Introduction to ZBrush 2026

A Complete Guide to Learning ZBrush with Madeleine Scott-Spencer

This workshop offers a comprehensive introduction to ZBrush by Maxon, designed to take artists from complete beginner to a confident intermediate sculptor, painter, and creative problem solver.Madeleine Scott-Spencer begins with a quick-start lesson that guides artists through navigating the interface and understanding digital-sculpting workflows, demonstrating how to create a detailed creature bust from scratch. Along the way, artists will gain a solid technical foundation in ZBrush’s tools and techniques, and will also learn how to apply them effectively to achieve artistic goals.

Beyond simply demonstrating tools, this workshop emphasizes core artistic principles, such as gesture, form, proportion, color theory, and shape language. Maddie’s focus is on showcasing how to use ZBrush as well as how to channel artistic vision through its powerful toolset, bringing core artistic considerations into powerful digital tools.

Throughout the lessons in this workshop, artists will explore a wide range of workflows, including organic sculpting, anatomy studies, and the use of both standard and custom brush sets. Maddie also teaches how to import meshes from third-party applications and export work for rendering outside of ZBrush, as well as how to handle lighting and rendering within the software itself.

Additional topics include posing, hard-surface modeling, and hand-painting creature skins, along with techniques for projecting photo reference into high-quality texture maps. Key plugins are covered in depth, including UV Master for efficient UV generation and Transpose Master for creating dynamic poses.

Maddie also covers several other tools in ZBrush, including building custom brushes, alpha detailing for skin texture, Insert Mesh brushes, DynaMesh, PolyPaint for texture painting, Booleans and hard-surface modeling, Array mesh and instances, FiberMesh for hair and fur, and much more. 

With over 20 years of experience using and teaching ZBrush, Maddie has developed a proven, time-tested approach to helping artists learn and master its unique and powerful workflows. These are the same techniques she applies in her professional work on major VFX projects such as Pacific Rim 2, The Witcher, and Black Panther, as well as in her teaching at Gnomon, where she has guided hundreds of artists toward mastering the software.

Whether your goal is illustration, 3D printing, or integration into pipelines using tools like Unreal Engine, Autodesk Maya, or Blender, this workshop provides the essential workflows needed to master ZBrush. With included support files, you’ll be able to follow along step-by-step and build practical, production-ready skills.