ZBrush's Interface is Getting a Redesign

ZBrush's very 'non-standard' interface is receiving a major redesign, as I learned from a recently published 30-second teaser on Maxon ZBrush's YouTube channel. As I've been learning and using ZBrush almost exclusively ever since I got into 3D character art, I thought I'd share the news and offer some thoughts on this announcement.

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The End of an Era

One of the first things I noticed when I started learning ZBrush in 2021, and had it open for the very first time in my life, was its very... interesting user interface. It was like no other interface I'd ever seen in any software. Apart from feeling fairly intimidating at first, I thought it just looked old. Like what I imagined 3D software from the early 2000s would look like. And actually, if you go back in time and look at its interface from that era, you'll notice that its design has barely changed in the past 20 years (take this tutorial from 2008). It’s been a point of discussion on many occasions when browsing through forums, posts, or comments. My personal perception is that the interface is either met with aversion, especially by beginners, or really loved, usually by more experienced users.

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Personally, I always liked ZBrush’s interface, at first for its quirkiness, but later especially for its customisation capabilities. And, of course, over time, you get used to it and start developing muscle memory, which makes navigating much easier. Though I agree that, from a purely design standpoint, it does look outdated and is certainly far from beginner-friendly.

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ZBrush's First Redesign (for iPad)

Last year in September, Maxon released a ZBrush version for the iPad with a complete UI redesign, giving its interface a more modern and significantly cleaner look, especially for making more space for the sculpt in progress. The UI was reduced to vertical and horizontal toolbars with a sleek design and new icons, while still maintaining its customisation capabilities known from the desktop version. This was a necessary step to make room for all its functionalities on the smaller screen of an iPad, while also adapting to a touchscreen-based navigation and input.

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A New Standard

With the iPad version's redesign now being in use for two ZBrush versions, Maxon is aiming to adapt the desktop interface to the design principles established in the iPad version, as already teased in the Day 2 video from the 2025 ZBrush Summit (at 08:50:22). As one might imagine, this is a huge task to take on, as also mentioned in the video, describing this project as one of the biggest ever for ZBrush.

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In a brief showcase, the video introduces new features, such as Modes, which are sculpt modes allowing users to switch between core brush types, and a contextual interface that adapts in real-time to the current sculpt mode. According to Maxon, this redesign is also going to take ZBrush's customisation to a next level, making it even more customisable than the current version. The legacy design will remain available, as I understand at least at the beginning of this transition, as newly introduced and released features will be available for both user interfaces, allowing users to switch between them.

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Some of the showcased features are also planned to be released for the iPad version, so both platforms will receive these announced updates in the future, with the goal of making them as similar as possible. However, when exactly this will happen remains unclear, as the phrasing of a future release was kept quite vague. In another teaser published about five hours before I wrote this post, Maxon released another 30-second video showcasing the UI overhaul animation as seen in the ZBrush Summit video. Though no details about its release were given, with "Coming Soon!" being the only reference to a future launch in the title. Some expect it to be released in ZBrush 2027.0 next fall, or even later.

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Personally, I believe it was about time for ZBrush to receive a UI overhaul, and I sort of expected it to happen ever since the release of the iPad version. I sadly didn’t have the chance to test it out yet, but I’m certainly curious to see and work with the desktop’s redesigned interface, once it's out.