Zculpt Documentation

Zculpt brings familiar sculpting navigation, Tools and SubTools, Transpose, retopology, projection and layered painting workflows into Blender while keeping your project as ordinary Blender data.

For detailed instructions, limits and tool-specific workflows, visit the complete documentation:

https://outlierlabs.dev/zculpt/docs/

Requirements

• Blender 5.2 LTS

• A visible and editable Mesh object

• Currently tested on Linux x64

Blender 5.3 adds Sculpt Mode preview for Zculpt Paint layers. Other Zculpt painting and texture-generation features are available in Blender 5.2.

Installation

1. Download the supplied Zculpt ZIP archive.

2. Do not extract the ZIP.

3. In Blender, open Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions.

4. Open the menu and choose Install from Disk.

5. Select the Zculpt ZIP and complete the installation.

6. Install future updates using the same procedure.

Quick Start

1. Select a visible, editable Mesh object.

2. Open the Zculpt workspace.

3. Press B to open the brush library.

4. Sculpt directly on the model.

5. Drag on the background to orbit around the object.

6. Hold Space and drag to change the brush radius and strength.

7. Create a Tool and organize its objects through the SubTool list.

Zculpt can also adopt an existing Blender Collection as a Tool.

Workspace and ZPanels

Zculpt adds its own workspace without rearranging your original Blender workspace.

The ZT-Panel on the left contains brushes, stroke controls, colour controls and ZRef.

The ZN-Panel on the right contains Tools, SubTools, Geometry, Masking, Polygroups and related operations.

Disabled actions explain which condition must change before they can be used.

Sculpting

Zculpt uses Blender’s native sculpt brushes and ordinary Blender mesh data.

• Press B to open the full brush library.

• Hold B to open the compact brush pie.

• Hold Shift while sculpting for temporary Smooth.

• Hold Alt to invert or subtract where supported.

• Hold Ctrl to paint a temporary mask.

• Hold Ctrl + Alt to remove mask.

• Hold Space to adjust radius.

• Hold Shift + Space to adjust strength.

Brush profiles, recent brushes and Sculpt/Paint brush selections are managed separately.

Masks, Visibility and Face Sets

Masks protect areas of the surface from deformation, while visibility controls hide geometry completely.

• Ctrl + stroke: Mask

• Ctrl + Alt + stroke: Unmask

• Ctrl + click on background: Invert mask

• Ctrl + W: Create a Face Set from the mask

• Ctrl + Shift + click: Isolate or reveal geometry

• Ctrl + Shift + drag: Box or Lasso visibility selection

Zculpt also provides Blur and Feather filters for refining mask transitions. Availability depends on the active mesh, Multires and Dyntopo state.

Face Sets are Blender’s closest equivalent to ZBrush Polygroups.

Tools and SubTools

A Zculpt Tool is a marked Blender Collection. A SubTool is a Mesh Object linked directly to that Collection.

Use the Tool and SubTool lists to:

• Create and adopt Tools

• Add, duplicate, rename and reorder SubTools

• Control visibility

• Isolate a Tool or SubTool

• Merge compatible pieces

• Split by mask, visibility or Face Sets

• Delete individual or inactive SubTools

The SubTool immediately below the active one is used as the reference for operations such as Retopo, Project and MergeDown.

Transpose

Press:

• W for Move

• E for Scale

• R for Rotate

Transpose can use either the traditional Line or Blender’s Gizmo 3D. Both share the same pivot and orientation.

Alt-click on the surface places and aligns the gizmo to that location. Holding Alt temporarily unlocks the gizmo so it can be repositioned without deforming the mesh.

Transpose supports regular meshes and specific Multires and Dyntopo workflows. Some operations temporarily use the base cage to preserve stability.

Geometry and Multires

Zculpt provides direct access to:

• Multires subdivision

• Subdivision-level navigation

• Delete Higher

• Voxel Remesh

• Dyntopo

• Del Low

Del Low rebuilds the Multires hierarchy so that the selected level becomes the new base while retaining higher sculpt detail. Dense meshes can require significant processing time.

Changing topology can invalidate an existing Paint surface, so save your project before major topology operations.

Retopo

Retopo lets you manually draw a new quad surface over a reference mesh.

Place the reference Mesh immediately below the destination SubTool and activate Retopo. Use Shift-drag over the reference to create quads, then extend and adjust the surface using the Retopo controls.

Retopo creates real Blender mesh topology in Edit Mode. It is a manual quad-building workflow, not automatic remeshing.

Once the low-resolution surface is complete, use Project to transfer the reference shape and sculpted detail.

Project

Project fits the active SubTool to the Mesh immediately below it in the SubTool list.

It can:

• Project only the current level

• Process all Multires levels

• Add missing Multires levels

• Adjust the base cage

• Search inward, outward or in both directions

• Preserve points where no safe projection is found

Start with a short projection distance around lips, fingers, folds and other close surfaces, increasing it only when required.

Extract

Extract creates a new shell from a masked area, suitable for plates, garments, helmets and similar forms.

1. Mask the desired region.

2. Open Subtool → Extract.

3. Set the Thickness.

4. Click Extract to generate a preview.

5. Click Accept to convert it into a new SubTool.

The accepted result is an ordinary Blender Mesh object.

Paint Mode

Zculpt Paint Mode uses native vertex painting on a separate editable surface. It supports:

• Color

• Roughness

• Opacity

• A base layer plus three additional layers per channel

• Normal, Multiply and Overlay blending

• Layer opacity

• Black and white layer masks

• Paint and Fill modes

• Packed 4K texture output

Enter Paint Mode using the dedicated button below Follow Sculpt Mode.

The sculpt’s current resolution on first entry determines the Paint surface resolution. Painting detail therefore depends on mesh density.

Apply to Textures creates packed 4K images and connects them to the Blender material while leaving the Paint layers editable. Save the .blend file to preserve the generated images.

ZRef

ZRef provides a reference-image board beside the sculpt.

Widen the ZT-Panel to reveal it, then drag images into the board or use right-click → Add images.

You can:

• Move, resize, rotate and mirror references

• Sample visible colours with Alt-click

• Store recent colour swatches

• Pin important colours

• Pack references into the project

ZRef currently supports still images, not video playback.

Essential Shortcuts

• B: Brush library

• Hold B: Compact brush pie

• Shift + stroke: Smooth

• Alt + stroke: Invert or subtract

• Ctrl + stroke: Mask

• Ctrl + Alt + stroke: Unmask

• Space: Brush radius

• Shift + Space: Brush strength

• W / E / R: Transpose Move / Scale / Rotate

• F: Frame the active SubTool or all visible meshes

• X: Toggle the current symmetry combination

• Ctrl + W: Create a Face Set from the mask

• Ctrl + Shift: Visibility and isolation gestures

• Background drag: Orbit

• Alt + background drag: Pan

• Ctrl + Alt + background drag: Zoom

These shortcuts apply inside the relevant Zculpt context. Outside Zculpt’s Sculpt, Paint, Retopo and ZRef workflows, Blender retains its normal controls.

Compatibility and Important Limits

Individual operations can require a local, editable and unshared Mesh without Shape Keys, incompatible modifiers or active Dyntopo.

Retopo, Project, Extract, Multires and Paint each have their own topology, face-count and memory limits. Zculpt reports why an operation is unavailable before changing the mesh.

Read the complete documentation before using topology-changing operations on production work:

https://outlierlabs.dev/zculpt/docs/

For support, contact:

[email protected]