Tips on How to Sculpt Clothes & Folds in ZBrush

If you visit 3D artist Kirill Senzu's ArtStation page, you'll find plenty of stylized characters clad in detailed outfits. To reach the highest level of clothes sculpting is not easy, but Senzu has some tips that might help you.

In the first part of his series, he shared the brushes he usually uses in ZBrush as well as some tricks for making different types of folds, pants, belts, and pockets.

Orb_Cracks, Gio, and Move are the brushes you need to create believable folds. To make compression folds where the arm or leg is bent, the artist recommends envisioning elongated chain links across the surface gradually compressed by gravity. This should help you understand how fabric behaves.

Tension folds where the fabric is stretched can be made by drawing an inverted triangle shape, "which relaxes more as it moves away from the point of tension." You can see Senzu's process in the image below:

To create belts and straps, the artist usually uses ZModeler and Move brushes:

If he needs to make pockets, he first takes a cube, removes the top polygon, and uses the Move brush to give it a more "crumpled" shape. He then makes another cube, removes excess polygons, and shapes it into a cover for the pocket (or bag). Then he adds some edges and uses Dynamic SubDiv and Crease to adjust the thickness. Finally, he adds some details and colors.

To see how he deals with pants, check out the full description here. Also, join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.