Scenario Zbrush Stylized

ZBrush stylized characters and collectibles

Expert stylized work is anatomy simplified on purpose: real landmarks and proportions as the baseline, a few named exaggerations, and shape-language rules an agent can measure on a silhouette. Curves are the agent's best tool: strands, clumps, straps and scarf tails come from computed 3D paths, so a "tweak" regenerates a path instead of sculpting it. If a sibling skill named here is missing from your available skills, ask the user to install it (npx skills add scenario-labs/skills --skill <name>); unattended, proceed from tool schemas and flag the gap.

REQUIRED BACKGROUND: scenario-zbrush-expert (bridge, stroke engine, review loop, 2026 traps).

Stance (the expert delta)

• Shane Olson: stylizing is not "an excuse to do bad anatomy". Block a stylized skeleton by the bony landmarks that touch the surface (hip point, knee, both ankle bones, elbow, clavicle tops, base-of-neck vertebra, sacral triangle, skull) and drop bones that never show. Every departure from real proportion is a named knob measured against the real value (the knee halves the leg, hands land at mid-thigh); move knobs carefully, because motion exposes them.
• Guillaume Tiberghien (Keos Masons): "simple is hard". Add anatomy, then simplify. Stylized means clear directional planes chipped like wood or rock, changes of direction creased so they stay straight when subdivided, and forms tucked into each other for small contact shadows. No color until the modeling is tight.
• Rakan Khamash (Blizzard): shape language is a rule set, not taste. S and C curves, no parallel lines, no 50/50 splits (push 70/30), flare at the top and taper at the bottom, rest areas next to detail, and "say it or don't": the character must read from the back of the room. The blockout is 90 to 95% of the low poly.
• Cedric Seaut (Keos Masons): start from silhouettes; a lineup of several designs forces distinct shapes.
• Pablo Munoz Gomez: plan hair chunks before sculpting, then carve one long stroke per clump from one angle. DynaMesh a little above the picker's value, Polish 2 and ClayPolish get you "80% there".
• Dan Eder: hair chunks are rig sections. Lay one tube strand per clump on a temporary mass, one polygroup per strand, front to back. Never Smooth a strand. Build a parted style without symmetry, then mirror it. Switch MatCaps to find gaps.
• Paul Bennett (Hasbro): a toy is a product. Sculpt the neutral standing design with no joints first; articulation is spheres and discs camouflaged by the costume; walls never below 1 mm; fuse flyaways; no closed loops such as touching fingers; state the file scale (104% for PVC shrink).

Establish first

Workflow

1. Design sheet. Write each knob as a number against its real value (a big nose: nose_third, brow to nose base over a third of the face, real 1.0; a heavy brow: brow depth; long shins: femur_tibia). Take each value from the concept; without one, push the named feature until it survives the 64 to 128 px thumbnail read, and record it. Write the three reads (Rakan): the silhouette idea, the secondary shapes that carry intent, the tertiary detail. Plan hair chunks and the part line. GATE: every knob has a target and a reason.
2. Silhouette first. Block two or three primitive variants (scenario-zbrush-sculpting) and render them with zb_review.review. GATE: lineup() IoU under 0.85 between variants [added]; the chosen one reads at 64 to 128 px (squint()).
3. Stylized skeleton by landmarks. Perspective off for everything orthographic (Shane: it skews masking, clipping and mirroring). Rules:
   • cranium plus jaw, split at the eye line; jaw corner under the ear at mid head depth;
   • head sides: from the top the head is not parallel-sided, so clip the cranium sides until the head narrows toward the face (Shane 02:00:26), then give each side an arc, not a flat plane (02:11:58). Agent: a two-point ClipCurve stroke in the orthographic top view or Deformation Taper on the cranium SubTool (both [verify]), then a Move or clay pass for the arc;
   • eyes: eyeball spheres first, lids wrapping them, each turned a few degrees outward (scenario-zbrush-sculpting P17); the outer corner well behind the inner one (check from the top);
   • pelvis leaning forward, ribcage leaning back, femur angled in, tibia straight. GATE: head_checks and body_checks on subtool_boxes() pass, or each failure is a recorded deliberate break; head_taper() on a top render of the cranium alone; front and side ortho renders against the concept; a three-quarter perspective look render (zb_sculpt.persp_snapshot_code) for the eye sockets.
4. Merge and plane.
   • DynaMesh the blockout at 128 to 256 (remesh_code, scenario-zbrush-sculpting); cut planes with broad hPolish or TrimDynamic strokes (forgiving, so scripted strokes work); tuck forms into each other. ClayPolish works as a global planar filter [added for forms; Pablo uses it on hair].
   • Keep the planes through subdivision (Guillaume 00:46:42 to 00:47:50): ZRemesher the merged parts for a sculptable topology, then crease the plane borders so they "remain straight" when subdivided: crease_planes (Groups By Normals, Crease PG, CreaseLvl), then Divide by level discipline (scenario-zbrush-sculpting P15). Creases are edge tags: any later DynaMesh or ZRemesher needs them again [added]. GATE: shape_language() on front, side and three-quarter silhouettes: no parallel pairs, straight fraction at most 0.25, noise at most 4 flips per 1000 px (defaults [added]); no band_breaks() break in the 45 to 55% band; no dips under MatCap Metal01 (Plouffe); after Divide the creased borders stay crisp in a grazing view.
5. Secondary shapes and props (scarf, straps, belts).
   • Rings and bands from scenario-zbrush-sculpting, knots and buckles off-center (70/30).
   • Tails and straps as curve ribbons: lay_strands with sides=0 (Curve Flat, Pavlovich) or 4 for a strap; paths from march_strand with gravity, bent into an S.
   • Folds only where pressure or joints put them (Rakan). A scarf that needs weight gets a Dynamics cloth drape (scenario-zbrush-character-creature), then its folds restated. GATE: each tail classifies S or C in the front view (classify_polyline); no parallel tails (strand_report).
6. Hair. Strands for rigged or game hair; the sculpted mesh for stills, prints and single meshes. Both plan paths on an OBJ export of the mass (P3 to P5).
   • Plan: roots_along the part line and hairline, directions_away from the part, plan_strands with alternating C and S bends and vary() lengths; draw it with overlay_paths on front, right and top renders and look at it (Pablo polypaints chunks; Dan paints sections on the concept).
   • Sculpted (Pablo, P4): scalp_shell; fat CurveTubes per chunk, DynaMesh a few hundred to fuse; one stroke_from_view ClayBuildup stroke per clump from its best_view (sculptris=True); Dam_Standard Zsub along each crevice_path; rebalance; finish_hair.
   • Strands (Dan, P5): a tiny dummy SubTool inside the head (Pablo); one CurveTube per strand, front to back, more lift in front; Auto Groups; strand_mesh_report; mirror a parted style after. GATE: the plan shows no parallel neighbors and designed kinds read in the right and top views; hair reads at a squint; the five review views (top shows the parting) under two MatCaps show no gaps or clipping; rest areas stay calm.
7. Asymmetry, value, color handoff.
   • Deliberate asymmetry pass: knot, fringe, a brow.
   • Guillaume's grayscale read (value_check): no pure black or white, strongest contrast at the face; before color, only darker lashes and pupils.
   • A material ID plan with distinct colors per material; polypaint at the top level, judged on the flat SkinShade4, since MatCaps lie about hue and value (Pablo VRisbJQAaZw 00:23:40, 00:24:54).
8. Product constraints (toy or collectible).
   • toy_scale (height / 12 plus 4% for 6 in; / 18 for 3.75 in);
   • feature_check of strands and thin forms at print scale (1 mm walls, 0.5 mm trimmed edges);
   • hair a separate part keyed to the head, flyaways fused, strands bunched for repeatable paint; no closed loops, slits in skirts. Do not over-sculpt past what the print size shows (Carratala, 90 mm).