ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

258 chapter 7 ■ Transpose, ZSphere Rigging, Retopology, and Mesh Extraction

ZSphere Rigging

In addition to Transpose, ZBrush has a second method to pose your characters. ZSphere

rigging allows you to create a ZSphere skeleton inside your ZTool and then bind the

joints similarly to the rigging systems in 3ds Max and Maya. This has many benefits over

Transpose posing; the rig remains in place so you can continue to rotate

the joints at the same fixed points and the binding method can be more

effective for areas like shoulders and hips. Not only does ZSphere rigging

allow you to pose your character using an inverse kinematics (IK) bone

rig, but you can also animate your character with the timeline. For these

reasons, ZSphere rigging is a valuable tool to master. In this section, you

will rig a biped character using ZSphere.

1. Load the DemoSoldier ZTool from the Lightbox → ZTool menu.
   Make sure the body is the active subtool.


2. From the Tool menu select a ZSphere. It should appear on the cen-
   ter of the canvas in Edit mode. If not, draw the ZSphere and press
   T to enter Edit mode.


3. Click Tool → Rigging → Select Mesh and select the DemoSoldier
   body from the Tool menu. You will now see your ZSphere in the
   center of the soldier’s body. The body will display in Transparent
   mode (Figure 7.75).


4. Make sure X Symmetry is on by pressing the X key. Using the same
   ZSphere techniques discussed in Chapter 6, “ZSpheres,” draw a skel-
   eton made of ZSpheres inside your character (Figure 7.76). You will
   bind this skeleton to the mesh, which means you will link the position
   of the skeleton joints to the position of the joints on the mesh so that
   posing the ZSphere chain will affect the high-res mesh.

Figure 7.75 The DemoSoldier ready for a ZSphere rig

Figure 7.74 Many of this character’s
accessories were built in ZBrush
using the Topology tools.