A Better ZBrush Neuron

image of pyramidal neuron model in zbrush by michelle davis

A few months ago I worked on a neuron on ZBrush, and I built it pretty much entirely from a zspheres skeleton. It got the job done, but it was tedious, and I wasn’t able to add the level of detail I really needed without relying on Photoshop.

Fast forward to now; a much better way is to use Fibermesh. A full tutorial will be posted eventually on the technique, but for anyone pretty familiar with zbrush, the workflow is:

•Create really simple neuron body zspheres (just a 1 or 2 major branches)
•Layer Fibermesh dendrites – make the largest branches, then add smaller fiber branches on to those, and so on.
•Add dendritic spines as a fibers as well

I’m not sure how this model would play out exported to other programs, but at least staying within zbrush I got much better results. See a few renders* of the improved pyramidal neuron below!

*Compositing and color adjustments in photoshop, but entire structure done entirely in zbrush.

image of pyramidal neuron model in zbrush by michelle davis

image of pyramidal neuron study in zbrush by michelle davis

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