A solid base mesh, marking the major landmarks, and final detailing Top tip - Know Your Materialīefore diving into sculpting, make sure you reference your material with real world examples, or a series of great photo reference images. In this example, you can see the multiple levels of detail taken when sculpting a jacket. Finally, once the fold work has been completed, I take a pass on the sculpt to add finer details, add wear and tear, and refine the fabric seams with stitches and smaller tension folds.

From here, I move on to marking out the major areas of compression and construction seams throughout the article of clothing. In this example, I am creating a tighter leather jacket, beginning with a base mesh that roughly resembles a jacket. Once you have gathered a library of reference images, and have studied your targeted fabric, it's time to move on to ZBrush. Here you can see the major folds are located in compression areas with more subtle details throughout the model Stages of Sculpting Fabric

The final product of sculpting a leather jacket in ZBrush. It is a common mistake by artists to rush into the detailing stage – resist the temptation! Build a solid base that reads as the proper fabric, and keep refining there will be plenty of time to noodle with the details. Once this has been observed, it takes layering up your sculpt with the proper details, marking key points of compression and tension, and finally refining details. The key to creating great fabric sculpts is to know the material you are trying to reproduce, how it behaves under the law of gravity, how the thickness of the fabric appears, and typical ways that it rests on the body. In this quick tip of the day, Lead Character Artist, Gavin Goulden will give you pro examples and advice on how to create believable fabric in the digital sculpting software, ZBrush

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