Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 28, 2018. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The last major ZBrush 4R8 update from last year brought many innovations – alongside Live Boolean, there has since been a new 3D Gizmo, deformers and more. Pixologic has now already released the next version: instead of ZBrush 5, ZBrush 2018 is now available as a free update.
ZBrush 2018 Features
Anyone who was looking forward to a revised interface in the spirit of a ZBrush 5 release will unfortunately still have to wait, or resort to community tools. Here is an overview of the most important update features.
Sculptris Pro Mode
With Sculptris Pro, the sculpting software receives a useful new sculpting mode: when activated, the program ignores polygon distribution and count. This allows you to sculpt with any starting shapes without worrying about poly count. Polygons are now added or reduced dynamically as appropriate. You can find further information here.
18 New Deformers
Since Gizmo 3D from 4R8, models can be deformed in different ways. With the update, the number has now been expanded by 18 new deformers, including Bevel, Crease, Inflate, Offset, Slice and more. You can find a complete list here. Particularly interesting is the new Project Primitive Deformer. It allows multiple basic elements to be used to reshape, cut out, join a mesh and more. More about this in the documentation.
PolygroupIt
With PolygroupIt, ZBrush 2018 offers a new way to create polygon groupings. To do this, the tool evaluates the surface of a model and creates intelligent groupings that can also be deleted, added, copied & pasted, enlarged or reduced. The polygroups can also be created symmetrically and use PolyPaint. The new tool can be found under the ZPlugin dropdown.
Further Innovations
New brushes, such as the Snake Hook brushes, updates for various plug-ins and a new Tessimate function, which is also used for the new Sculptris Pro mode, are just some of the additional features and changes. If required, ZBrush can now also save the brush size for individual brushes. Furthermore, the QuickSave folder can finally be changed. A complete overview of the innovations is available here.
Price & Availability
In line with Pixologic’s free update policy, the 2018 release is also available free of charge to existing customers. From today, March 28, 2018, you can upgrade the tool via “My Licences”. During the first three weeks after the release of ZBrush 2018, new licenses can be purchased at the current price of USD 795. From April 18, 2018, the price from will rise to USD 895.
The official ZBrush 2018 stream
For further information: To the Pixologic website
