Zculpt documentation

Overview

Familiar sculpting, ordinary Blender data

Zculpt brings ZBrush-style navigation, brush access, Tools and SubTools, Transpose and painting into Blender. Sculpt strokes use Blender’s native brushes. Objects, Collections, Multires and materials remain Blender data, and your project stays a .blend.

Quick start

Start with a sculptable mesh

Workspace & ZPanels

ZT-Panel and ZN-Panel

Enabling Zculpt adds its workspace without rearranging your original one. Follow Sculpt Mode opens Zculpt when you enter Sculpt from another workspace. Leave it off to switch workspaces yourself. Back to Previous and Exit Zculpt return you to the workspace you came from.

ZPanels are Zculpt’s two side panels. The left ZT-Panel replaces Blender’s T-Panel (toolbar) and gathers brushes, stroke and colour controls. The right ZN-Panel replaces Blender’s N-Panel (sidebar) and organizes Tools, SubTools, Geometry, Masking and Polygroups. A disabled action shows the condition that must change before it can run.

The dedicated Paint Mode button sits beneath Follow Sculpt Mode. Choosing a paint brush in the Sculpt library is not how you enter the layer workflow: use that button, as described under Paint Mode.

Sculpting workflow

Brushes, strokes and colour

Masking & visibility

Protect or isolate part of the sculpt

A mask reduces deformation; hidden geometry is removed from view. Use Ctrl with your mask brush or chosen Box/Lasso gesture to mask, Ctrl+Alt to unmask, and Ctrl-click on the background to invert. Ctrl+W creates a Face Set from the mask and clears the mask. Face Sets are Blender’s closest equivalent to ZBrush Polygroups.

Ctrl+Shift provides visibility selection: click to isolate or show, or drag a Box/Lasso. The gesture is drawn in the viewport where you started it, so views with different perspectives can stay open together. Use Show All to reveal the whole surface.

Blur and Feather

Choose a filter in Masking, then use Apply Filter or Ctrl-click on the model. It affects the visible mask as a whole, not just the point you clicked. Blur · Radius % spreads existing grey values over a distance relative to the object. Repeated clicks add smoothing. Feather · Width % rebuilds a soft boundary, with Centered, Inside and Outside directions; repeated applications add width.

With Dyntopo, Blur uses Blender’s native Smooth Mask and a Blur Passes control. Feather requires a regular base mesh. With subdivided Multires, Blur processes the highest stored level even if a lower one is displayed; lowering the visible level does not make it cheaper. Feather is not available on Multires.

Multires Blur: use Show All first. Fine hidden boundaries cannot be preserved by this operation. Dense masks can take seconds, and the maximum is five million grid samples, including shared-boundary samples. In Blender 5.2, Undo after Show All can also leave a few boundary faces visible; to return before an isolation, undo Isolate before using Show All.

Tools & SubTools

Organize native Blender objects

A Tool is a marked Blender Collection. A SubTool is a Mesh Object linked directly to it. Use the Outliner to organize them and the SubTool list to select and order your working pieces. The row immediately below the active SubTool matters for Retopo, Project and MergeDown.

New creates a Tool with a sphere. Adopt Collection brings an existing local Collection into the workflow. Rename, reorder and duplicate through the list and Outliner controls. Removing membership keeps the object; deleting an object or a Tool with its contents is a separate action whose confirmation describes the effect.

The Tool and Subtool lists have icon buttons on the right: arrows to reorder, + to create, duplicate and a trash can. Hover for each action’s name and explanation. Tool order is saved per Scene without moving Collections in the Outliner. The Tool trash can removes the container and keeps its objects; the Subtool trash can deletes the active object. Tool/Untool remains beside the Tool list.

Del Other, shown as × beside the Subtool list, keeps the active SubTool and deletes the other direct mesh objects of that Tool, including hidden ones. The confirmation identifies what stays, what will be deleted and any affected links or references. It supports objects with Multires and other modifiers, because it deletes whole objects instead of rebuilding meshes. Locked or read-only targets block deletion; leave Solo or Ghost first. Cancel keeps the scene, and Blender Undo restores the deletion. Meshes and materials left without users are not automatically purged.

Eyes control visibility. SoloT isolates a Tool, and SoloS isolates a SubTool or a selection from the same Tool. Transp and Ghost change how inactive pieces are displayed so you can work through overlapping forms. Turn off a temporary isolation before reorganizing its contents.

Merge pieces into one SubTool

Open Subtool → Merge in the right ZN-Panel. MergeDown joins the active SubTool with the row immediately below it, keeping the lower object’s name, origin and transform. Both rows must be visible and editable; an unavailable lower row is never skipped. MergeVisible joins the visible SubTools of the current Tool into the active one. Hidden pieces stay untouched, while an incompatible visible piece blocks the operation.

The confirmation shows the destination and any restrictions. Enable Keep Originals to create a merged copy while keeping every source; otherwise, the other source objects are removed after the merge succeeds. Like Blender’s Join, Merge combines geometry in one mesh. It does not weld vertices or perform a Boolean union. Merge Selected into Active remains available through the Outliner selection actions.

Split a SubTool into pieces

Open Subtool → Split. Masked extracts faces whose average mask is above Mask Threshold (0.5 by default); Unmasked extracts its complement. Hidden extracts hidden faces and keeps them hidden: reveal them on the new piece to inspect it. Face Sets separates pieces by Face Set ID, Blender’s equivalent to Polygroups. Enable Keep Original to preserve the complete source; otherwise, the source keeps the remainder, or the lowest Face Set ID. You need two non-empty parts or at least two Face Sets. The pieces retain their position, much like Blender’s Separate command.

Merge and Split use the base mesh without modifiers. Multires, including at level 0, and other modifiers block the operation; they are never applied automatically. Shape Keys, shared or linked mesh data and incompatible attributes can also block it, with an explanation before any change. Each confirmed operation uses Blender Undo. The empty Boolean group is hidden; Zculpt does not currently provide Boolean controls. The empty Sculpt Layers group is also hidden; editable painting layers remain available in Paint Mode.

Outliner context: keep one View Layer Outliner in the window for editing Tool organization. With no suitable Outliner, or two competing ones, actions can be disabled. Old virtual SubTool folders are no longer part of the workflow; Review Migration flattens those records while preserving the objects.

Transpose

Line and Gizmo 3D

Press W, E or R for Move, Scale or Rotate. Choose the action Line or Gizmo 3D in the tool header. They share a pivot and orientation. Line ends define its direction and anchor; outer controls place it, and inner controls transform the affected surface.

With the gizmo locked to the mesh, arrows move along its axes, the grey frame moves in the view plane, and rings rotate around the pivot. The centre scale control scales uniformly; coloured boxes scale by axis. Alt temporarily frees the gizmo to move or reorient it without deforming the mesh. The persistent lock control provides the same placement state. Scaling is unavailable while unlocked.

Alt-click on the surface places the gizmo at the clicked polygon and aligns it to the normal; that point also becomes the orbit pivot. LOC centres it on the visible, mostly unmasked region. POS moves mesh and gizmo to the world origin; ROT aligns them to world axes. Alt/unlocked makes POS and ROT affect only the gizmo. STI returns the gizmo to its starting frame after a locked Move or Rotate while keeping the mesh transformed.

Esc or right-click cancels a drag. A confirmed transform on a regular base mesh uses Sculpt Undo; placing only the gizmo does not create mesh history. Ctrl at the start of a locked Move duplicates the visible, not fully masked geometry inside the same SubTool, moves the copy and masks the original. Duplication requires a local, unshared mesh without Shape Keys or other modifiers; Multires is allowed only when it stores no subdivision levels.

Working with Multires and Dyntopo

Gizmo Move on Multires works at the active level and preserves its detailed mask and hidden boundary. You can start orbiting over a hidden part of the model. Rotate, Scale and Line temporarily use the base cage and restore the previous level afterwards. Their hidden boundary follows the coarse cage and cannot preserve a fine Multires cutout. Those transitions can introduce extra Undo boundaries; the gizmo frame does not yet fully follow Undo for Multires Move.

On an eligible Dyntopo object, Transpose temporarily suspends dynamic topology. The header shows that state and offers Restore; if entry could not suspend it, use Disable Dyntopo for Transpose. This lets you transform the existing surface, not dynamically add detail during the drag.

One sculpt object at a time: SUBT exposes Active, Visible and All, but a selection requiring simultaneous deformation of multiple meshes is blocked. Shape Keys, shared or linked mesh data and unsupported modifier stacks can also prevent a transform. Use the reported reason; changing the displayed Multires level alone does not remove stored subdivision data.

Geometry

Subdivide, remesh and choose resolution

SDiv adds a Multires subdivision, creating the modifier when needed. The level arrows and LVL move through existing levels; the base is level 0. Del High removes levels above the current one. These controls are shared with Geometry, like ZBrush’s subdivision controls.

Voxel Remesh rebuilds a surface at a chosen voxel size. Coarser and Finer adjust that size; a smaller size creates more geometry. Dyntopo changes topology locally while sculpting. They are Blender operations with different purposes from Multires; active Multires prevents incompatible remesh or Dyntopo operations. Changing topology can also invalidate a previously created Paint surface.

Del Low: keep the chosen level as the new base

Blender’s Multires has no native Delete Lower command. Zculpt rebuilds the retained hierarchy using a separate standard Blender process, preserving the upper sculpt detail. A progress dialog explains the work and keeps you informed. Expect a wait: a dense production example took about 18 seconds on a Ryzen 9 7950X; that is an example, not a time guarantee. Other meshes and machines can take longer.

Use Show All first, choose the level to retain and click Del Low. The chosen level becomes 0 and the higher retained levels are renumbered. UVs at the chosen level are retained; Blender smooths them again above the new base, so upper-level textures may shift slightly. Fine hidden Multires boundaries are not preserved.

While Del Low runs: let the operation finish before editing. Escape cancels the background work; the final transfer has a short stage that cannot be interrupted. A failure keeps the original and reports the cause. Removing the level used by existing Paint layers may prevent re-entry; keep the compatible hierarchy or recover it with Undo.

Retopo

Draw a new surface over a reference

Retopo is manual quad building on a reference surface, comparable to Blender’s Poly Build workflow. It is not automatic remeshing. Select the destination SubTool and place the reference Mesh immediately below it in the list, then activate Retopo.

Shift-drag on the reference to draw a quad. Pull boundary edges to extend the patch and drag corners to fit the form. The preview distinguishes the element under the pointer; further controls provide cuts, sliding, removal and relaxation. Ctrl temporarily disables snapping. Empty-area drags navigate the view, and Esc exits Retopo.

Retopo edits real Blender mesh topology in Edit Mode. Use an empty or low-poly destination with at most 20,000 faces, its own editable mesh data, and no Shape Keys, Dyntopo or Multires modifier. Keep the reference in Object Mode. Once the low-resolution surface is ready, use Project to fit or recover reference detail, optionally adding Multires levels. Retopo and Project are separate steps: drawing topology does not automatically transfer all sculpt detail.

Project

Transfer shape and sculpt detail

Project fits the active SubTool to the Mesh immediately below it in the list. Like ZBrush’s SubTool Project, it transfers surface shape; in Blender terms, it combines projection along normals with retained Multires detail. Align both objects approximately, open Subtool → Project and check Reference.

Start with a short Distance, especially around lips, fingers or folds, and increase it only where needed. Points without a hit are kept. Project also keeps points when moving them would fold or collapse a face. It affects the whole surface, including masked and hidden parts; a mask does not limit projection influence.

You can project the same retopology again, with or without Multires. An empty animation Action or one animating only object location, rotation and scale does not prevent it. Stop playback first. At completion, the previously displayed level returns, the reference is unchanged, and Undo restores the earlier result and level count.

Limits: the destination must be one local, unshared mesh without Shape Keys, Dyntopo or constraints, with no modifier or one enabled internal Multires. Other target modifiers are not supported. The panel checks the reference stack too. The maximum is two million faces for each of the evaluated reference and highest target level, with a 4 GiB additional-memory estimate. Estimates exclude some Blender memory. Escape cancels between calculation steps, after the current native step finishes.

Extract

Make a shell from a mask

Extract creates a plate, helmet or garment from a masked region, like ZBrush’s Extract → Accept or Blender’s Mask Extract followed by Solidify. Mask the source, open Subtool → Extract, set Thickness and click Extract. The blue shell is a temporary preview; Accept turns it into a new SubTool in the same Tool and makes it active in Sculpt.

A face is included when all its vertices are at least half masked. Hidden faces are excluded. Thickness is measured in Blender world-space units and extends along the normals, with side walls around the boundary. The edge follows the mesh faces: this operation does not automatically smooth, project or add a refined border.

Changing Thickness removes the preview; click Extract again to rebuild it. Navigation, Escape, changing the source, Undo or saving also discards an unaccepted preview. Accepted pieces are ordinary mesh objects and are saved normally. Undo removes the accepted piece and returns to the source.

Base meshes only: active Dyntopo, Shape Keys and Multires with stored levels are not supported. Multires with no levels can remain. Apply or disable other visible modifiers first; their deformations are not included. Excessive thickness or concave surfaces can produce intersections.

Paint Mode

Paint layers, then apply textures

Paint Mode uses native vertex painting on a separate, editable surface, much like Polypaint in ZBrush. It works with and without Multires. There are Color, Roughness and Opacity channels, each with a base and up to three additional layers. Painting detail depends on surface density.

Layer controls

The blend modes are Normal (NOR), Multiply (MUL) and Overlay (OVR). A layer’s Opacity slider controls its contribution to the stack; the separate Opacity channel is the material transparency map. Roughness and Opacity are painted in grey: white means rough or opaque, and black means smooth or transparent.

The brush icon switches between Paint and a uniform Fill; switching back recovers the strokes. Erase removes paint coverage, Shift smooths the active target, and Clear clears paint or resets the selected mask. Airbrush continues depositing colour while held still.

The mask control cycles through [ ] → [B] → [W] → [ ]: create a black mask, reset to white, then remove it. Black hides a layer’s contribution and white reveals it. To edit an existing mask without resetting it, use Mask or Shift-click its control. Click the layer name to return to its paint. The base layer can be edited, hidden and copied, but not deleted or reordered.

Levels, preview and output

You can sculpt the same topology, change displayed levels, and add or remove levels above the retained Paint level. Re-entry uses that saved resolution and preserves the layers. Deleting the Paint level itself, changing base topology, removing Multires or adding incompatible modifiers can block entry. Restore a compatible hierarchy using Undo or a saved file; a hierarchy warning does not mean that adding any higher level loses your painting.

Blender 5.3 can show the latest colour painting while you sculpt after returning from Paint. Blender 5.2 supports Paint, layers and Apply to Textures, but does not provide that Sculpt preview. Layer painting uses Material Preview and studio lighting, so it can look different from a Sculpt Matcap.

Apply to Textures bakes the visible blend, masks and layer opacity into Color and any used Roughness/Opacity channels. Missing or overlapping UVs get a prepared map while existing UV data is kept. Applying again updates the output; returning to Sculpt in 5.3 previews recent paint without overwriting the last applied images. Exit Paint before switching SubTools or using Blender’s exporters.

Resolution and time: initial Paint preparation is limited to eight million faces and a 3 GiB estimated surface budget, not total Blender memory. The 4K bake can take seconds and consume several additional GiB. Escape is handled after the current native stage. Undo can include an extra boundary such as Paint before Apply to Textures or Paint before Layer Change to keep layers and texture links together.

View controls

See the surface you need

F alternates between fitting the active SubTool’s visible geometry and all visible meshes. It keeps the viewing direction and fits the free canvas between the panels. Hidden geometry does not expand the fit. In Sculpt with Dyntopo active, this visible-geometry framing asks you to disable Dyntopo first.

Persp switches perspective/orthographic and adapts the viewport lens during close-ups; it does not change the scene camera or exactly reproduce ZBrush Auto Crop. Floor places a view grid under the Tool’s bounds. PolyF shows Face Set colours. Wire follows the original control edges over the subdivided Multires surface, including Paint, and uses native wire at the base level.

SoloT and SoloS isolate Tool and SubTool, restoring their saved visibility when switched off. They can work together. LSym is experimental local symmetry centred on object bounds: it temporarily changes the origin and restores it when disabled. It requires a local, unshared mesh without Dyntopo, modifiers, constraints, children or animation, and is not a single Undo action.

ZRef

A reference board beside the sculpt

Widen the left ZT-Panel beyond its second width to reveal the reference frame. Drag image files into it or use right-click → Add images…. Move an image by its interior, resize from an edge, and rotate from a corner. Shift snaps rotation in 45° increments from its starting angle; dragging a resize edge past the opposite edge mirrors the image.

Alt-click samples the visible image colour into Main Color. Toggle Color Palette shows ten recent colour swatches; pin a swatch to keep it, then click it to reuse it. Images, board layout and pinned colours are saved with the project.

Images are packed by default. In the ZRef preferences, Copy new images to chooses an external folder for future imports; keep that folder with your project. Changing the setting does not relocate existing references. ZRef currently supports still images, not video playback.

Removing a reference: Escape, Delete or X with a selected image and the pointer inside ZRef removes it, including ZRef’s external copy when unused elsewhere. The original file you imported stays intact. Right-click cancels a move, resize or rotation. Escape on the selected colour palette hides it without deleting its swatches.

Core shortcuts

Essential Sculpt gestures

These are Sculpt bindings. Paint, Retopo and ZRef have their own gestures described above. Outside those contexts, Blender keeps its ordinary shortcuts.

Compatibility

Blender versions and current limits

Zculpt is developed on Linux x64 with Blender 5.2 LTS and Blender 5.3 Alpha. Individual tools have different coverage: Project, Extract and the object-distance mask filters have been checked on 5.2; that does not establish every workflow on 5.3. The Sculpt preview of Paint specifically requires 5.3.

Not yet tested on native Windows, macOS or Linux ARM64, nor every tablet model and display scale. The object-distance Blur path for larger meshes is unavailable on Linux ARM64. Blender 5.3 is still an Alpha, so use a saved copy when moving a project between Blender versions.

Multires is supported, with operation-specific boundaries described above: Move can use its active sculpt surface, cage transforms have coarser visibility, Del Low takes time, and Extract requires a base mesh. Paint resolution and Project budgets are separate. Smooth Sculpt interaction on a dense mesh does not imply instant topology reconstruction or texture baking.

Release notes

What changed

Recent changes in published releases. See each release’s notes for the changes included in your download.

View all releases →

Future ideas

Proposals, not current tools

Transforming several SubTools together with one Sculpt Undo action and playing video references in ZRef remain proposals. They are not available controls in the current add-on. Colour picking, Paint layers, still-image references, Retopo, Project and Extract are available within the limits described in this guide.