The latest Zbrush release added some amazing new features to the already powerful sculpting application. Even though users were waiting for version 5, ZBrush 4R8 indicates a clear direction to where things are headed. Probably one of the most looked at features so far is the Live Boolean and Vector Displacement Mesh features.
Zbrush VDM lets you use vector based displacements like any other brush in Zbrush. It is very much like the insert multi mesh brushes. With it you can build your own custom library of brushes with a variety of vector displacement meshes and switch between them on the fly.
There is much more to the latest Brush than using vector displacements as brushes —A lot more. Also new are 3D Gizmos that offer a standard (and non standard) way to interact with 3D shapes in Zbrush. Not you can move, scale and rotate objects with an on-screen manipulator, much like you can in other 3D applications. Interestingly, you can create your own Gizmos by using a cult as the manipulator which is kind of a cool customization.
Have a look at Michael Pavlovich’s playlist where he covers a lot of the release features for 4R8. There are 45 videos in the playlist, and growing. The videos cover the new Gizmos, how to create then, and other new features. Dive deep into live booleans, Alpha Streaks, Alpha Brushes and other listed features. Great resource!
