Programme Zbrush

[Spinell]

I was surfing youtube for videos on modeling mesh, and while looking at some Blenderella videos, I found a modeling "tutorial" showcasing a programme I'd never seen before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mKMg1ovUDo&feature=related

The uploader was not english, but I managed to fortunately find out the name of the programme as Zbrush. From what I could see in the tutorial, it can do some very neat stuff, taking pictures, slaping them onto a model, and from what I could tell, almost painting onto the model to automatically create a mesh. Very impressive.

I've been thinking of givng this a try to see how it can help with maiking MESH clothes for SL, but first I want to get an idea of things: how many of you have seen this programme and how many have tried it?

What were you opinions of it? Is it reletively easy to use? Are the tools goods, limited, too advanced? What about formats: can you easily save the mesh files in a way that SL supports its download?

Tell me anything you know about this; I liked what I saw of the programme but I'm still a bit fresh on mesh creation. I use blender 2.63 and managed to learn its tools and become friendly with it, despite the horrendous learning curve, so if Zbrush is a bit easier to learn then blender, I should be able to pick it up.

Tell me your thoughts! ;)

[Dilbert Dilweg]

Zbrush is a well known tool for making sculpties in SL. Now since the transition to mesh. Zbrush can also be used for mesh.

It has a lot of  blending features. Not sure how well it is for low poly modeling

[Nacy Nightfire]

Zbrush is a very feature rich complex program. I suggest you download the free trial and check it out yourself.  I've spent couple of years using it, mostly for sculpty work,  and I'm still very much a Zbrush beginner.  I love the program and I find it useful, but I wouldn't put it in the catagory of easy to use or a substitute for a good 3d modeling program like Blender, 3dmax, C4D, Maya, etc.  One would generally purchase this product in addition to a 3d modeling/animation package.  It doesn't export collada files natively, but there is a free plug-in created by Marcus Civis on the Zbrush Central forum which allows you to export your model as a collada for SL.

A competitor to Zbrush is Autodesk's  Mudbox.  These are both primarily sculpting programs.  A free sculpting program that is pretty decent is Sculptris and you can get that from the Pixologic web site (creators of Zbrush).  

The focus of these products is to allow you to create a very dense model polygon-wise from which you can create your models in a more traditionally artistic fashion, as if you were working in a clay medium.   And if you are not committing these forms directly into 2d images within Zbrush you need to drastically reduce their poly count by retopologizing into a simpler form.  Retopologizing is yet another skill to be learned as well as understanding how displacement, vector and normal maps are used and how to export them out of Zbrush into a compatible form that your 3d program will accept.

 

[Ashasekayi Ra]

Personally, I love Zbrush. I'd highly recommend it for anyone that likes a high to low poly workflow and that likes sculpting (I mean traditional sculpting not SL sculpt maps). It is designed for extremely high poly work. But, you can use it in a game content workflow with the help of retopology and map baking.

It is a feature rich program and some people do find the UI hard to get used to. The UI was designed around using graphics tablets, so you'll find it much easier to navigate if you have one. 

You'll need to use a companion program, such as Blender or Maya, with it if you want to skin/rig clothing and avatars. A 3D suite will also come in handy for retopologizing the models you export from Zbrush. It does have retopology tools, but I don't recommend bothering to use them. The program doesn't have a native .dae exporter. But, you can download a free plugin that let's you export .dae files. 

LINK: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?93650-Second-Life-Sculpties-in-ZBrush-4-ZSculpty-Tools

[Tazzie Tuque]

I was one of the first to get ZBrush when it first came out and I have been getting regular updates to the program ever since.  I absoluely love it, although it is far more complex then the original was it is getting more and more awesome both in terms of what it can do and the ease of using it.  I have created many cool things that I woild love to get into SL,  but the problem is that I have never found a really good direct way to do that effectively.  Back when we were testing Beta Mesh,  I managed to upload a statue;  but I had to first save it in obj format then take the obj into blender save it again in the format SL required,  in the process the maps ended up distorted and were virtually useless.  

So if anyone out there knows of a better way to get ZBrush mesh into SL,  in one piece and looking like it is supposed to then please tell me.  BTW I do not use blender I only got it in order to try and get my ZBrush model into SL.    The answer would be of course if ZBrush would add the SL required format to their choices of saving.  But that is unlikely to be anytime soon.  So if there is something in the meantime please let me know.  I have tried the Plug in from the ZBrush forum,  but it did not work for me, not sure just why but it did't.

[gregangel5 Core]

bonjour a tous, je suis un peut tard par rapport au dernière article de 1012 lol  et je ne sais pas si le forum est encore fréquenter, mais je vous savoir, sur la video le plugin fonctionne sous zbrush 4 mais je travail actuellement avec la version 4R4 et le plugin présenter ne fonctionne pas sous la version 4R4, y aurait il un plugin fonctionnelle pour zbrush 4R4?

en vous remerciant d'avance pour votre réponse

 

Hello everyone, I am a little late compared to the last section 1012 lol I do not know if the forum is still attend, but I know you, the video plugin works under zbrush 4 but I currently work with version 4R4 and the plugin does not work present in the 4R4 release, it would have a functional plugin 4R4 zbrush?

thanking you in advance for your answer