How to use VDM brushes in Blender

How to use VDM brushes in Blender
(Image credit: Paul Hatton)

So, what are VDM brushes? The acronym stands for Vector Displacement Maps and is a feature that’s been part of ZBrush and Mudbox for a while, but has now found its way into Blender’s sculpting tools with Blender version 3.5. So before you start, make sure you’re using version Blender 3.5 or later. It simply won’t work in any earlier versions.

Using a downloaded VDM

Our main steps explain the manual process for setting up a brush using a texture that you’ve downloaded. Sometimes brushes and associated textures will be contained within a downloaded Blender file. In that instance, all you need to do is Append the Blender file to your working file, making sure that you navigate into the Brushes folder when you’ve managed to locate the items you want to append.

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Paul Hatton
Writer

Paul is a digital expert. In the 20 years since he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Computer Science, Paul has been actively involved in a variety of different tech and creative industries that make him the go-to guy for reviews, opinion pieces, and featured articles. With a particular love of all things visual, including photography, videography, and 3D visualisation Paul is never far from a camera or other piece of tech that gets his creative juices going. You'll also find his writing in other places, including Creative Bloq, Digital Camera World, and 3D World Magazine. 

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