ZBrush w/ DAZ Studio?
ebergerly
Posts: 3,255
Okay, so I finally downloaded the trial ZBrush, and I've been watching videos all weekend trying to learn how to use it. And trying to decide if I want to buy it. I'm curious what you guys think about it. I've got 45 days to decide if I want it, and it might just take that long.
Now I know it's incredibly powerful when it comes to sculpting. And my jaw drops when I see how it can re-mesh the nastiest topologies on the planet, and make them in to super clean quads. Unbelievable. And it seems to be the perfect choice for those who are making conforming clothing, with all the attachments and stuff. And the ability to pull mesh from a character to build the clothing.
But honestly I despise rigged, conforming clothing. I hate it. I'd MUCH rather use something like VWD to quickly convert a simple box-modelled cylinder or whatever into some beautiful draped cloth, and maybe rig it if I absolutely have to. But watching these guys spend hours and hours sculpting cloth when all they have to do is drape it with a cloth sim, and get far better results, drives me nuts.
Now clearly if you're going to sculpt a human or some other complex organic shape it's a no-brainer. But for a hobbyist like me who buys characters and clothing and just does a quick cloth sim as necessary, and doesn't build much from scratch, it seems like a big price to pay ($800 or something like that?).
And honestly the interface and workflow is about as foreign as I can imagine. Heck, even the standard Windows menu strip (File, Edit, etc.) starts with "Alpha" or something like that, and File/Edit are like 5th in line. And just navigating around the interface seems so counter-intuitive.
So am I missing something? Are there any must-have uses with DAZ Studio?
Thanks.
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Comments
By the way, someone mentioned they just released version 4R8? I can't even figure out how to download the latest version. Anyone know? Or maybe the trial version can't upgrade maybe..
Thanks.
I think the trial version is only 4R7 - I read somewhere about it on ZbrushCentral forums.
Yes, it is a big cost involved with purchasing of Zbrush, but GoZ bridge between it and Daz Studio is great
and I like topological move brush very much - very easy to fix pokethrough or make older clothes fit to newer figures.
There is a cheaper program - PolyBrush - http://polybrush.org/
which costs $20 per year and yes it has only subscription based payment, but there is a free, limited version of it available as well.
I purchased the ZbrushCore. It's not quite as powerful, but it's way cheaper.
This looks interesting ... have you tried it? I looked for some reviews - not much out there at first glance but what there is seems fairly positive. I don't like subscriptions but $20 per year is manageable.
Yes, I have it installed, actually have choosen the portable full version, so I do not need to install it on the computer.
Just unzip the downloaded file and run the app from the folder. It is 32 bit application and when running on Windows 10
it misses msvcr120.dll, so I've just copied that file from 32-bit version of Blender and put also msvcp120.dll and vcomp120.dll
inside the unzipped folder with PolyBrush. After that the application will start.
It is a nice, little program and it is quite impressive, what one developer could achieve in just 2 years of making it.
The trial version lasts for 90 days, so it is plenty of time to test it.
My first impression is positive and I like, how the brushes create clean quads - should work well in Daz Studio.
Thanks.
I guess the devil is in the details. I haven't tried Polybrush, but one of the areas that really impresses me with ZBrush is its ability to take a terribly messy mesh and smooth and remesh it into an incredibly uniform set of quads. It's just jaw-dropping how you can push and pull and destroy a mesh and suddenly it will remesh it into something clean and usable.
Stuff like that alone might be reason to spend $$ on ZBrush. I'm guessing that PolyBrush and the like probably aren't as advanced in that area. But that's just a guess....
Below is the iray render from Daz Studio of the object quickly made in Polybrush and Daz Dragon 3.
Sculpting capabilities of Polybrush are very nice, I just need to accustom myself with its interface,
but definitely will play more with it.
Polybrush can make easily some intriguing shapes.
Below are the sample iray renders from Daz Studio of the model created in Polybrush.
Polybrush User Interface and available ready made brushes.
One can create own brushes, as well.
I've spent a LOT of time lately using Zbrush, trying to figure out how to use it and trying to decide if it's for me.
Well, FWIW, it's incredibly powerful and can do some awesome stuff, but if you don't need the stuff it's good at then it's real tough to justify the $800 for a license. I really WANT to like it, but honestly the whole user experience and UI is, well, horrendous. It's like they intentionally made their workflow and UI exactly opposite from every other 3D/2D app out there. It's really bad, IMO.
Really.
In fact you have to see it to believe it. Incredibly frustrating, IMO.
That being said, the ZModeler (basically the polygonal/box modeller application, which BTW is a brush if you can believe that...) is extremely powerful, and combined with the scuplting and ZRemesher it's incredibly powerful. But if you can't figure out how to do even the simplest stuff, then, well, what good is it? I mean, I actually had to spend about 5 hours, and watch 5 videos, to figure out just how the Transpose gizmo (basically the Move, Scale, Rotate gizmo) works, and even now I'm still shaky on how it works. Yeah, it's super powerful, but with that comes super confusing. And I never found a really comprehensive video from someone who really understood it. And that's just a gizmo. Geesh.
In the time I've used it I've generated clothing and morphs for D|S and yeah, it's nice when you figure it out. But thats after probably 30-40 videos, maybe more.
And honestly, I'd MUCH prefer to just generate a primitive clothing OBJ in Blender, bring it into D|S and use VWD to make some awesomely realistically draped clothing, and then just transfer bones and move on (if I need rigged clothing). Heck, 10 minutes in VWD vs. 3 hours or more banging your head with ZBrush?
Anway, I guess a lot of people use it to generate clothing meshes by extracting parts of the DAZ character mesh, and then smoothing and fine tuning with the ZBrush sculpting. But that's not really my goal, so I think I'll move on and stick with Blender.
Good choice. If you already have mastered Blender for your workflow,
there is really no need to use any other program.
yup VWD is great for that and other things
I purchased ZBrush 4R7 along with Keyshot 6 Pro ($400.00) and you will also need to purchase the ZBrush to keyshot Bridge ($149.00) and ZBrush 4R8 ($795.00) , Keyshot all costing you $1,344.00.
These are great programs; very powerful in 3D Modeling also you want to use the Adobe Photoshop CC. I purchase the programs and they are great! Pixologic in a great company and also Keyshot.com
If you want to be a 3D Modeler then it is worth the investment; however, if you are just doing this just for a hobby... well it can get costly. ZBrush 4r8 is by far the best for me.
Take care
Softimage,
My sense is that ZBrush is most useful, and primarily focused, on sculpting very complex organic or other objects (humans, monsters, other characters, etc.), as opposed to say, architectural modelling or more "hard edge" object modelling. So isn't it less about professional/hobbyist, and more about your end goals in terms of what you're actually modelling?
Thanks.
ZBrush can also be used to sculpture Archtecture, Mechanical objects really anything you can imagine. It is up to you. There are other programs that art just as good, for exif I wanted to create cool envoronments I would use VUE Xtream cost $1,185.00 (By E-on), Maya from Autudesk is also a cool 3D program and works well with ZBrush and Keyshot.DAZ Studio 4.9 is good for rigging and doing lots of other things, I guess it all depends what you want to do with all this software. I like to create as a professional and make money basically that's it.
I think it takes about a good two years to really get ZBrush under your belt. You really have to study ZBrush every day and truly be dedicated. ZBrush has over a thousand Functions including the 131 brushes, I like the Transpose tool along with the Gizmo it's great to switch back and forth.
Blender is Awsome and works well with ZBrush 4R8