Tutorial — Starting a Head and Base Body in ZBrush

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How to start a historical figure's head and base body in ZBrush so they go cleanly through Mesh to MetaHuman. This covers the first hours of work: reference, scale, primary forms and export. It does not cover finishing a portrait; see the likeness courses in ZBrush — Tutorials.

Draft. Written for ZBrush 2026.x (2026.2.1, June 2026). Validate on the first figure and correct menu names here.

1. Choose a starting point

Start When Why
A. From a MetaHuman (recommended) Every production figure The head already has correct scale, eye sockets, a sealed mouth and realistic proportions. You only sculpt the likeness
B. From scratch (sphere or DemoHead, DynaMesh) Learning; unusual faces; when an artist prefers it Full freedom, but you have to meet the MetaHuman input rules yourself
C. Body from a Mannequin or ZSpheres Only when the MetaHuman body presets don't fit the figure Builds an A-pose body quickly for From Custom Mesh

Start A, step by step:

  1. In MetaHuman Creator, pick the preset nearest the figure's age, build and face shape.
  2. Export it with DCC Export.
  3. Import the head (and the body, if needed) into ZBrush as an OBJ.

Here the topology may change, because the sculpt is solved again through Mesh to MetaHuman. That is a different case from the no-topology-change round trip (Tutorial — ZBrush No-Topology-Change Round Trip). Even so, keep the MetaHuman topology as long as you can: it keeps landmarks where the solver expects them.

2. Reference set-up

  1. Collect the reference:
    • the dated images in the likeness log;
    • the historian's notes, including which images are mirror-reversed daguerreotypes;
    • measurements if any exist (height, hat or glove size).
  2. Load front and side images with Spotlight (Texture palette → Add to Spotlight). Set Spotlight's opacity low and turn Spotlight off (Shift+Z) while sculpting.
  3. Alternatively, put the images on the background grid: Draw → Front/Back and Left/Right image planes.
  4. Read ZBrush — Likeness and Age Research first: mirror reversal, colour sensitivity and lens matching.
  5. Treat photographs as evidence, not truth. Lens distortion, retouching and long exposures change faces. Note in the likeness log each decision you make between conflicting images.

3. Scale

4. Head: primary forms first

Work in this order and don't jump to detail:

  1. Symmetry on (press X) for the primary forms. Turn it off later only for asymmetries that are documented.
  2. Start B only:
    1. Start from a sphere or DemoHead in LightBox.
    2. Turn on DynaMesh at a low resolution (around 128) so you can move volume freely.
    3. Add eyeballs as separate sphere subtools straight away (about 24 mm across, white sclera). The sockets and eyelids must fit real eyes.
  3. Big shapes: use the Move brush for the skull, jaw, cranium-to-face ratio and head tilt, compared against the side view.
  4. Planes: use ClayBuildup and hPolish for the brow ridge, cheekbones, the sides of the nose and the chin.
  5. Features:
    • eyelids meeting the eyeballs, eyes open, sclera visible;
    • lips sealed with no gap;
    • nose and nostrils clearly formed;
    • ears, blocked in with Move and DamStandard.
  6. Age: match the dated self (for example Mitchell at 29 for 1847). Age sits mostly in fat pads, eyelid folds, the nasolabial fold and jowls. Keep wrinkles for the detail maps.
  7. Skull and hairline only. Don't model hair, beards or brows as geometry.
  8. Check against the reference often:
    • rotate to the camera angle of each photograph;
    • use Draw → Angle of View to roughly match the lens;
    • flip the model left to right to catch lopsidedness.

Where to stop: the head reads as the person at thumbnail size from front, three-quarter and side views. Fine likeness is finished in Creator and the Expression Editor, not here.

5. Base body

  1. Default: use the MetaHuman body preset closest to the figure from Creator. Most figures need nothing custom.
  2. A custom body (unusual height, build or posture evidence) goes through From Custom Mesh:
    1. Start from a Mannequin (LightBox → Project/Mannequins), or draw a ZSphere armature.
    2. Pose it in the MetaHuman A-pose: arms down about 45°, fingers apart, feet flat and slightly apart.
    3. Use Adaptive Skin (ZSpheres) or convert the mannequin to a mesh, then DynaMesh.
    4. Block in the anatomy: rib cage, pelvis, limb proportions, hands and feet.
    5. Nude or tight-fitting only. Sculpt the body under a corset or coat, not the garment.
  3. Proportions come from the evidence, for example a recorded height. Where there is none, use period averages, which were shorter than today's. Write down the source.

6. Prepare for export

  1. Start B: once the forms are done, reduce with ZRemesher or Decimation Master:
    • keep it under about 200,000 vertices if you want FBX;
    • use OBJ above that.
  2. Start A: export the MetaHuman-topology mesh as it is.
  3. Polypaint a flat, unlit albedo if you have one; front-facing, even lighting is fine.
  4. Keep the eyes and head as separate subtools; turn on Combine Meshes when importing into Unreal.
  5. Run the export checklist in ZBrush — Sculpting for MetaHuman.
  6. Save a .ZPR project and a versioned OBJ: AT_<Figure>_<Age>_sculpt_v###.obj.

7. Practice exercise

  1. Using Start A, turn a MetaHuman preset toward an adult portrait with good documentation (a public-domain portrait).
  2. Keep a likeness log that records each image used and each decision.
  3. Export it and run it through Mesh to MetaHuman. Compare front and side renders with the reference.
  4. Record what the solver kept and what it smoothed away. That list is where the Expression Editor work will go.

Sources