Hello all! I am actually a complete beginner in Zbrush and with 3d modelling as a whole.
My question comes down to, How do I make eyelashes similar to that which you could find on many anime models? I know that many just use textures for the face but I also see some use mesh like the miku model used here (the lucky orb video) and the Atelier games also use mesh, it looks like. How do I get that kind of look in Zbrush? Or would it be better to do it in another program? I like the kind of painted-on look they have (I think most likely due to textures, but they’re very well aligned) but I can’t seem to align them right or get them to look right at all really.
My sculpt for reference (no eyelashes):
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I think that would be difficult to rig facial expressions with the kind of face mesh i created. It has eye sockets, so rigging with textures like that seems like it might be difficult to make it look good, if that makes sense. For example, moving the textures around might deform them if I don’t do it carefully enough. I think I figured out a method though, after a loooot of trial and error yesterday. I can post the result later today when I get a chance but I think I’ll need to texture it to really see if it looks how I want it to.
I am going to try out just painting on textures (as opposed to modelling on eyesockets, etc.) with different models I make in the future and seeing what I like best, though. I just want to have some flexibility, i suppose.
My bad, I thought I had responded to you earlier. I’m still learning how to use zbrush central, so sorry for that. I posted a response to your question in the thread instead of as a direct response to you, I think. I’ll also be posting an image of what I eventually came up with in the thread.
Here’s what I ended up coming up with. I think I’ll probably edit the mesh a bit, but I used a custom brush (DE Hair tubes, I beleive). I made two meshes and joined the curves together then the actual meshes together with Dynamesh then remeshed them to make the mesh more workable. If anyone has any tips, please send them my way!
Ok, if your intent is to animate, then the obvious thing to do would be to make them a separate piece of geometry. Since you want the lashes to be flat, solid, and stylized, the geometry would be fairly simple.
There are many ways to do this. I can show you how I would do this. It’s not difficult (takes me under a minute), but it requires you to understand a number of concepts and tools in ZBrush, as well as some basic 3d modeling concepts. I’d encourage you to learn the fundamentals of the program first, or else everything else you try to do will be more difficult, and it will be very difficult to answer questions for you if so much of the program needs to be explained as part of the answer.
I would use a low poly modeling approach here, because low poly geometry is the easiest to control without distortion, and makes very crisp, clean curves. It also results in a very versatile piece of geometry that can be easily ported between programs or adapted for many uses. A high poly piece of geometry would be difficult to sculpt on so slender a shape, and would need to be retopologized into a low poly mesh eventually anyway for most purposes. See the attached image.
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I would start with the Topology Brush and just draw the general shape of the brow out on any convenient surface near the eye. We’re aiming for just a very simple shape here with the bare minimum points we need to define the curves.
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With the topo brush draw size set to 1 (the minimum value), when you click on the mesh now, it will generate the new geometry with no thickness (a 2d piece of geometry). This will make it easier to control at first.
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The resulting geometry will be generated as a part of that subtool, so we first need to split it off into its own subtool. One of the split options like “split similar” in the Tool > Subtool menu will split it into its own subtool.
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Now with the lash as its own subtool, I would use the move brush to pull the points to where I want on the eyelid, and to create the shape of the lash.
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This shape will not yet make a smooth curve. It would need to be subdivided to smooth. However, subdividing at this point would complicate what I’m trying to do, so instead I’m going to use Dynamic Subdivision to preview what the mesh will look like when it is subdivided. Unlike regular subdivision, this won’t change the actual geometry.
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When I get the shape the way I want, it’s time to give it some thickness. If you need to hyper-optimize your mesh for animation purposes, you can get rid of the extra polygons at some point, but Zbrush works much better internally with 3d meshes with some thickness.
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With ZModeler set to Polygon> QMesh> All polygons, Im going to click on it and give it a very thin extrusion so the shape is now 3d.
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When you view the mesh now in polyframe mode, it should be composed of the of 3 cleanly separated polygroups–a front, back and side. Each of these polygroups should be bordered by a dotted line. This indicates the presence of creasing, which tells Zbrush to keep those edges sharp when subdividing. If everything was done correctly, this should all be set up already to give you those nice sharp edges, but you should be aware of this feature when working at low poly. Again, you can use Dynamic Subdivision to preview the effect of any creasing.
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Use Tool > Geometry > Modify Topology > Mirror and Weld to duplicate the lash on the other side of the face. Note that Mirror and Weld only works in one direction, so it may sometimes be necessary to first flip a mesh to the other side by using Tool > Deformation > Mirror in order to mirror the side you want.
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When satisfied, subdivide the lashes to smooth them, or use the “apply” function in the Dynamic Subdivision menu to automatically generate subdivision levels based on the Dynamic Subdivision settings.
Wow, I really appreciate you going so in-depth! I will definitely try this out as soon as i get the chance! I’m really excited to try it out as it seems I might get a better result doing that than what I had been trying. If I have any questions, is it okay to ask you about it later? No problem if you don’t want me to, just thought I’d ask 
Answering questions to the best of our ability is what we’re here for.
Although do try to limit your questions to a single subject at a time, just to keep things focused.