ZBrush 3.5 aims to bring you creative freedom and an end to technical constraints. With new features like ZSpheres II, ZSketch, Quick Sketch, Surface Noise, Planar brushes and many other new enhancements, your art will reach a whole new level.

With this new version, we have refined and added to ZBrush's already exceptional toolset, improving the natural traditional media feel that ZBrush is famous for. We've made it easier than ever for you to create organic characters, mechanical objects, environments or product designs. If you are an illustrator, VFX or video game artist, product designer or just a hobbyist passionate about 3D, ZBrush is for you!

We invite you to discover the main new additions to ZBrush 3.5 - enhancements that are the foundation for the upcoming ZBrush 4! In addition, both versions are free upgrades for all registered ZBrush users!

Sketch your mind!

With ZBrush 3.5, create at the speed of light with new sketching features:

QuickSketch allows you to draw your thoughts and ideas in 2D in a simple and elegant way to rough them out so that you can quickly find the best approach and move forward. ZSketch, combined with the improved ZSpheres II, adds the ability to freely create directly in 3D space, sculpting shapes and forms that you could previously only dream of.

In addition, editing your ZSketch is as easy as manipulating a simple skeleton. The variation of poses, forms, and deformations is endless!

Surface Noise

With the new Surface Noise feature, you can apply a procedural noise to your creations, driven by simple parameters and curves for easy customization. By default, this noise is applied globally to your object in a non-destructive way, allowing you to change it at any time or even remove it. With a single click, you can apply it to your model as geometry that can be sculpted. It can also be a mix of different noises, blended together with the help of ZBrush's powerful masks.

Noise is also available as a brush setting, which means that you will be able to add this noise to any of your ZBrush sculpting brushes! To make your work even easier, several new Noise brushes have been added as presets, mixing traditional brush settings with the new Noise functions.

Geometry HD, improved Displacement and Normal Maps

With the improved HD Geometry, which now supports PolyPainting, your sculpting can have as much fine detailing, as you want – up to 1 billion polygons! Then when you have finished sculpting and painting, use the new improved Displacement and Normal map export features. With built-in HD Geometry support, it’s a snap to take all that amazing detail out of ZBrush for use in your favorite rendering engine.

The Displacement and Normal Map creation tools are now natively integrated into ZBrush within the Tool Palette, so there is no need for additional plug-ins. Export your Displacement maps in 32-bits, display them in real-time on your model, generate ultra-accurate normal maps and as with texture maps, apply them to each individual SubTool!

Discover a new world with Hard Sculpting

Already popular for its organic capabilities, ZBrush is now opening the door to mechanical sculpting. Create weapons and armor, vehicles or robots, jewelry, product designs... if you can imagine it, there are tools to help you create it!

With features like the new set of brushes (including Trim, Polish and Planar), combined with the new Remesh option to create Boolean-like objects, new Auto Masking functions based on polygroups, improved Lazy Mouse with Backtrack feature, you will be able to make accurate planar surfaces on your models. But these are also free form, following the curves of your imagination.

The combination of these new features enables you to build a near infinite array of brushes, which will perfectly suit all your sculpting needs. To help you get going even faster in your new mechanical world, ZBrush provides several new-dedicated hard-surface brushes by default, or to load at will!

Improve Your Sculpting with New Brushes and Settings

With this new update, ZBrush gives you more flexibility in your sculpting through several new brushes: ClayFinish, Crumple, Flakes, FormBrush, FormSoft, SoftClay, SoftConcrete, Move2, MoveRing, Slide, Spherical – in addition to all the new Noise, Polish, Trim and Planar Brushes!

Beyond simply adding new brushes, several new settings have been created, such as Brush Embed, Brush Depth, Angle masking, Stabilization, Tilting and more. These will let you change the shape of the brush itself from a sphere, letting you flatten the top, bottom, or both. With the help of an interactive widget, you can dynamically change these settings to add more flexibility and power to your sculpting.

Add some noise, change the Lazy Mouse mode, load an alpha, change the brush Depth... just imagine the possibilities with these features that make it easier than ever to add eye-popping detail to your creations!

Ergonomic and Model Display Improvements

ZBrush 3.5 does not just bring you new sculpting features; it also improves your working comfort. Perspective has been improved, a floor grid has been added, mouse navigation now supports right clicking, and several palettes have been reorganized. Even the display of your model has changed with new deep shadows to provide a better feel for depth and details. On top of these enhancements, there is improved pen tablet pressure sensitivity. You may find sculpting to be addictive, and will certainly enjoy increased productivity!

Improving production also means better organization. ZBrush 3.5 introduces a preview version of LightBox, which will be the hub of your creative content in the upcoming ZBrush 4. Easily browse your ZTools, Brushes, Alphas and Textures. Imagine: all your content, instantly available and integrated directly inside ZBrush

Unified Skin an optimized sculpting topology

Not only has Adaptive Skin mesh creation been improved for ZSpheres II but so has Unified Skin, the new core technology of the ZSketch geometry creation.

In a single click, preview your model with a clean topology, optimized for the best sculpting, whether for organic or mechanic subjects.

Use the Polish slider to apply a softened look to your geometry, adding attractive curved surfaces to your model - perfect for concept design such as cars, spaceships or jewelry. Combine with the new Group Border, resulting in a nice set of edge loops around each polygroup, allowing you to use them to create joins with the Inflate deformation or modifying created areas of your model to push or sculpt with the help of the polygroup auto masking.

And with the new Matcap added in ZBrush 3.5, the perception of your volume will be greatly improved.

Create and modify with Mirror and Weld

In addition to the ReMesh feature, you can now manipulate your original model to create a new base mesh using the Mirror and Weld. This function will duplicate your model across the activated symmetry axis (X, Y, Z or combinations of these axes!) by creating a new mirrored shape, welding the points and removing extra geometry. The possibilities are endless!

This feature not only copies the geometry, it also copies polypainting. This is a new alternative to the Smart Resym technology of ZBrush, depending of your needs.

ReMesh and showing the new Union, Difference, and Intersection

Boolean style operations in ZBrush! It is now possible to combine subtools in ZBrush in different ways so that the effect of each subtool on the resulting mesh can be changed.

There are three options: Union, Difference and Intersection. This new feature means it's now possible to build complex shapes quickly and efficiently through combining ZBrush primitives or other meshes.

The Remeshing can also use the new Close Holes function to fill all the holes and creating a watertight volume. Then use the new Maximum option of the Project All function to reproject all the details of the original model to the remeshed one. It's priceless for all the scandatas work!

Brush modifiers

Control, Power, Function and Customization. These four words summarize the new additions and enhancements made to the brush settings in ZBrush 3.5.

With the new Depth and Imbed options you can control the 3D shape of your brush by varying its profile or adjusting the depth relative to a model’s surface. Depending on the geometry of your object, your brush behavior can completely change!

The new Preserve Edge slider is a major addition to the brush settings. Used intensively by the new Polish brush, this feature gives more power for sculpting rigid surfaces and hard edges.

If your surface is irregular, enable brush stabilization which will average your brush strokes and avoid unexpected results on these surfaces.

Another enhancement is the new brush tilting, which enables you to set an angle for your brush shape. For example, add a lizard scales alpha, activate the new Directional Masking for nice curved deformation patterns and easily create a fabulous 3D skin surface on your dragon!

To demonstrate all these settings in action, ZBrush 3.5 includes more than a hundred new brushes, ready for immediate use in your projects.

Polygroups

Improved Polygroup creation means that there are now even more ways of sculpting different parts of your model. Polygroups can be created freehand by simply drawing a mask, or with polypaint, so that you can quickly divide your model for ease of sculpting and texturing.

Combined with the power of the Automasking and improved sculpting brushes, Polygroups now become an essential part of your sculpting pipeline - not forgetting their mesh organization abilities (hide parts in a click!).

Additionally polygroups can now be saved as a texture so that you can save them for reloading later!

Improved Masks for new possibilities

Masking in ZBrush is a powerful feature which will help you preserve, totally or partially, a part of a model, and lets you create deformations which are only possible through masking.

Create new masks on your mesh based on the cavities, adjusting them with the associated curve, to create precisely the masks you need. You can also create masks based on the Ambient Occlusion of your model!

Then, the Ambiant Occlusion Mask can be directly converted to a polygroup, for as example, specific operations on the less visible part of the model.

And if needed, your mask can be transferred to a texture, allowing you to create powerful shaders in your favorite 3D package.