Download Sculpty Maker (v 2.51)
Download Sculpty Rezzer scripts
Download zSculpty plug-in for zBrush
What is Sculpty Maker?
Sculpty Maker is a free program for Windows PCs that allows you to create objects in zBrush and convert them to Second Life sculpted prims.
What is Sculpty Rezzer?
Sculpty Rezzer is scripted Second Life object that takes the sculptmap image files created by Sculpty Maker and assembles them into properly adjusted sculpted prims. You can also get a pre-assembled version of the Sculpty Maker in-world.
What is zSculpty?
zSculpty is a plug-in for Zbrush 3 that allows you to export a sculptmap image directly from within zBrush. You can also texture your object in zBrush and export the texture for use in-world. A newer, possibly buggy, version of zSculpty also supports the newer ‘oblong’ sculptmap shapes. Download zSculpty-Oblong.
How does it work?
You set up sculpty-friendly objects in zBrush, export them as .obj files, then run them through Sculpty Maker to create the sculptmap images that will define the 3D shapes in SL. You can also use the zSculpty plug-in to export your sculptmaps directly from zBrush.
Tutorial: Using Sculpty Maker
Watch more of my ZBrush tutorials
Where can I learn more?
- Watch the video above before watching my older tutorials. This one contains info about the latest version of Sculpty Maker.
- This two part vid shows how to create, model and texture : Creating Sculpted Prims with zBrush 3
- Check my Videos page for more of my zBrush to Sculpty tutorials.
- Virrginia Tombola has posted a detailed tutorial over at LaBicyclette.
- You can also head over to the official SL forums where there are two discussions that may answer some of your questions: Sculpty Maker discussion, zSculpty discussion.
Who created Sculpty Maker?
These tools were created by a little man that lives in a little hole in a big tree. He’s a very grumpy little man that doesn’t like too many visitors and prefers to spend his time chasing forest critters off his lawn. I’m very grateful to this old man so I’ve volunteered to host the Sculpty Maker files and answer related questions. Please do not disturb the little man or he may shake his fist and mutter incoherently under his long, scraggly beard. :)
Who do I contact if I have questions?
This is a free program with no guarantees, and no official support is offered. However, you can post comments/questions here and I will do my best to answer, or you can post on the forum threads mentioned above. There are several zBrush adventurers on the SL forums who may also feel like sharing their knowledge.
Cheese or Pie?
Cheese.
Common Mistakes and Pitfalls
To convert with Sculpty Maker, your object MUST start out as one of the zBrush primitive shapes – like sphere, cylinder, sweep profile etc. Objects created in other program will not work.
You can’t change the geometry of your mesh. It’s ok to subdivide the entire mesh – but no extracting, no adding edge loops, nothing that changes the specific grid of faces that you start with. Don’t change the UV map either.
If you have subdivided your geometry to add faces for the Polypainting method of texturing, make sure you go back down to Subdivision level 1 before exporting your object. I usually export the object before increasing the subdivisions, just to be sure. SM can deal with various resolutions of object, but it’ll just crash when you feed it an object with too much detail.
Keep your object’s filenames short. SM uses the filename to add information about proportions and scale, then Sculpty Rezzer uses this info to create you object in-world. If your filename is too long, some of that info will be lost and Rezzer will get confused. You also want to make sure that you don’t use the # symbol as part of the filename.
The most common causes of SculptyMaker crashing: Trying to convert an .obj file that did not start out as one of the zBrush primitives, or has had it’s geometry changed via Extract or another tool that modifies/creates a new mesh. SM will also crash if you try to convert an object that has too many faces/vertices.
After creating your initial shape from one of the zBrush primitives (sphere, cylinder, sweep profile, etc) you need to convert that primitive to a mesh via the Make PolyMesh3D button – only hit this button once. Hitting it more than once will destroy the proper UV setup and your object will not work with Sculpty Maker anymore.

