SculptForge

The free, open-source alternative to ZBrush.
Digital sculpting for VFX, animation and games on Linux, macOS and Windows, with free built-in AI:
an AI brush creator and image/text to 3D.

Website & demo videos · Download · User guide · Features · Build from source · Contribute · Discord · Membership

SculptForge is a free, open-source alternative to ZBrush: a focused sculpting app with the brushes, symmetry and navigation ZBrush artists already know. It costs nothing, has no subscription, runs natively on Linux as well as Windows and macOS, and comes with source code you can change. It starts instantly, works offline, and fits into game and animation pipelines: sculpt a character, generate its LODs, sculpt blend shapes, and send it straight into Unreal Engine. AI comes built in and free: describe a brush and the AI brush creator (Brush Lab) builds it, or turn a sketch, concept art or a description into a sculptable model. No account or key is needed. Prefer your own? Plug in Claude, fal.ai or Meshy, or run models entirely on your own machine.

Coming from ZBrush?

SculptForge doesn't read ZBrush's proprietary .ZTL/.ZPR files directly. Bring models over with Send to ZBrush (.GoZ files keep face groups, mask and vertex paint), as OBJ, FBX or GLB, or convert a ZTool library once with the SculptForge ZTL Export plug-in for ZBrush, after which SculptForge opens the .ZTL files.

Status: early release (v0.8). The core sculpting, pipeline and AI features work and are tested on every commit. Version 0.8 adds dynamic topology (Sculptris Pro style: brushes add triangles where they need them), vector displacement brushes, Quad Remesh Guides and sculpt layers on every subdivision level; 0.7 added ZBrush-style keys and gestures and a Blender bridge add-on; 0.6 halved the memory and made the view twice as fast on huge meshes (see the changelog).

Features

An interface ZBrush users can find their way around

• Task menus (File, Edit, Sculpt, Paint, Mesh, View, Render, Help) in the Forge Terminal look by default, or the ZBrush-style layout with alphabetical palettes in one click (Preferences > Interface > Look)
• Shelves around the canvas, palettes holding every tool, a Library (,) of thumbnails, the brush picker (B, type letters to pick), hold-Ctrl help on every button, a command palette (F3) and a script console (`), and a fully customizable layout with Store Config. See docs/ui-design.md.
• A built-in user guide (Help > User Guide, Shift+F1) with search, also on the website; hold Ctrl over any control and press F1 to open its chapter. Source: docs/guide.

Sculpting

• Standard, Clay, Smooth, Move, Inflate, Crease, Flatten, Pinch, Sharp Crease, Clay Block, Tendril, Trim, Layer and Nudge brushes; X/Y/Z symmetry; tablet pressure; ZBrush-style modifiers and navigation.
• Stroke types (dots, drag-rect, spray, lazy mouse) and brush alphas (built-in or any grayscale image).
• Masking (Ctrl to paint, invert, blur, sharpen, grow/shrink, mask by cavity or face group) that every brush respects.
• Face Groups and visibility with ZBrush-style gestures: auto groups, Ctrl+Shift isolate / hide, rectangle hide, delete hidden.
• Parts: keep the body, eyes, teeth and armour as separate meshes, each with its own undo history. You can append a sphere, cube, plane or model file, show/hide, solo, reorder, duplicate, merge and split (by face group or by piece), and Alt+click a Part to select it. Projects, OBJ, glTF, FBX, USD and GoZ-compatible files keep them as separate objects.
• Gizmo (W Move, E Scale, R Rotate): move, scale and rotate a Part, or only its unmasked part with a soft falloff for posing a limb at its joint; Shift snapping, numeric entry, All Parts, one undo step per drag.
• Vertex Paint (Paint brush, RGB while sculpting, fills, cavity paint) and six Lit Sphere materials.
• Texture painting on UV maps: Auto UV (xatlas) unwraps any sculpt, then the Paint brush paints a 1K-8K texture with the same paint layers and blend modes; vertex paint and texture convert both ways, and OBJ, glTF, USD, FBX and GoZ-compatible exports write the PNG next to the model.
• Project files (.sfproj) that keep everything, with an unsaved-changes prompt, recent files and autosave.
• Unlimited undo, Loop subdivision, voxel remesh (DynaMesh-style) and quadric decimation.
• Quad Remesh quad retopology (ZRemesher-style: target count, Adaptive Size, Keep Groups, vertex paint density, symmetry) and Project All to bring the sculpted detail back onto the new topology.
• Sculpt layers that work as blend shapes, with live weights and playback.

Free built-in AI: Brush Lab (describe a brush, AI builds it)

• "Dry cracked mud", "overlapping dragon scales", then "make it sharper". Brushes are recipes (data, never code), with every value exposed as a slider. They're kept in your brush library; share them as .sfbrush files or one-line brush codes (right-click > Copy brush code, Ctrl+V to paste one). Studios share a folder through SCULPTFORGE_BRUSH_PATH, and the community gallery installs brushes in one click (Brush > Community brushes). See docs/brushes.md.
• Free out of the box: no account or key. It uses an open model (GPT-OSS 20B) hosted by Pollinations.ai, and falls back to a local Ollama when you're offline.
• Or bring your own: Claude (Anthropic API) or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including private local models through Ollama or LM Studio (5-minute setup for Windows, macOS and Linux).

Free built-in AI: Generate 3D from an image or text

• A sketch, a piece of concept art or a description becomes a full 3D model (limbs, back and all), then gets remeshed so you can sculpt it straight away.
• Free through the official Hugging Face demos of Hunyuan3D 2 / 2.1, TRELLIS.2 and Stable Fast 3D; or your own ComfyUI (local or a studio GPU server) running any workflow, with ready-made Hunyuan3D 2.1 workflows included; or paid with your own fal.ai or Meshy key; or plug in any local model. See AI services & model licences.
• Offline tools as well: silhouette blockout, relief, and stamp-from-view.

ComfyUI, both ways

• Generate models in SculptForge with any ComfyUI workflow on your own machine or GPU server (docs/comfyui.md).
• The ComfyUI-SculptForge node pack brings SculptForge into ComfyUI graphs: voxel remesh, decimate, LOD chains, and GLB / FBX / USD / OBJ / STL export, working with ComfyUI's own Hunyuan3D mesh nodes (islandmed/ComfyUI-SculptForge; in ComfyUI-Manager use Install via Git URL).

Game & animation pipelines

• One-click LOD chains; blend shapes survive on every level.
• Send to Unreal (Ctrl+U) imports or updates the asset in a running Unreal Editor, on this computer or another one on your network, with no plugin to install. Static meshes come with LODs, skeletal meshes with morph targets. See docs/unreal.md.
• FBX (binary 7.4, LOD groups, blend shapes), glTF/GLB (morph targets), OpenUSD USDA/USDZ (UsdSkel blend shapes), OBJ, PLY and STL. Exports are checked with the Khronos glTF validator and OpenUSD's usdchecker.

Blender bridge

• The SculptForge Bridge add-on for Blender 4.2+ (addons/blender): select objects, Send to SculptForge, sculpt, Send to Blender. The objects update in place, keeping transforms, materials and modifiers; quads, UVs, colours, mask and face sets come across both ways. See the guide and docs/blender.md.

ZBrush interchange

• .GoZ import/export with face groups, mask, vertex paint and UVs, and Send to ZBrush (Send / Receive) on Windows and macOS. Every visible Part goes over as its own ZBrush SubTool. See docs/goz.md; the live bridge hasn't been tested against a running ZBrush yet.

Gaussian splats

• Open phone captures (Polycam, Luma, Postshot, Scaniverse and others) as a sculpting reference, convert them into watertight meshes, or turn a sculpt into splats.
• Supports PLY (up to SH degree 3), .splat, glTF KHR_gaussian_splatting and OpenUSD ParticleField3DGaussianSplat.

Automation

• sculptforge-cli runs every operation headless, for build farms and pipelines.
• A built-in MCP server (sculptforge-cli --mcp) lets Claude Code, Claude Desktop or any MCP client sculpt, convert and export.
• Headless thumbnail and turntable rendering, plus a scripted demo recorder (--demo … --record).

Brush Lab: "dry cracked mud", designed by a local model	One-click LODs, blend shapes and Send to Unreal

For studios and pipelines

Built for studios with their own pipelines: VFX Reference Platform CY2026/CY2027 builds (GCC 14, glibc 2.28/2.34, C++20, Python 3.13), a Python API (import sculptforge), a Rez package, headless CLI and farm rendering, OpenUSD/FBX/glTF, native Linux, and no licence server. The GPL lets you modify it in-house without publishing your changes. See docs/studios.md.

Install

Download for Windows · Download for macOS · Download for Linux (AppImage, x86_64)

Every link gets the newest version. install/ has the full list (.deb, .rpm, ARM64, portable .zip, Arch) and what to do after downloading. Or install with one command:

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/islandmed/SculptForge/main/install/install.sh | sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/islandmed/SculptForge/main/install/install.ps1 | iex

The builds aren't code-signed yet. On macOS, right-click the app and choose Open the first time. On Windows, if SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway. Studio builds (VFX Reference Platform, Rez), older versions and checksums are on the releases page.

Building

Requirements: CMake 3.24+ and a C++20 compiler (GCC 11+, Clang 14+, Xcode 15+ or Visual Studio 2022). Dear ImGui, GLM and (if it isn't installed already) SDL3 are fetched automatically. AI features use libcurl on Linux and macOS, and the built-in WinHTTP on Windows.

# Linux only: install compilers and X11/Wayland/GL/curl headers (Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora/RHEL)
sudo ./packaging/linux/install-build-deps.sh

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
./build/sculptforge            # Windows: build\Release\sculptforge.exe · macOS: open build/SculptForge.app

cpack in the build folder makes the platform's packages (.deb/.rpm/.tar.gz, .dmg, or installer and .zip).

Pipelines & automation

# LOD chain for a game asset
sculptforge-cli -c 'open path=rock.obj; export_lods path=out/rock.glb levels=4 ratio=0.5'

# Concept art or a description -> sculptable 3D model (free, via Hugging Face)
sculptforge-cli -c 'image_to_3d path=hero.png; export_usd path=hero.usdz'
sculptforge-cli -c 'text_to_3d prompt="a stylised dragon head"; export_glb path=dragon.glb'

# Sculpt -> Unreal (static mesh with 4 LODs, 2 m tall)
sculptforge-cli -c 'open path=statue.obj; unreal_send destination=/Game/Props height_cm=200 lods=4'

# Phone capture -> watertight base mesh
sculptforge-cli -c 'open path=scan.ply; splat_transform rotate_x=180 fit=true; splat_clean; splat_to_mesh resolution=256; export_glb path=base.glb'

# Design a brush (free, no key) and save it for the team
sculptforge-cli -c 'brush_ai prompt="weathered stone edges"; brush_save path=stone.sfbrush'

# ...or with a private local model
sculptforge-cli -c 'brush_ai prompt="weathered stone edges" provider=openai-compatible model=qwen3:4b-instruct'

# Review-sheet turntable (8 frames)
sculptforge model.glb --render review/model.png --turntable 8 --size 1024x1024

Run sculptforge-cli --list for every command.

Let an AI agent sculpt (MCP)

claude mcp add sculptforge -- /path/to/sculptforge-cli --mcp      # Claude Code

For Claude Desktop or other MCP clients, add a stdio server whose command is sculptforge-cli with the argument --mcp. The agent gets every command as a tool and works on one live scene per session.

Controls

The user guide has the full list (it's also in the app: F1 for Controls, Shift+F1 for the guide).

Graphics tablets (Wacom, XP-Pen, Huion ...) work through the system's tablet driver on Windows (Windows Ink), macOS and Linux (Wayland / X11). Setup and mappings: docs/tablet.md.

On Linux, SculptForge runs as a native Wayland window (no XWayland, sharp at fractional scales) or on X11.

Project layout

src/core     Mesh, BVH, brushes & recipes, layers, undo, subdivision, decimation,
             voxel remesh, Gaussian splats, image-to-3D, command registry (no GPU/UI)
src/io       File formats: OBJ, FBX, glTF/GLB (+ KHR_gaussian_splatting), PLY, .splat, USDA/USDZ
src/ai       AI services (free built-in and bring-your-own): HTTPS client, brush assistant, image/text-to-3D services, Gradio client
src/link     Live links to game engines (Unreal Python remote execution)
src/cli      sculptforge-cli and its MCP server
src/render   OpenGL 3.3 renderer, splat renderer, offscreen capture
src/app      SDL3 + Dear ImGui application, scripted demo recorder
src/python   Python module (import sculptforge)
packaging    Linux desktop/AppStream files, Windows resources, Arch PKGBUILD, Rez package
website      Project website (GitHub Pages)
tests        Unit tests

Privacy

SculptForge has no telemetry, no account and no servers of its own. AI features are optional and talk directly to the service you choose. See docs/ai-services.md for exactly what is sent where, and for the licences of the AI models.

Membership

SculptForge is free, and nothing in the app is ever paywalled: members pay for time and influence. Supporter ($5 / month): your name in the credits, #members on Discord, a vote in the monthly feature vote and the monthly pack. Insider ($20 / month): also proposing vote options, a daily drop (a brush, alpha or VDM), preview builds of the next release about a week early and the monthly dev Q&A. Every release stays free for everyone; bug-fix and security releases go out to everyone the same day. Studio ($300 / month; Founding Studio: the first 10 studios lock in $150 / month for good): Insider for every artist in the company, a custom studio build and custom content, guided development, priority triage, a private team channel and your logo here. Larger custom features are quoted separately.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome: bug reports, brushes, docs and code. Read CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. For questions, tips and showing your work, join the SculptForge Discord; bugs and feature requests go to GitHub issues. Please report security issues privately (see SECURITY.md).

License

Copyright © 2026 The SculptForge contributors.

SculptForge is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. You own everything you make with it; the GPL covers the program, not your models. Third-party components and their licences are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

_{SculptForge is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Maxon, Epic Games, Autodesk, Pixar, the Khronos Group, Hugging Face, Tencent, Microsoft, Stability AI, Anthropic, fal or Meshy. ZBrush, GoZ, MatCap and other ZBrush feature names are trademarks of Maxon Computer GmbH. Unreal and Unreal Engine are trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. FBX is a trademark of Autodesk, Inc. glTF is a trademark of the Khronos Group Inc. Other names are trademarks of their respective owners.}