ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy [Paperback]

This book is an excellent follow up to all previous zbrush books. Why?, two reasons...One, it refers to zbrush version 3.5 which has some major changes from previous zbrush versions. But the greatest joy is in following the tutorial of a "realistic hero" character. My lady friend always asks me about all other zbrush books..."why do all the characters look ugly?" the answer is simple. It's far easier to create an alien or an ogre. But now Scott Spencer enables us non academically educated artists to create a somewhat life-like character. This is no easy task, but Mr. Spencer enables even a non artist like myself to do so. I no longer have to create aliens and ogres and can actually create a character that is aesthetic to the layperson's eye! BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF ZBRUSH IS A MUST! So keep that in mind. But once you understand the zbrush interface and you are comfortable with the basic standard, clay, inflate, and flatten brushes, you will love this book. Hopefully, the next version will be of a "life-like" female superhero.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE along with "The Essential" by an author who now advocates mudbox. ZSpheres have come a long way with v.3.5 zspheres2 so he might regret leaving zbrush. BTW...There is no info on zsketching in this new Scott Spencer book, but nevertheless, your skills will grow leaps and bounds as an artist (digital sculpturist) as he does a great job explaining gesture and form as well as detail.

Hey there!

I don't have enough words to describe what this book is! Where should I start? The book is perfectly structured! The way Scott Spencer is explaining is not dumbed down like you see on some learning sources, but in the same time is clear as tear drop. He is not wasting any word, instead he manages to touch upon every aspect you might think of. While reading some chapters, certain questions were poping in my mind, but every and each of them were answered eventually later in the book.
The videos are made in the same manor. Clear, on spot, supporting you with everything he can (models, Ztools, reference images, proportions literately drawned by him ready for you to take them into Maya or Zbrush with you while you build your base mesh and many many more).
All in all, I must reiterate this, it is the bible you need when you start learning Zbrush and modeling. It is a resource that you will use to start with and, I'm sure, you will get back to later on just to use as a reference to whatever you might sculpt.
Now, the DVD issue. I know some people complained about Sybex quality on the DVD... I share your opinion in some way but I found a solution and it worked for me without any problem. Here is what I did: Inserted the DVD, opened the autoplay, clicked on Chapter 1 which opened a window with the files allocated for the given chapter. I selected them and copied in a folder on my hard disk. After this, I did the same with everything. When I was done copying all of them, I extracted the files on every chapter and there it was: good to go and being on my hard there was no waiting time what so ever. I saw some guy complaining about the sound... There is no sound issue! So if you find this problem than it has to do with your codecs (TIP: use VLC player since I find it to have a higher max volume than BsPlayer or Windows Media Player. Usually at 60% in VLC is louder than 100% in BsPlayer.).
The last bit, I recommend everything Scott Spencer did. I also got his other 2 books and they are the same. Start with this one since this is the foundation you need in sculpting and than move ahead and continue with the other 2 books. On top of this, if you can find his Zbrush 4 Introduction from Gnomon Workshop you won't regret. I watched it quite late, after I was already quite familiar with the program and it still showed me quite a lot of things I didn't know.
The only problem I have? A negative side of what Scott Spencer did? He has only 3 books out... He is only one...

P.S: Subjects touched in his books that I could not find in other resources or I couldn't find a decent way to understand them:
DISCLAIMER: This is from a personal point of view, and from what I searched so if there are other sources I didn't manage to get to feel free to correct me.
1) UV mapping - Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting
2) Normal Maps, Displacement Maps, Texture maps and Uv Master in ZBrush - Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting
3) Topology and remeshing in Zbrush - ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy
4) A well structured path from easy to complex when it comes to Anatomy, Body Landmarks and Anatomy terminology in sculpture - ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy
5) All the proportions across the body you will ever need in humanoid sculptures and even in creature developing - ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy
6) A logic way of explaining STRUCTURE and why is so important (or in other words, how to avoid a lumpy look when you sculpt) and the other two most important considerations when sculpting: Gesture and Proportion - ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy
7) Small techniques that are implied in various places but no one is bothering with explaining them in an elaborate manor and even further, demonstrate their utility - ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy
And many many more!

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I do! Happy Sculpting!

Regards, Dan Mihaila

I'm new to zbrush and indeed any 3d application, so suffice to say, I really needed a resource that would hold my hand through the process of getting to grips with zbrush. Scott Spencer doesn't assume you know everything and he also assumes that people will jump in to random chapters and expect to understand how the software works. Thanks to Scott's careful handling, even if you do jump in too deep you will soon find yourself on firm ground as Scott reiterates keystrokes and mouse clicks needed to perform exercises. Two notes of caution: firstly, the book is based on a previous release of zbrush so users of zbrush 4r3 or later would be WELL advised to couple this book with Zbrush character creation 2nd edition also by Scott Spencer. Secondly, zbrush is addictave; don't buy any books on zbrush unless you are prepaired to cease functioning as a normal human. I would also highly reccomend Introducing zbrush 4. If you buy the ebook, zsupporting Dvd can be downloaded from booksupport.Wiley.com. thankyou for a hugely enjoyable learning experience.