Crytek artists detail use of ZBrush in Ryse: Son of Rome development
Character artists from Crytek discuss the technical workflow and ZBrush integration used to build the visual assets for the Xbox One title.
Ryse: Son of Rome served as a launch title for the Xbox One, acting as a technical benchmark for the platform's graphical capabilities. The production relied heavily on digital sculpting tools, with artists at Crytek utilizing Maxon's ZBrush to craft the game's high-fidelity character models.
According to the development team, the shift to a historical setting provided a departure from the studio's previous work on contemporary military shooters. Artists focused on replicating hand-crafted materials and distinct faction aesthetics, leveraging ZBrush’s sculpting brushes to manage complex geometric detail.
The transition to the Xbox One hardware allowed for higher-resolution assets and increased polygon counts. These resources supported the integration of real-time cloth physics and complex facial pipelines, which were essential to achieving the game's visual presentation.