In the research of Z-pinch, the initial establishment of current in load, current density distribution mode and current evolution characteristics in different stages are of great significance in studying the development of plasma dynamics, analyzing plasma instability mode, and carrying out the MHD numerical simulation. Thin planar foil is an ideal configuration with continuous two-dimensional structure to study the problem. Based on an ideal model that consists of foil-backpost configuration under the assumption of infinite length in reverse exploding condition, the establishment, distribution and evolution of the current channel, magnetic field distribution characteristics and the force state of foil plasma by the inductive mode are calculated and analyzed theoretically. Relevant experiments are carried out on the QG-1 facility with about 1.4 MA peak current and 100 ns rise time to verify the calculated results. The self-emission graphs of exploding foils are recorded by visible-light frame cameras from side-on view and end-on view. Different load configurations are utilized including symmetric and asymmetric condition both assembled with two 20-μm-thick aluminum foils. The results show that the establishment of the initial current in foil (0–70 ns) accord with the expectation of the inductance model. The inductance feature determines the distribution of the current in this stage, which causes the current to aggregate in foil edges and then the edges will suffer much higher magnetic field and J× Bforce than the center. This results in the formation of a clamp plasma morphology. The later images (70–120 ns) show that the intense emission region will transfer from the foil edges to the center, which proves a transfer of current channel. So the magnetic field and J× Bforce in the foil center increase and a peak convex plasma morphology forms then. It shows that the current distribution will be affected by the plasma evolution process. The convergence process of ablated plasma with current finally leads to rapidly switch the current channel (in 60–80 ns).