Place new ZSpheres at the join areas of the model, namely the shoulder, the crotch, and optionally the neck. Placing a sphere on either side of the knee and elbow joints gives us three edge loops close together – the optimal amount for bending in animation. You can add a ZSphere to an existing section by holding control and clicking on the section while in edit mode (Fig.11b – Fig.11c).



12. The next – and final – stage is to create the hand. The process is roughly the same as with the whole character but it needs to be a little more precise in the layout of the ZSpheres. We are creating mid-sections that will serve to create the palm and finger joints (Fig.12a – Fig.12d).





13. Follow along using the video and screenshots as references to lay down the ZSpheres. Once all are in place, it's important to check the adaptive skin [A] and adjust the hand to anatomically correct proportions as much as possible. Creating a natural, relaxed pose here will be of great benefit to us later (Fig.13).


14. Our character base mesh is now built and ready to be exported into our 3D application. No UVs have been set up yet, as we will do that inside our 3D application later. Before we can export we must turn our preview mesh into a usable one by simply clicking the Make … (Fig.14a).


This just created a duplicate model, which ZBrush swapped the active tool to and began using as the primary model. This new model needs to be converted to a PolyMesh3D object which we can export. Under the Tool menu, click Make Polymesh3D (Fig.14b).



Now all that is left is to click Export (in the Tool menu), give it a name, and save into your project location ready for the next step.

15. Congratulations on creating your base mesh so far (Fig.15). With the knowledge learnt from this section you will be able to create a base mesh for almost any organic object and know how to create an optimal mesh using Adaptive Skin! In the next step we will take the exported model into our 3D application, give it new topology, and perfect the shapes and forms ready for sculpting and animation. Please continuing reading for Part 1B.