorials, and images published in 3D World and 3D Artist. As an author, Justin enjoys collaborating with fellow authors, especially on project... more

Ready to upskill? Get started