ZBrush vs AmberDraw
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ZBrush
Create detailed 3D models and digital sculptures on your iPad. This app offers industry-leading sculpting tools, advanced detailing, and seamless integration with desktop versions for professionals and hobbyists alike.
- Digital sculpting and 3D painting
- 200+ pressure-sensitive brushes
- Sculptris Pro & Dynamic Tessellation
- Live Boolean modeling
- 3D Layers for non-destructive editing
- Seamless desktop interoperability
- Direct export for 3D printing
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ZBrush for iPad. Create stunning 3D models, digital sculptures, concept art, and detailed characters with ZBrush for iPad—the award-winning, industry-leading digital sculpting app trusted by professional artists across film, AAA games, collectibles, toy design, jewelry, illustration, and 3D design. ZBrush for iPad brings unrivaled desktop-grade digital sculpting and 3D painting power into an intuitive, touch-first mobile environment optimized for Apple Pencil. Take complete creative freedom on the go with high-poly mesh density, proprietary digital clay brushes, procedural detailing, and seamless cross-platform interoperability. Subscribers to Maxon One or ZBrush desktop can download the iPad app and sign in to activate full access instantly. A comprehensive free tier is also available to start sculpting immediately. NEW FOR IPAD • Spotlight Integration: Seamlessly load reference images directly onto the canvas, apply projection painting and texture mapping across complex mesh surfaces, and extract custom 3D geometry from 2D source imagery. • 3D Layers: Store high-resolution sculpting details, PolyPaint color channels, and masking non-destructively. Effortlessly toggle layer visibility, blend sculpt deformations, and refine feature intensity with precise slider controls. CORE SCULPTING & MODELING FEATURES • 200+ Sculpting Brushes: Pressure-sensitive digital brushes engineered for Apple Pencil and Apple Pencil Pro, supporting squeeze, roll, hover, double-tap gestures, and haptic feedback. • Sculptris Pro & Dynamic Tessellation: Add local mesh detail on the fly without manual topology management. • DynaMesh Digital Clay: Re-topologize mesh density evenly during early concept exploration. • ZRemesher: Industry-standard automatic retopology for clean, optimized edge flow. • Live Boolean: Non-destructive real-time union, subtraction, and intersection modeling. • PolyPaint: High-resolution 3D painting directly on vertex geometry without preliminary UV unwrapping. • Advanced Detailing: VDM Brushes, Surface Noise, Retopo Brush, Subdivision Modeling, NanoMesh, and ArrayMesh. DESKTOP INTEROPERABILITY & EXPORT • One-Click GoZ: Seamless transfer of ZTool and ZProject files between iPad and desktop ZBrush. • 3D Print Hub: Direct export for additive manufacturing and 3D printing workflows. HIGH-PERFORMANCE HARDWARE OPTIMIZATION Handles up to 90+ million polygons per mesh on M4 iPad hardware. Optimized for multi-touch gestures, custom hotkey bars, rapid undo/redo touch shortcuts, and real-world photogrammetry base mesh imports for high-end digital asset creation. TARGET CREATIVE USE CASES 1. Game Developers: Hero character modeling, creature design, and environment asset creation. 2. Collectibles & Toy Designers: High-detail prototyping and precise 3D print preparation. 3. Film & VFX Artists: Production-grade concept sculpting and digital asset creation. 4. Industrial & Jewelry Designers: Precision organic detailing for consumer products, apparel, and hardware. 5. 2D Illustrators & Concept Artists: Fast 3D block-outs and visual design expansion. LANGUAGE SUPPORT English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, German, French, and Portuguese (BR).
AmberDraw
Create unique animated art with brushes that move as you draw. No keyframes or timelines needed, just pick a brush and let its built-in motion bring your strokes to life. Export your creations as video for social media or further editing.
- Animated brushes with unique motion
- Full brush customization
- Layer support
- Custom canvas dimensions
- Apple Pencil support
- Video export
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AmberDraw is a drawing app where the brushes themselves animate. Not filters. Not effects added afterwards. The motion is built into every single stroke. Pick up your Apple Pencil, draw a line, and watch it wiggle, scatter, flow, or pulse — live, as you draw. There are no keyframes. No timelines. No exporting to After Effects just to make something move. You draw, and it's already animated. The wiggle line aesthetic, finally in an app If you've ever loved the hand-drawn, jittery motion style — in title sequences, illustrated reels, motion posters — AmberDraw is how you make that. Each brush has its own character: Scribble shakes with nervous energy, Gradient flows like liquid, Particle explodes outward, Charcoal drifts like smoke. You're not choosing a tool, you're choosing a feeling. What's inside • Animated brushes, each with unique bespoke motion • Full brush customisation — speed, density, size, behaviour • Layers for organisation and creative control • Custom canvas dimensions • Apple Pencil support • Import images directly onto your canvas • Transform tool for repositioning and scaling • Export your finished piece as video — ready to post Who it's for Artists who composite across apps. Illustrators who want their work to breathe. Designers making content for social. Anyone who's opened Procreate and thought — what if this moved? Export your animations as video and bring them straight into After Effects, CapCut, or anywhere else you work. AmberDraw fits into your workflow, not the other way around. Free to download. Unlock the full brush library with Pro. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy policy: https://sites.google.com/view/amberdraw-privacypolicy/home
Screenshots
Verdict
ZBrush and AmberDraw both sit at 4.1 stars, but that hides the real split: 81% of ZBrush's written reviews are positive against 68% of AmberDraw's. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. ZBrush sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and AmberDraw sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
AmberDraw holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 262 and 324 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 81% of ZBrush's written reviews are positive against 68% of AmberDraw's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
ZBrush ships an update monthly, AmberDraw every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | ZBrush | AmberDraw |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (262 ratings) | 4.3 (324 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 81.0% of reviews — better | 67.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 262 | 324 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.1 GB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | MAXON Computer GmbH | Mykyta Gaidukov |
Customer experience
ZBrush
AmberDraw
In-app purchases
ZBrush
- ZBrush Monthly$9.991 Month
- ZBrush Annual$89.991 Year
AmberDraw
- Pro Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Pro Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year







