Book Review: Sculpting from the Imagination: ZBrush

This is a 320-page thick paperback that's a ZBrush gallery that features the ZBrush sculpted 3D art from 50 digital artists. The book contains some nudity.

This is not a tutorial book although the artist do mention their creative process from their 2-page character profile.

The work featured is amazing. The attention to detail is applaudable. Looking at bumps and textures of the skin is perhaps nothing too surprising in this book because the artists have a minimal standard to uphold. There are some where the hair follicles and strands are modelled. Awe-inspiring. The last time I felt this way was looking at the 3D sculpts from The Art of The God of War: Ascension and The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

There's a lot of variety in the designs which is great because, well, there are 50 artists included. The designs look fantastic. It's somewhat like what you see in the better concept artbooks except they are all 3D. One thing to note is they are all character designs, things like creatures, aliens, mechs and basically other lifeforms. Most of them are in the normal standing pose. It would have been more awesome if the characters could be in those action poses commonly used by toy manufacturers. Also, perhaps in the next volume maybe they can include some environment art.

If you're a ZBrush artist, you'll have to challenge yourself to reach the standards of these guys here in the book.

Highly recommended to all ZBrush artists.

Sculpting from the Imagination: ZBrush (Sketching from the Imagination) is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

Sculpting from the Imagination: ZBrush - 02