1st Post, New User

[Machine]

Hello, I'm new to using ZBrush. I have always found 3d art amusing to say the least. One of my friends uses 3d Studio Max, but not very well :P. I tried Strata since it was free, but I couldn't even make one of the tutorials. I found ZBrush and gave it a chance sine it claimed to be so simple. I've got many basic things figured out. I use the standard set of tools now :) I can't make transparency at all though, even when I try to follow the Zscript. I'm only using the demo version of course. I have a few questions, what do we use Photoshop for? I have it but never use it. Also, what are some good ways to get started producing cool stuff ;)? I'll show you people what I've accomplished so far. I really liked the one alien landscape tutorial, so I made some others like it. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200307/user_image-1057438933eje.jpg

Basically, I'd like to know my flaws besides having it off center, what could have been improved, and what you would have done as an advanced user.

[andreseloy]

Well, Im not an advanced user but Im advanced observer in the life and your image is beutiful to my eyes and to my spirit. Sincererly I congratulate you.
Have Happening ZBrush, like friend Pilou said¡¡¡

[Machine]

Thanks andreseloy, I really appreciate your opinion and feel it's very sincere. Thanks again.

[Frenchy Pilou]

Hi Machine (are you a robot? ;)
Welcome aboard!
Great first work!
You can't find better prog than Zbrush for versatile work !
And not better for pedagogic use with the Script !
And no more funny to use :)
Maybe not easy first because some unusual but always pleasant :cool:
PhotoShop was primitivly for "retouching" image and became a standard
but it is very slow and not funny to use and very very 2D :D
Have happy discovering!
Pilou
Ps Demo use is not so bad :cool:
Pss "flaws besides having it off center"
I don't very well understand (english is very hard for me :rolleyes: )
In Zbrush all that drawing is automacticly perpendicular to a "pixol" (pixel with a lot of information)
So if you have a ground all flaws will be similar from the ground :)
But with fiberbrush for example you can change many regulating and obtain some grassy grass :)

[Flycatcher]

Nice first post, Machine. You're coming along well.

If by "having it off-centre" you mean the toadstool is not in the absolute centre of the picture area, this is NOT a fault. (Try masking off a bit of the right side with a dark card or similar, and I think you'll find that the image feels less satisfactory than when you see the full thing even in such a simple example as this.) Look at a good photographic magazine, and you will find that very few of the images are composed with a single central focal point of interest. The trick is to use lines, colours and shades, weights of shapes etc. to guide the eye around and into the picture.

There are numerous good books on composition, of which one of the best (and cheapest) is "Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes" by Jack Hamm. Although it deals with drawing in the physical world with real media, and makes no mention of computers whatever, it takes a very straightforward and copiously illustrated hands-on approach, with excellent sections on composition, and is for the most part in principle readily transferrable to computer graphics. This is still available from Amazon and costs only a few pounds (cover price states $11.95 US).

You have Photoshop and don't use it?!!! You are making many of our eyes water! Pilou's description is rather dismissive of it. (I can understand his reaction, especially to the speed factor, as he works on a very low-spec machine by modern standards where it may well struggle.) With good reason it is the long-standing industry standard for both photo-retouching and 2D illustration. Most of we non-professionals have to make do with the "poor man's version" in the form of Paint Shop Pro - a very capable program in its own right, but not as slick as Photoshop (if easier to learn).

Main uses of PS (or PSP) with ZBrush would be in post-processing of images - adding or improving elements that were not easily achieved in ZBrush, and in texturing. This includes the preparation of seamless (or otherwise) textures, and painting UV maps. Purists may say that all these things can be done in ZBrush alone, but not always as easily or as effectively. Personally I am emphatically not a purist and believe in freely mixing the best features of all the graphics packages at my disposal to create the best image I can, choosing whichever tool I think will best do the job (or that I am most comfortable using for the particular kind of work), compositing them again using whichever seems the most appropriate application.

[Reactor]

I'm also a Paintshop Pro user... (I got version 5 for free!) mainly for image viewing, and basic image manipulation. I think Flycatcher covered pretty much everything... but with a program like Zbrush, practice really does make perfect. That goes for any program really, but success to getting the most out of Zbrush (I'm only finding out some of its better features right now) is going over the tutorials again and again until you understand what they're talking about, and can reproduce them yourself. If you're ever unsure, just ask lots of questions on here so you can get everything down.

Also, pour over the manual. Zbrush can do a tons of things, but there's usually three or four ways of going about it, so knowing what tools are in your toolbox (so to speak) is the best place to start formulating techniques to go about getting that picture in you head down on... well, digital paper ;)

I hope some of this helps, and good luck!