Here’s a text, I had posted on the internet a couple of months ago. If you have used ZBrush, then you would know how ZSpheres work and how flexible and fun to use are. I did some experiments in Blender and understood how could ZBrush would generate mesh out of ZSpheres. It’s like Box Modeling around the volume of the ZSpheres and then apply a subdivision modifier.
A Simple Tutorial
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Create an armature and set it’s display to Envelope (to be able to change the size of joints) and place some bones.
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Create a Mesh (Plane) and go to edit mode and delete the face (keep only vertices and edges). Apply the cage plane accordingly:
- At the very end of each bone joint drop 1 plane. Taking in consideration the rotation (flow) and the size of the joint.
- When many bones are connected in a single bone joint, then either connect them directly, or connect them in a cube-like way or try to satisfy box topology with custom shapes.
- When we have finished creating the mesh cage, then we start forming the mesh surface and make the model solid. (Be aware to use the Skin Faces plugin here in order to be more productive). Finally! We have a proper box model ready.
Additional notes
Here is a blend file with some examples, according to my opinion they are very fundamental shapes. Combinations of basic shapes can result progressively to more complex structures.
blender-zsphere-modeling-style.blen.blend (540 KB)
Try this method and have fun!
If you have any suggestions to make it better respond and I will try to refine it.
