Z-Brush thoughts ?

[Adam H. Stewart]

I have to Model an Eagle - the olde ornamental kind ( Roman Empire ) doing the cast feathers could be a pain using box modelling so I was wondering what your thoughts are on Z-brush ? Who has used it and what do you think ? I have seen some fantastic models done with it but have no idea what it is like to use if you have experience please share you feelings.


Thanks for your help.

[panthon]

Hi!

I have got some experience with zbrush lately and i must say i has very little to do with traditional poly subd modelling. The only thing the two methods share is the fact that u work with a subdivided final model in mind. But for your kind of job it´s worth learning it! It´s not that hard, really...

I think the overall quality u´ll get from zbrush is strictly proportional to your "traditional" modelling skills, and by that i mean modelling with clay or plasticine. Zbrush is really organic, so i definitely recommend getting a wacom. When it comes to vray, i faced lots of problems at the beginning, but now the process is pretty straightforward, thanks to the info u can get at zbrush central.

For a fairly detailed tutorial about zbrush and 3dsmax head to:

http://cust13.mn1.fasturl.net/zbc/sh...ad.php?t=26326

If it asks u to register, don´t hesitate and do it. You´ll get tons of info from there. You´ll get info about zbrush with vray too. Basically it´s a matter of exporting a basic mesh from max via OBJ, import in zbrush, scultp it, and generate a displacement map which u will use with vraydisplmod.

A weird thing about zbrush is the automatic uv creation. It removes distortion but its really hard to edit in photoshop. I recommend using pelt mapping in 3dsmax 8 and avoid zbrush uv generation...but if u are in a hurry, go ahead with them!

I´ll be glad to hearing from your progress!

[Adam H. Stewart]

Thanks

Thanks for a great comprehensive answer. I have to asses the chances of them buying me Z-brush over here at work. You never can tell how they are going to react when you are looking for new gear. They will go straight out and spend a couple of thousand $$$$ for real flow in the blink of an eye but other even pretty basic plug-in's you can be waiting months for.
I think I'll give the demo spin first and hopefully produce something to get them excited, my background is in the physical 3D realm I used to do sculpture and then fashion - which is basically sculpture, Z-brush looks very exciting.

Thanks a million for your help. I'll keep you updated of and hopefully get around to actually posting some shots of this project. Most of my stuff is under NDA so I cannot share it.

[Adam H. Stewart]

I am getting the Brush

I got approval today to get Z-brush, I am looking forward to using it. It looks like fun. I'll show you what I end up with.

Thanks again for your help

[panthon]

Good news for u!

Notice that if u try it the hard way -without looking the manual, as we all do- u will have to spend some time to get the hang of it. If u can afford it, get the gnomon zbrush videotutorials or similar ones, they will make u become an expert in no time Unfortunately, they are mainly based on maya-zbrush-maya workflow, but u´ll get the essentials anyway.

A tip: when u export the displacement from zbrush and get into vraydispmod, u must put half the value in negative in the shift part. I mean, if u have an amount of 1.0, u´ll have the use -0.5 in the shift value so that vray don´t bloat the mesh.

Good luck

[Adam H. Stewart]

Ordered Gnomon

I ordered the Gnomon Zbrush pipeline DVD today. Can't wait to get started. Annoyingly I was put on another project for the next few days so will have to leave the Brush for a little while.

[tom schuelke]

Hi,

i also used Z-brush and i have to say there is hardly a product in latest time that is as kicking ass as this one. Its realy great.

thing is, it works increadibly well with vray. You can work with about 2000 000 polys smothly , drawing your details on top of your subd modell.

now this never could be reimported into max. so only thing is, switch it back to a lower subd level for a less big modeel and let z-brush creat a difference mask.., a bit map that makes the difference of your actual subd geometry level and the level of your high poly mesh created in zbrush.

when you now reimport the lowres mesh to max, you can put a vray displacement modifier on top of it, and use the vraybmpfilter texture to use the bump map of your zbrush model, and vray will do the rest.

you get a about 2000 000 ore more detailed smooth and complex rendered mesh on rendertime, but still can animate with the low res mesh.

and vray does this in an amazing speed.

great job vlado.


Tom

[panthon]

when you now reimport the lowres mesh to max, you can put a vray displacement modifier on top of it, and use the vraybmpfilter texture to use the bump map of your zbrush model, and vray will do the rest.

Tom

Have u tried the usual bitmap map with blur to 0.01? I see the reason why u use vraybmpfilter is to avoid the banding in the displacement, but i have avoided it just lowering the blur thingy. Is there any other difference in the way vray treats the bitmap?