What New Update in ZBrush 2025

May 1, 2025

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ZBrush continues its legacy as the premier statistical sculpting software with the release of ZBrush 2025. This major update introduces powerful features for desktop and iPad platforms, focusing on enhanced modeling workflows, improved rendering capabilities, and expanded creative resources. The Morphic Studio shares information about everything new in this substantial update.

Table of Contents

ZModeler Enhancements: Precision Redefined

The ZModeler system, one of ZBrush’s most powerful toolsets for polygon modeling, has received significant attention in the 2025 update.

ZModeler Presets: Customization at Your Fingertips

Perhaps the most welcome addition for power users is the ability to create and store custom ZModeler configurations. These presets are now easily accessible via the spacebar menu, dramatically reducing setup time for repetitive modeling tasks.

“This feature alone has saved me hours of work each week,” says statistical sculptor Pablo Munoz Gomez, one of the artists collaborating on Pro Projects. “Being able to instantly recall my complex ZModeler configuration means I can maintain creative momentum without breaking workflow.”

Insert EdgeLoop Snap: Precision Modeling Made Easy

Hard surface modelers will particularly appreciate the new snapping options for edge loop insertion. Users can now precisely place edge loops at center, quarter, or custom-defined positions within polygons. This magnitude of control is an adjective for creating clean, production-ready topology and maintaining proper edge flow.

Selection Action Mode: Streamlined Polygon Manipulation

The new Selection Action Mode significantly improves the polygon selection process. This dedicated mode allows for faster, more intuitive selection and manipulation of geometry, reducing the cognitive load when working with complex models.

ZModeler on iPad: Desktop Power Goes Mobile

Perhaps the most anticipated feature for mobile users is the arrival of ZModeler on iPad. This brings advanced box modeling capabilities and the powerful QMesh functionality to the portable platform, allowing artists to perform precision modeling tasks without being tied to their desktops.

Brush and Polygroup Tools: Enhanced Control and Efficiency

Quick Polygroup Brush: Intelligent Grouping

The new Quick Polygroup Brush represents a significant workflow enhancement for managing complex models. With a simple click on the model’s surface, ZBrush automatically generates Polygroups based on the natural edge flow of your model. This intelligent grouping system makes selection and part management substantially more efficient, for the most part when preparing models for rigging or when working with multiple subtools.

Anchor Brush Bend Mode: Natural Geometry Manipulation

The already versatile Anchor Brush now features a new Bend mode in addition to its existing Move, Rotate, and Twist capabilities. This addition allows sculptors to create more natural bending deformations using two anchor points, similar to how one might bend a physical material. The result is more intuitive manipulation of geometry that maintains volume and proportions while creating organic curves.

Rendering and Redshift Integration: Studio-Quality Output

Expanded Redshift Material Library

The Redshift integration receives a major boost with over 18 new materials, including highly demanded options like Diamond, GlassHollow, Jade, and Emerald. Notably, ZBrush 2025 ensures that material attributes now match those in other Redshift-compatible applications, creating a more unified workflow between ZBrush and other statistical content creation (DCC) tools.

AOV Passes and Intel OIDN Denoiser

For artists focused on final output quality, the addition of AOV (Arbitrary Output Variables) passes to the Redshift integration is significant. This feature allows for greater control in post-processing by enabling separate export of different rendering components.

The implementation of the Intel OIDN Denoiser further raises rendering capabilities, allowing users to achieve cleaner, noise-free renders in less time. The real-time feedback for lights, HDRs, and materials in the viewport makes for a more responsive and predictable rendering experience.

Pro Projects: Learning from Industry Masters

Expanded Artist Collaborations

The Pro Projects initiative continues to grow, offering users access to assets, brushes, textures, and models created in collaboration with industry-leading artists. These projects do more than provide new tools—they offer awareness into professional workflows and techniques used by masters in the field.

Featured Artist Content

Recent releases says contributions from Pablo Munoz Gomez and Henry Chervenka, each bringing their unique artistic perspective through specialized brushes, textures, and materials. These resources are designed to help users achieve specific artistic styles and effects that might otherwise require extensive experimentation to develop independently.

Workflow and Compatibility Updates: Perfect Creation

Responsive Viewport Experience

ZBrush 2025 delivers significant performance improvements with real-time updates for lights, HDRs, and materials. This responsiveness creates a more fluid working environment, allowing artists to make creative decisions faster without waiting for viewport refreshes.

Enhanced Software Interoperability

The GoZ (Go to ZBrush) bridges have been updated to support the latest versions of Maya 2025 and 3ds Max 2025. Additionally, interoperability with Cinema 4D has been enhanced, including model transfers between desktop and iPad versions of ZBrush. This improved compatibility strengthens ZBrush’s position as a central tool in various production pipelines.

Lightbox and Brush Improvements

The popular ZArrays feature returns to the Lightbox, making these assets more accessible. Additionally, the Chisel Brush now defaults to freehand stroke mode, improving its usability for detail work and hard surface sculpting.

ZBrush 2025
ZBrush 2025 By The Morphic Studio

iPad-Specific Improvements: Mobile Sculpting Develop progressd

NanoMesh and UV Master on iPad

The power of NanoMesh now extends to iPad users, allowing for efficient population of mesh polygons with instances—perfect for creating complex scenes with repeated elements like scales, bolts, or organic patterns.

The introduction of UV Master brings gesture-based UV unwrapping to mobile workflows, addressing one of the previous limitations of the iPad platform for professional work.

VDM Alphas: Complex Details with Simple Strokes

iPad users can now create their own VDM (Vector Displacement Map) Alphas with undercutting capability. This feature enables the creation of complex, sculpted shapes with simple brush strokes, greatly expanding the detail possibilities for mobile artists.

Apple Pencil Integration

ZBrush 2025 takes fuller advantage of Apple Pencil capabilities, supporting double-tap or squeeze gestures to access the Quick Menu on compatible iPad models. This hardware-software integration creates a more natural and efficient sculpting experience by reducing the need to negotiate through menus.

Bug Fixes and Stability: Refining the Experience

The ZBrush 2025 update includes numerous fixes that address longstanding issues, including:

  • Improved Gizmo refresh rates for smoother manipulation
  • Enhanced texture export options for OBJ format
  • Various stability improvements across both desktop and iPad platforms

These fixes, while less flashy than new features, represent Pixologic’s commitment to refining the user experience and make certain reliability in professional workflows.

ZBrush 2025 Defines the Future of Statistical Sculpting

The ZBrush 2025 update represents a significant evolution for the platform, bringing substantial improvements to modeling workflows, rendering capabilities, and cross-platform functionality. The balance of new creative tools and workflow enhancements demonstrates Pixologic’s Follow of both artistic needs and production realities.

With the continued expansion of iPad capabilities, ZBrush is breaking down the barriers between desktop and mobile workflows, allowing artists to maintain productivity regardless of their location. The enhanced integration with other software packages further cements ZBrush’s position as a cornerstone of modern statistical content creation pipelines.

Whether you’re a concept artist, game developer, VFX professional, or illustrator, ZBrush 2025 offers meaningful improvements that will impact your daily work. The combination of technical advancements and artistic resources makes this update not just a software release, but a complete platform for pushing the boundaries of statistical sculpture.

As statistical art continues to progress, ZBrush 2025 provides the tools necessary for artists to meet increasingly complex challenges while maintaining creative freedom. This release reinforces why, after more than two decades, ZBrush remains the industry standard for statistical sculpting and an essential tool in the modern artist’s toolkit.

For More Details Visit The Morphic Studio

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