Sculpting Clay-Style Fantasy Heads In ZBrush

Introduction

Hey there! My name is Erik Ramalho, and I'm a Character Artist based in Brazil. I started creating 3D art when I was 14, though I have memories of trying Blender as early as age 7, although then, I didn't go as far as extruding a cube or moving a vertex. As a kid, I spent a lot of time drawing, using the computer, and playing video games, so this field feels like a natural combination of those interests. As far as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by 3D games, they almost felt magical to me as a child.

I developed my skills by practicing every single day and taking as many courses as I could find. In those early years, I don't even recall thinking of it as studying; it was simply something I wanted to do, more like a hobby. That daily repetition and consistency are what really helped me build my foundation and grow as an artist over the years.

The Head Sketches Project

The Head Sketches project started during a workshop with Glauco Longhi. The assignment was to create a few heads each week, but instead of posting ZBrush screenshots, I decided to make them a little more presentable. Once you already have a solid high-poly sculpt, the texturing and rendering stages can be surprisingly quick, it's 25% more work for a significant return.

Sculpting

All the sculptures were created in ZBrush, mainly using the ClayBuildup brush (with a LazyStep of 0.01 for smoother strokes) and the Rake brush to give more texture. Instead of hiding process marks, like we often do in production, I emphasized them to give the pieces a handcrafted, traditional sculpture feel.

Here's the difference the LazyStep makes on the brush:

During the sculpting stage, I merge all the Subtools and DynaMesh them to create a simplified, low-poly version. This allows me to run quick tests in Arnold for Maya, since proper lighting can look completely different compared to the ZBrush viewport. Doing this early helps me correct issues before committing too much time, while also having a clearer idea of the final composition.

Here's some examples of those tests:

After the sculpting is done, or even during the process, I like to play with masks and surface noises, as well as contrast modifiers. Here's an illustration of the process:

When it comes to speed, it's about knowing your tools and trusting your workflow. In the making of those sketches, I take inspiration from painters' concept of "brush economy", not everything needs to be rendered to perfection. A single stroke can sometimes do the job. Many details of the crown, for example, don't hold up in close-up, but they still work in the final render.

Once I'm done with the sculpting, I go to ZPlugin and use Decimation Master, often with very high values. For the main subtools, like the face, I sometimes go as far as 1 million polygons. Substance 3D Painter and Maya can handle that.

I find that this approach makes the final results look much better than relying solely on normal maps, and I really like the feel decimation gives to a model.

UVs & Unwrapping

After decimating the ZBrush high-poly, I move into RizomUV, which makes generating UVs with UDIMS very fast. My process is as follows:

• Set padding to 8 (works well for 4K textures);
• Use Auto Seams → Select Mosaic → Prevent Overlaps;
• Under Advanced, hit Pack.

This workflow may not be ideal for production, but the goal here is simply to get things done quickly and make the sketches more presentable.

Texturing

Once UVs are done, I assign materials in Maya and export everything as an FBX into Substance 3D Painter. 

Here's an example of the materials: by simply applying them and exporting as FBX, the meshes will be organized in 3D Painter, as you can see later on as "Crown", "Face", and "Body", originally the materials' names.

In Substance 3D Painter, I have a smart material setup that combines several fill layers with smart masks, layered on top of a few hand-painted layers. This keeps the workflow efficient while leaving enough space for artistic control.

Breakdown of the layers:

You can see that the textures are set at 2048x2048, but this is due to performance issues; they were actually exported at 4096x4096.

Materials & Shading

For the shaders, I used AIStandardSurface inside Maya's Hypershade. The setup is pretty simple, using the maps exported from Substance 3D Painter, such as Albedo, Metal, Roughness, and a Normal Map.

Just a couple of important settings:

• Set Bump Mapping to "Tangent Space Normals";
• For black & white maps like Roughness, enable "Alpha is Luminance".

Rendering

I rendered everything in Arnold for Maya. The lighting setup is as simple as it gets: a Skydome with the color set to Tomoco studio. The Skydome is slightly tilted upward to create deeper shadows, with a plain white wall in the background serving as an environment.

Post-Production

In post, I only did some level adjustments and used a High Pass filter in Photoshop to bring in extra sharpness. I often prefer it over the standard Sharpen filter, as it mimics the effect of sharpening a lower resolution image, but on a higher resolution one.

The high-pass process is quick:

• Duplicate the image;
• Desaturate it (Ctrl+U → reduce saturation);
• Go to Filter → Other → High Pass (I used a value of 1, but it depends on the image);
• Set the layer blending mode to Overlay.
  

Challenges

For me, the most challenging initially was setting an overall tone that worked well for every piece. I did a lot of tests and redid the textures a couple of times. I tried different backgrounds, lights, and materials. About the process itself, the sculpting stage is always the most challenging. Once that part is resolved, the rest becomes just a matter of execution.

Conclusion

If I had to give advice to beginners, I'd say treat the craft with real dedication and spend a couple of hours on it every day. But above all, have fun. Passion is what keeps you putting in the hours, and that's ultimately what leads to improvement.

But there can be instances when you put in a lot of hours and see no improvement. Many people put in a lot of hours and still don't get compatible results, which can be very discouraging. So, we need to be mindful about how we spend those hours.

One thing that I think helped me avoid this was comparing my work with that of artists I admire and then trying to match their quality as closely as possible. This serves as a clear benchmark for what you want to achieve. The gap may be large at first, but as you keep practicing, it gradually becomes smaller over time. Just don't forget to keep it balanced, it's also nice to find your own way of doing things. 

Thanks for reading!

Erik Ramalho, 3D Character Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine