el_pix
12-31-01, 04:06 PM
'lo community!
just browsed around this board for a while and must say, whew, you're some bunch of addicts :)
who i am to say that? well, another addict ... i played with the demo for a while now and even tho' i still can't claim to have done anything noteworthy in zbrush, i really am impressed with the wealth of tools, features and endless combinations thereof it is offering.
since i am unfortunately doomed to use the demo for a while, at least until i can convince the guys at the office to buy the full version, i can't actually play with and test all the things i am interested in, that's where my various questions come from:
my main interest in zbrush is, to use (abuse?) it as a texturing tool, in conjunction with stuff like softimage and max, by now i figured, how to ex-/import via the pretty good .obj format, *but* has anyone seriously tried doing such a thing? i mean, well, workflow and options are *somewhat* different from tools like poser and bryce, and i would really like to see *all* attributes imported into my other apps. obviously you cant import shader and material effects, but what about bumps, specularity, displacement maps and such?
i watched the texturemaster rhino tutorial and was impressed, even though i'm using deep paint too, hence comes another question: in dp i can save my textures as a .psd file, containing separate layers for all kinds of maps, is it by any means possible to do something alike in zbrush?
also, if i export a .psd, does it at least have an alpha channel?
and, how big (in px) can a texture be?
and how large can i set the document size? because i need hi-res pics for offset printing purposes quite often.
lots of possibly stupid questions, huh?
now for something completely different: a few days ago, i wasnt even thinking about using zbrush as a modeller, but now that i've seen some of the marvels u ppl did ... *but* i must say that all my efforts produced models (well, lumps of matter) that had a ridiculously high poly count, considering their level of detail. i know that u can *optimize* them, but well, at the level of complexity i want to achieve, even my crude attempts are distorted beyond recognition. i might mention at this point, that im some sort of *low-poly-modeling-fanatic*, always trying to minimize the amount of polys my box has to handle, that's why i really miss some more precise tools for mesh-editing ...
speaking of low-poly: here's something that might be *really* useful for most of you: *wings3d*: (just in case the url doesnt show up: www.wings3d.com) (http://www.wings3d.com))
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1009843376oci.jpg
wings3d home-/download page (http://www.wings3d.com)
it's a freeware modeler, shameless clone of *nendo*, for those who know it, that really excels at low poly box modeling. i do personally use it, to build rough models, that are then imported to max or xsi and used as a control cage for subdivisons, but you can of course use it as a full modeling tool, building meshes with a little more control over their complexity, that may *then* be imported into Z (yes, wings does support .obj files) to be modified, subdivided and textured. as mentioned, it is freeware, smaller, less intimidating, less complex, and more fun than the large 3d tools.
well, hope this is useful for someone.
whew, pretty much typing for a first post, will try to be more brief in the future :)
must get back to texturing now ....
just browsed around this board for a while and must say, whew, you're some bunch of addicts :)
who i am to say that? well, another addict ... i played with the demo for a while now and even tho' i still can't claim to have done anything noteworthy in zbrush, i really am impressed with the wealth of tools, features and endless combinations thereof it is offering.
since i am unfortunately doomed to use the demo for a while, at least until i can convince the guys at the office to buy the full version, i can't actually play with and test all the things i am interested in, that's where my various questions come from:
my main interest in zbrush is, to use (abuse?) it as a texturing tool, in conjunction with stuff like softimage and max, by now i figured, how to ex-/import via the pretty good .obj format, *but* has anyone seriously tried doing such a thing? i mean, well, workflow and options are *somewhat* different from tools like poser and bryce, and i would really like to see *all* attributes imported into my other apps. obviously you cant import shader and material effects, but what about bumps, specularity, displacement maps and such?
i watched the texturemaster rhino tutorial and was impressed, even though i'm using deep paint too, hence comes another question: in dp i can save my textures as a .psd file, containing separate layers for all kinds of maps, is it by any means possible to do something alike in zbrush?
also, if i export a .psd, does it at least have an alpha channel?
and, how big (in px) can a texture be?
and how large can i set the document size? because i need hi-res pics for offset printing purposes quite often.
lots of possibly stupid questions, huh?
now for something completely different: a few days ago, i wasnt even thinking about using zbrush as a modeller, but now that i've seen some of the marvels u ppl did ... *but* i must say that all my efforts produced models (well, lumps of matter) that had a ridiculously high poly count, considering their level of detail. i know that u can *optimize* them, but well, at the level of complexity i want to achieve, even my crude attempts are distorted beyond recognition. i might mention at this point, that im some sort of *low-poly-modeling-fanatic*, always trying to minimize the amount of polys my box has to handle, that's why i really miss some more precise tools for mesh-editing ...
speaking of low-poly: here's something that might be *really* useful for most of you: *wings3d*: (just in case the url doesnt show up: www.wings3d.com) (http://www.wings3d.com))
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1009843376oci.jpg
wings3d home-/download page (http://www.wings3d.com)
it's a freeware modeler, shameless clone of *nendo*, for those who know it, that really excels at low poly box modeling. i do personally use it, to build rough models, that are then imported to max or xsi and used as a control cage for subdivisons, but you can of course use it as a full modeling tool, building meshes with a little more control over their complexity, that may *then* be imported into Z (yes, wings does support .obj files) to be modified, subdivided and textured. as mentioned, it is freeware, smaller, less intimidating, less complex, and more fun than the large 3d tools.
well, hope this is useful for someone.
whew, pretty much typing for a first post, will try to be more brief in the future :)
must get back to texturing now ....