Sculpt-Offs, Anniversaries & Anatomy: ZBrush Summit 2025 celebrates 25 years
ZBrush turns 25 and Maxon is celebrating online, 7-9 November, with live Sculpt-Offs, artist sessions and a first look at what’s next for ZBrush.
Browsing Tag
Creature Design
37 posts
Anastomia: Comparative Anatomy for Creature Artists
Human, horse, wolf, dog: Anastomia visualises their anatomy side by side, with sync, isolation, and pose features. Free in early access.
Creepy-Crawlies in 3D: Free “Arthropods” Anatomy App for Creature Designers
Twelve museum arthropods, one free app, and an excellent reason to stop swatting your references. Creepy-crawlies in 3D, just in time for Halloween.
Rise FX saves christmas?
When Red One dropped last this year, audiences got get a holiday cocktail of Jumanji-style action (The director…
All the teeth!
Sometimes there are fantastical productions, where you get a
monster that feels fresh and new – and once we had seen Season 2 of “Carnival Row” (Release on Amazon Prime), we needed to talk about
the toothy skinned bat: Sparas!
His Dark Materials | Featurette
Cuddling with an ice bar? Things get animalistic in the BBC series based on the novel trilogy - with creature effects, puppetry and Master Petz.
Back in Dinoland
Review: In DP 01 : 2016, "Jurassic World" celebrated its opening. We asked VFX supervisor Martyn Culpitt from Image Engine for a chat - about impressive CG environments and even more impressive CG dinosaurs. Who is the biggest pipeline eater?
400 MPH | Animago Afternoon
To infinity - until the sound barrier shatters? This primate is a speed junkie. Does human ever-moreism suit the chimpanzee?
The Witcher | VFX Breakdown
Cinesite lets the tatzelworms off the leash: In the season finale, Geralt of Riva faces off against these scaly lapdogs. "Make way, deadly weakling!"
New version of Ziva released!
Dino-like strength: Ziva VFX is released in version 2.0. If you want to flex your muscles with Allosaurus and co. you should take a look at this Maya plugin.
Gael Kerchenbaum on Creature Art
Creature artist Gael Kerchenbaum discusses anatomy, freelance practice and work with DNEG, Axis Animation, CGMA and Facebook AI.
ZBrush and Blender Tutorial Creates a Stylised Mushroom Character
Character artist Tarek Samaan demonstrates the design and production of a stylised anthropomorphic mushroom using ZBrush and Blender.
Independence Day: Resurgence | VFX-Breakdown
The Federal Minister of Transport warns: squeaky yellow American school buses attract alien monsters!
Weta Digital Breaks Down Rise of the Planet of the Apes VFX
A Weta Digital breakdown revisits the performance-capture and visual-effects work behind Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Weta Digital Breaks Down War for the Planet of the Apes VFX
Four Weta Digital breakdowns examine the hidden fortress, ape facial animation, prison camp and FX simulations in War for the Planet of the Apes.
Monster Hunter | VFX-Breakdown
Are these still Ankylosaurs - or already Koopa Troopas? No, these are the Apceros from the video game film adaptation!
Zoo Tools Pro 2.5 Expands Its Modular Maya Toolkit
Zoo Tools Pro 2.5 updated Andrew Silke’s Python-based Maya framework with revised animation tools plus improvements to modelling, texturing and lighting.
Lighting Artist Samuel Felix Eugene Presents Film Showreel
Samuel Felix Eugene’s lighting showreel features work from Artemis Fowl, Dolittle, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Detective Pikachu.
Tutorial: Sculpting a Primate Aviator in ZBrush
Konstantin Gdalevich demonstrates the ZBrush character-sculpting process behind Marcus, a stylised primate aviator.
Sleep Tight – A modern horror tale
"From the edge of a forest, the werewolf steps into the moonlight; in front of him lies a small settlement by a forest lake."
This sentence comes from an early version of our script. A lot happened from there to the final film. The old-fashioned settlement became a big city, the forest lake became a hill with modern flats and the werewolf became a werewolf.
The Elephant Funk? Inside the VFX of Dumbo
VFX supervisor Richard Stammers explains how MPC and Framestore created Dumbo, Dreamland and the film’s highly detailed digital elephants.
Creating a Skater Boar with ZBrush, 3ds Max and Substance Painter
A speed-sculpt making-of follows the creation of a skateboarding boar using ZBrush, 3ds Max, Substance Painter, Ornatrix and Corona Renderer.
Sculpting Alice in Wonderland’s Caterpillar in ZBrush
Surface artist Yan Blanco demonstrates how to recreate Alice in Wonderland’s Caterpillar using ZBrush, Blender, Substance Painter and Photoshop.
The Twilight Zone | VFX-Breakdown
Proud as Sterling: Marble UFO, Monstermade & ghostly apparition.
FMX Spotlight Explores Framestore’s Lovecraft Country Creatures
Framestore’s Grant Walker and Stephen Nixon discussed creature design, asset building and animation for HBO’s Lovecraft Country.
Nomad Brings Sculpting to Tablets
Nomad offers layered sculpting, vertex painting, dynamic tessellation and PBR rendering on iPad and Android tablets.
VFX-Breakdown zu Disney’s Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made
In this visual effects breakdown, a polar bear becomes a boy's best friend.
Warrior Nun | VFX-Breakdown von The Embassy
The Canadian visual effects house created supernatural creatures for the fantasy drama.
DNEG Breaks Down Westworld Robots
DNEG artists discuss robot characters from Westworld season three across animation, creature technical direction and asset build.
Oxford Shares Cambrian Animals in 3D
Oxford’s First Animals collection offered 19 downloadable Cambrian creature models with annotated anatomy through Sketchfab.
Creature Design: It’s the inner beauty that counts
Why should only busty ladies or muscle-bound beauties become calendar girls and boys? No, creatures also have a right to sexy shoots! A team from the Film Academy took on this noble endeavour in their diploma project and designed a pin-up calendar with famous monsters from film history, including a behind-the-scenes clip with the Goblin King from "Lord of the Rings".
So much cattle stuff!
Review: In DP 03 : 2017, Warner Brothers reached for "Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them", because J.K. Rowling was finished with Harry Potter after volume seven. Off we went to the beasts (wherever they are to be found)!
Steampunk Panther
Review: In DP 02 : 2014, a steampunk panther caught the readers' eye - with emerald green eyes and filigree decorations. An animago submission by 3D artist Anna Huber.
From another star | Retro article
Review: In DP 01 : 2010, Weta Digital created a wacky planet, alien life forms and humanoid screen heroes. For what? For James Cameron's Avatar!
Visual Effects in “The Spiderwick Chronicles “
To create the many unusual and complex creatures in “The Spiderwick Chronicles”, the producers hired two of the best top experts in the field of special effects: Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Tippett Studio.