ZBrush Clothes Tutorial
January 2009In this short breakdown I will show you how I did the clothes on the “For the King” project. I think the first and most important step is that you start to familiarize yourself with the object you are trying to model and its behavior. I used flickr.com and google for my research and searched everything related to fabric and cloth. It helps also to search for other artists work to learn how they handle the subject. Drawings and sculptures show an already “compressed state” of an object. The artist has left everything out that’s not relevant and reduced it down to the important features that are necessary to make the viewer believe that he is looking at drapery. Basically that’s true for every object you sculpt. You are not going to make real fabric; you are only going to make the viewer believe that it is what he thinks it is…
After I had collected a folder full of images I made a few quick sketches for a better understanding of folds and wrinkles. The brush-moves you are making in the 3d space of Zbrush or Mudbox are quite similar to the one you are drawing on paper. The understanding how folded parts of the fabric expand and overlay in space of course is different.
I aimed to make some really thin and slightly translucent fabric. It’s crazy how some of the great masters where able to create the impression of an underlying body, although you are looking at adamant stone. That is definitely much harder then recreating the same look with a combination of 3ds max and Zbrush with a complete body as a basis.
For the cloth basemesh I have exported a midres version of the character mesh out of Zbrush and brought it into 3ds max. I’m using the Polyboost tools for all kind of polygon modeling in max. The polydraw subtool is great for this kind of work or for retopologizing a whole character. With the imported midres mesh as a basis, it takes only a few minutes to model the first part of the robe. I have planned to split it in 3 pieces, so I can work with them separately later in Zbrush. As you can see on the screenshot below, it’s nothing more than simple polymodeling. Just try to keep the polygons as quadrangular as possible for a smooth subdivision in your sculpting package.
After I was done with the mesh, I have exported every piece as an OBJ and attached it as subtools to my main character mesh in ZBrush. Because I was going to do all the fine wrinkles and folds on the highest subdiv level, I subdivided the piece already at the beginning. I pushed out some intersecting areas with the clay brush (you can use the move brush, too) Then I stepped up on a midres level and began to project some of the character mesh details onto my cloth mesh. I have done that with the projection brush. Make sure that ZSUB is activated and the brush intensity is quite low. Try to work only on surfaces that are perpendicular to your viewport. (Everything else will cause strange mesh distortions)
After preparing everything for further sculpting I switched to the highest subdivision level and start working with my tweaked standard brushes. Basically I have just change the gravity strength options, brush mode and the alpha. You can download theses brushes and take a look at the settings. Copy them in the ZStartup/BrushPresets folder in your Zbrush directory and they should appear in your brush palette after restarting the program. For smooth transitions between the strokes I used a standard clay brush. I was more or less “free styling” when creating the folds. A good tip is to use the flatten brush from time to time. Not everything is as round as it seems…
Download Selwy’s cloth brushes + .ZTL file, 4mb (right click, save as)
Some people already asked me how to achieve the slight translucent look in ZBrush (the areas where parts of the leg and arm are shining through) This is just a fake 
I have used polypaint and gave these areas another color as the rest of the mesh.
Finally I have exported the highres meshes and made a quick rendering in max. That’s all!
January 12th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Amazing work and kind nature
Thank you very much
January 12th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Thanks for your tutorial
As always,amazing job.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Great and subtle use of ZBrush brushes in the folds, natural movement and weight, linen feels thin and light the way it spouses the woman’s body, interesting pose! an overall 5 stars.
Keep it up!!
-jaime
January 12th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
hi selwy
great tutorial, i a huge fan of your art
regards
Sergio Duarte
January 12th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
This is just magic! amazing tutorial mate!
just saw that you´re a chili peppers fan, just like myself hehehhee!!
keep rockin’ mate!
January 12th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
You’re a very insane inspiration for me mate.
thanks for sharing your work and your studyes.
this is very encouraging for me, to keep studying and studying, more and more.
thank you a lot, you deserve the best.
cya, keep going.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
not just your awesome anatomy knowledge, but your sculpting technique is great also!
thanks for these brushes! you rock!
January 13th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Great work!
Agos.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Keep it up.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Hi Selwy
Great tutorial man! You are truly one of the GREATES modelers I know… You work is big inspiration for me.
Keep it up!!
January 13th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Every model you post is better than your last, fantastic work.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Awesome work man. Thanks for sharing your brushes and techniques. Cloth is a challenging subject to make convincing – but you did a great job.
-Adam Carroll
January 13th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Thanks for the brushes, the tuto and work is awesome. Thanks for the model too.
Antonio
January 13th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Hello Benjamin,
Compliments for your impressive work: it is an other piece of art of yours! Great Work!
Thank you very much for the brushes!
I’m waiting for an other great sculpture…
Mattia
p.s.: … and happy 2009!
January 13th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Your starting to surpass Alex Oliver as my favorite ZBrush artist. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:30 am
you really professional.
I hope to see more of your work. Thank you for sharing
January 14th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Selwy thanks so much, will try your brushes they look great and perfect timing for me, thanks again
January 14th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
amazing, and really great inspiration!! i love your work!!
Alex Oliver
January 15th, 2009 at 4:38 am
Awesome work man. Thank you very much for the brushes.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Very nice cloth. I love your work. That cloth is inspirational.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Amazing work, A real piece of art !!!
January 16th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
amazing stuff!! thank you very much
Is that possible to see how you building a basemesh ??
would be cool to see that
of course it is just my dream
I’m a big fan of your work and your personality.
Your knowledge is amazing. You study so hard . You are big inspiration for me and I’m sure that not only for me
thank you once again
Greg
January 19th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Thank you for the tutorial. I had never used ZBrush until last week and I am really enjoying the software’s capabilities. Your workflow is both beautiful and ingenious. Congratulations!
Ken
January 19th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Thanks a lot, your brushes are top notch man, I’ve been fond of them straight away. I can’t go back and use my old crappy brushes anymore…
February 1st, 2009 at 2:45 am
And again I tell you how I just love your work.
Thanks for sharing man!
March 4th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
might be an stupid question but i’m still trying to wrap my mind around zbrush. i understand the sculpting and even the retopolizing process but so far i can’t find anyting about retopolizing a whole mesh (sub tools an all) is that possible?
March 14th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Amazing work man!
cheers
April 1st, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Oh wow, that is most impressive information to give away. Thanks much!
April 15th, 2009 at 9:58 am
great sculpting, and thanks for sharing your brushes!
April 25th, 2009 at 7:48 am
thanks for great tutorial
but it seems we have problem with vimeo
is there any mirror available in youtube for videos?
May 4th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
thanx Benjamin, great tutorial & modelling..i congratulate to u
May 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
This is very helpful tutorial. I need comment on my modeling work. if possible please vesit http://www.avijit.net and please provide your comment about my work through email:avijit.info@yahoo.in
May 14th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Wow, U are revolusioner in 3d world. ten thumbs up!
May 24th, 2009 at 4:59 am
I think your work its just amazing!!!
beautiful work! congratulations you rock!!!!
May 24th, 2009 at 5:03 am
and Thank you for your tutorial
June 11th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
it’s amazing.you are work is beautiful.Thanks to say for helpful tutorial.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
A student of mine prompted me about your cloth brushes. I have downloaded and tried them out. Thanks for sharing, they sure saved me time and propelled me many steps.
July 25th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Wow,Thank you for great tutorial
September 8th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
thanks a lot ur brushes r a great help to me …………………really appreciate ur uploading the brushes thanks
and ur work is awesome
October 10th, 2009 at 2:32 am
I must say that your work is absolutely brilliant. Thanks so much for the great brushes and the impressive Z-model of Arthur. Keep up the great work.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Amazing tutorial, and thanks for sharing the brushes.
cheers buddy
February 7th, 2010 at 6:48 am
Thanks for these brushes and tutorials selwy!
Amazing! Big fan of your works!
February 10th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
The beautifulness of your models, and the skill necessary for creating them, are beyond my imagination, up to the moment I saw them!…
April 5th, 2010 at 10:28 am
trully inspiring me..
nice tutorial!
April 13th, 2010 at 5:02 am
great masters 大师
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Brilliant tutorial, thanks for producing it! I use Maya and Zbrush and have struggled with cloth for ages. I realise the packages aren’t exactly the same, but it’s opened my eyes!
Amazing work!
August 6th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Thanks alot…you really helped me alot while I’m seing this work…..it’s really so great work…thanks again!
August 17th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Hi selwy ,
I love your work
A small question : Can you do the fold brushes to work on z-brush 4 ..they are amazing
Thx
Mihai
August 24th, 2010 at 4:13 am
Thanks a lot for brushes.
I mostly used your brushes in my sculpts.
And these are really very nice while sculpting cloths and wrinkles..
August 25th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
[...] Adds Damien Standard, Clay Polish, Ryan Kingslien’s Hair Fly Away, and Selwy’s Cloth Set [...]