Maxon One for Classrooms brings together powerful tools for education, including ZBrush, Cinema 4D, Redshift, Red Giant, and ZBrush for iPad, in a single affordable bundle designed for schools, colleges, and universities. This suite supports in-class learning, take-home student licenses, and instructor training, with flexible licensing options to fit budgets and curricula.
Educational licenses and how they work
Educational licenses are intended for teaching students at university, college, or school. Suspected commercial or other misuse may result in termination of your license in accordance with the §7.3 of EULA. Maxon offers three types of licenses for educators and learners: Student licenses for personal study, Teacher licenses for instructional use, and Classroom licenses for in-school use. They’re designed to be accessible to institutions with limited budgets and can include take-home student licenses in classroom plans.
When you plan to deploy ZBrush and related Maxon tools in a classroom, you can choose from options like Maxon One for Classrooms or Maxon One for Students. The Classrooms plan is tailored for in-school use, while the Student plan supports personal learning outside the classroom. Instructors can prepare lessons with confidence, knowing that the available licenses align with typical school schedules and course timelines.
All pricing is inclusive of the highest potential VAT rate. To start the process, contact a local Maxon educational specialist or your institution’s sales team for details on customizable options and discounts for schools with constrained budgets. A streamlined verification process through SheerID helps confirm student or staff eligibility, facilitating faster access to licenses.
What does Maxon One Student License include?
A Maxon One Student provides access to nearly all of Maxon's products, tools, and training. The Maxon One Student License is intended for personal learning purposes by students enrolled in accredited universities, colleges, or educational institutions. An official ID document is required for verification, and the SheerID process is used for student verification.
In addition to access to ZBrush, students gain entry to a broad ecosystem of Maxon apps and training resources, creating a cohesive environment for building 3D skills across modeling, sculpting, texturing, rendering, and animation.
Validity and renewal of the license
The Maxon One Student License is valid for one year from the date of payment. Once the year has lapsed, you will need to re-verify your student status. Because the license does not auto-renew, renewal requires manual verification of eligibility, ensuring that the student continues to meet program requirements for ongoing access.
What makes ZBrush essential for students
Plan includes free access to Redshift CPU and free access to ZBrush on iPad, including premium features. ZBrush is an Academy Award®-winning and industry-leading tool for digital sculpting, modeling, and painting. Its customizable tools and features, including more than 200 proprietary brushes, let students work with polygons the way they would with real clay. With ZBrush for iPad and native support for Windows on Arm (WoA), sculpting, painting, and bringing creations to life can happen anywhere with touch-based capabilities.
ZBrush supports character and creature sculpting at extremely high polygon counts without breaking the workflow. This makes it ideal for film, VFX, games, toys, collectibles, and IP development. The interface is designed to help beginners ramp up quickly while still providing depth for advanced users, enabling a smooth progression from first sculpt to production-ready work.
How ZBrush fits into a student’s workflow
Maxon One for teachers, students, schools, and universities offers a complete creative pipeline. ZBrush pairs with Cinema 4D, Redshift, and other tools to enable a seamless workflow: sculpt in ZBrush, send results to GoZ for animation and lighting in Cinema 4D, refine, then re-import as needed. This cross-application compatibility supports learning by doing and reduces friction when moving between ideation, sculpting, texturing, lighting, and rendering.
Cross-platform workflow is a standout feature: sculpt anywhere on desktop, iPad, or Windows on Arm (WoA). The GoZ integration, Cineware bridging to After Effects, and shared assets help students build production-ready portfolios while exploring different creative roles-from character design to prop modeling and environment creation.
What ZBrush can do for different industries
ZBrush’s dynamic brush system and remeshing enable artists to sculpt characters, creatures, and assets with micro-detail without topology constraints getting in the way. Hard-surface modeling is supported with ZModeler, Live Boolean, and polygon tools, expanding beyond organic sculpting. PolyPainting lets students paint directly on the surface without UVs, and UV Master, SpotLight projection, and MorphUV provide robust texturing workflows.
Rendering in ZBrush via Redshift delivers CPU-accelerated rendering with real-time material and lighting control. The pipeline can flow from ZBrush to Cinema 4D for animation or to other applications via Cineware, enabling students to experiment with composition and lighting in familiar environments. This makes ZBrush suitable for characters, creatures, props, environments, automotive design concepts, jewelry, and more.
Getting started with ZBrush in an educational setting
To start a subscription, follow the guided steps to verify student or teacher status through SheerID, upload required documents, and complete checkout. The process is designed to be quick, with approvals often taking only a few seconds after submission. Educational teams can reach out to Maxon’s sales teams for answers about licensing options, discounts, and deployment details tailored to their institution.
ZBrush continues to evolve with desktop and iPad updates. ZBrush 2026.2.1 adds new features like native Windows on Arm support, a Substance Bridge for texture transfer, and improved GoZ compatibility with Maya and 3ds Max. On iPad, users can save and share custom hotkeys to preserve workflow efficiency across devices.
Who should consider ZBrush in their curriculum
ZBrush is ideal for character and creature artists, digital sculptors, and concept artists who want true sculptural control and the ability to scale from exploration to production. It’s suitable for studios, in-house teams, and collaborative production, and it supports a wide range of industries from entertainment to product design. For beginners, starting on iPad and moving to desktop can ease the learning curve while maintaining continuity across devices.
Key features at a glance
- Sculpting: dynamic brush system, base mesh creation, remeshing for freeform sculpting
- Hard-surface and polygon modeling: ZModeler, Live Boolean, polygon tools
- Painting and texturing: PolyPaint, UV Master, SpotLight, MorphUV
- Rendering: Redshift, Best Preview Render (BPR), real-time lighting controls
- Workflow: GoZ seamless transfer to Cinema 4D; Cineware for After Effects integration
- Cross-Platform: desktop, iPad, Windows on Arm (WoA)
Useful notes for educators
Educational licenses may not be used for commercial, professional, or other profit-making purposes. For class planning, schools can opt for three license types with education-focused terms, including options for at-home use. To maximize learning outcomes, combine hands-on sculpting with guided tutorials, live demonstrations, and project-based assignments that leverage the Maxon ecosystem.
Whether students are aspiring concept artists, 3D modelers, or VFX animators, ZBrush provides the sculpting depth and creative freedom to develop production-ready skills. The ecosystem encourages experimentation, iteration, and collaboration, helping learners build robust portfolios as they prepare for professional opportunities in film, games, and other digital media.
