Importing and paint models

[Acacia22]

Playing around with the demo and wondering if this program can be used to import 3DMAX or Blender models and paint on them.
I'm not quite clear on what this program is for...

[ZBC Moderator]

Hi Acacia22 and welcome to ZBrush Central!

As far as importing goes:

ZBrush supports the following 2D image formats:
.PSD (Photoshop document)
.BMP (Windows Bitmap)
.PICT (On Macintosh Only)
ZBrush supports the following 3D object formats:
.ZTL (ZBrush native - geometry, color, texture and materials saved)
.DXF (Geometry only)
.OBJ (Wavefront Object) includes 3 files: a) OBJ (Geometry with texture UV coordinates)
b) MTL (Materials library referencing the name of the texture to be used)
c) BMP (Texture file to be mapped onto the OBJ file - manually Texture/Import to use in ZBrush)
Note: .BMP can save images "up-side up" and "up-side down." Because BMP can flip your texture, you may need to 'Flip V' within the Texture/Modifiers Panel.

ZBrush is a 2D Painting/3D Modeling/2.5D Depth Painting tool all rolled into one. ZBrush is a very dynamic program, capable of real-time rendering, seamless textures, materials, alphas, lighting, fog, etc. and new features are being added with every version. If you look around at the images on ZBrush Central, you'll see that people have many different approaches to ZBrush, some that surprise me including Vel's approach to realism, Rhom's Industrial/Mechanical images, and Southern's intricate character work. As you start to work with ZBrush, I'm sure that you'll find many interesting things that you can produce with it. Be sure to post your images, we'd love to see them!

-ZuZu

[upham]

Hey Acacia
Comming from a Studio Max background, it took me ages to get to grasps with this program. Now I'm hooked! The thing to remember is that it is an illustration program. Your main export will be a single picture. I'm experimenting with importing & exporting between ZBrush and Studio Max. Check out this recent thread about game modeling where I also use Milkshape-3D, (and then export to Studio Max)
I can't get the StudioMax .OBJ import to work with ZBrush-made-objects too well so I use other third party file translators to change to 3DS format.

Here is a beginners thread on importing objects.

When you get a little bit more ofay with ZBrush I recomend you look at this thread by Pixelator about grouping and painting objects which opens ZBrush to the wealth of objects and models you are able to download off the net.

Stay in touch.
Upham.

[Acacia22]

Thanks for the information everybody. I've seen some images done with Z Brush and I have to say that they are pretty spectacular.
I just began learning 3d graphics and use Blender as its the only 3D program I can afford at the moment along with different demos that I've been trying out. I graduated from college with a degree in Computer info systems, but unfortunately graphics weren't covered so I'm doing independent research.
Hopefuly in a few years I'll know what I'm doing.

[dfaris]

Hello
I have been playing with the demo of zbrush and I really like the way it works. I do have a question. how are the exports? are they good enough to use in a different application to animate with? can you adjust the mesh density? I use spline based 3d software and I do not need the mesh desity that you would need in say LW I use that too.

Thanks for the help. I tried to post this in the FAQ section but it would not let me post there.

Dave