I think I have mentioned Jason Welsh’s (aka Canned Mushrooms) ZBrush tutorials in the past. Jason has an informative, casual style and I’ve learned more about zBrush from these videos than I have from any other source on the web.

He’s recently updated his zBrush 3.1 tutorials with a whole new set of videos that he’s calling Season 2. These videos cover all sorts of topics like the basics of sculpting with zBrush, creating your own brushes, polypaint vs texture, and zSpheres. These videos are not specific to creating sculpted prims for SL, but they’re a great resource for anyone who wants to learn about zBrush.

You can find all of these videos on his Veoh channel. For folks outside the US who can’t use Veoh, you can find downloadable versions of the vids on this ZBrush Central Forum thread, or on Jason’s website.

Here is my latest video tutorial about using zBrush and Sculpty Maker to create sculpted prims. This time around I show you how to create an object made up of multiple sculpties. You’ll be using the Subtools feature in zBrush, the Sculpty Maker converter (or zSculpty), and a plugin called Subtool Master. *2k has let us know that Subtool Master is no longer necessary when using the zSculpty plugin.

I got a bit carried away in this video and ended up spending more time sculpting than teaching. :)  I do tend to get a bit sidetracked when I sculpt. I’ll be creating another video on this same topic that is a bit more concise and informative. I decided to post this one anyway since there is plenty of useful info stuffed in between my digital doodlings. :D

I’ve been using this awesome Image Plane plug-in for several weeks now, and thought I would demonstrate how it’s used. I also demonstrate how to use the zBrush ClonerBrush when working on the 2.5D painting canvas.

Image Plane allows you to place a texture on the background canvas, while keeping your 3D object active and editable. You can also drop your object to the canvas then lay the texture over top. It really saves time and smooths out the workflow when texturing objects in zBrush. Thanks to zBrush user marcus_civis for this awesome, free tool!

Download this video: 640×480 Quicktime or iPod

As a part of my efforts to help people find and use the Sculpty Maker object converter, I’ve created a new tutorial. This video covers the very basics of using Sculpty Maker. How to create the proper objects in zBrush, export them, convert, and upload to SL. Future tutorials will cover more advanced uses of SM, including textures, animation, and multiple object creations.

If you have watched any of my sculpted prim tutorial videos, then you’ve probably heard me talk about Sculpty Maker. It’s a shiny set of tools that make it easy to take objects created in zBrush and convert them into sculpties in Second Life. The person who created these tools was having some troubles finding a place to host the files, and he didn’t really have the time to offer support for the tools. So, I’ve volunteered Shiny Life as Scultpy Maker’s new home.

I’ll be hosting all of the files, as well as answering  any questions that you might have about Sculpty Maker – at least the ones I’m able to answer. :) I’m also in the process of creating some new tutorials specifically geared toward getting you up and running with zBrush and Sculpty Maker as quickly as possible. So all of you zBrush adventureres, head on over to the new Sculpty Maker home page and get sculpting!