Here goes.
I have been approached to do a photography
job.
If I say yes, and they say yes, I will be doing an author’s portrait for a book cover.
The photograph(s) would be also used in the publicity for the book. Not for a few months.
One of the things that I thought would work against me, and that I mentioned ,was that I haven’t done this type of work for awhile.
I happened to mention during the conversation that I was trying to learn a 3d program. I described it in the broadest of terms and it was proposed that I might be able to do something in conjunction with zbrush.
Here is my question, and you may send me a pm if modesty prohibits you from answering publicly.
Have any of you ever published anything using zbrush and what was the result.
I know the quality necessary for publishing regular photography, but I am out of my league here.
Any suggestions woud be appreciated and again I understand why you might not be willing to publicly discuss this for obvious reaons, my discretion is assured.
You might start out the answer with"my friend
made…"
No specifics, just generalities.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I had a zbrush brain doodle published online recently, well in the summer I guess…but I am sure that doesnt count…lol
Congrats on the prospect of this work in question!!
From conversations I have had with Mentat7, the resolution of the image to be printed using zbrush has to be incredibly huge if I understood right, just to be able to be published at like a very small actual print on the book. So that will be a concern also.
Also I am curious as to what in 3d they might want you to create? You have obviously brought up the zbrush issue with them etc…
Your strengths from what you have told me, is in photography as you are an experienced veteran so to speak. So that should be a big plus with regards to your project.
Guess I asked more questions than what I answered…go figure…
Good luck buddy in this venture,
Ron
Hi Rtyer
I believe that marcel makes 4 meters * 3 meters publicities images with Zb 
I have seen it on every walls of Paris 
So for little format as a book seems as a charm
Ask him
Pilou
Hi ryter.
Zbrush is capable of creating documents of 4096x4096 pixels. This would result in a printed document of 13.65 by 13.65 inches when printed at 300 dots per inch. 300 dpi is the resolution that published images are usually printed at. First find out what size is your picture going to be printed, if it’s less than 13.65 inches you should be fine.
Thank you all.
Rafael, this is what I needed,if I hadn’t been so anxious,I would have thought of it.
Many thanks, I can breath again.
Ron,I have already used zbrush in photography to retouch a woman’s face, you can see it at Renderosity.com.It’s called pearls
I wanted to see if I could use zbrush in a practical setting.
It worked out ok,but Photoshop was used with it also.
I had suggested for the shoot a combination of 2d and 3d ala some of Marcel’s work.
It is not set in stone yet.
They might be just humoring me until the actual job starts.
In any case it’s a one time thing only.
Author’s portraits are a pain in the ass, mostly. Like anything else,it depends on the initial relationship with the subject, mood, nerves,presssure, how many people are at the shoot, how much free food is available.
Just a fun time in the big city.
Hi ya
Rafael is correct you can trust him.
I work as a offset printer(over 10 years). I don’t know about inches because we use here cm’s but this is often used subject at my profession.
Good luck with your project
Thank you all.
hello rtyer… in my practice, I think that you have to separate 3d and 2,5; in other words, i found that using 2,5 allows more of precision than most of 3d renders… as I do often “double” renders, one in zbrush, one in carrara and “mix” the both, it’s obvious for me that the classic render format, 72 dpi, isn’t the same 72 dpi in 2,5 than in 3d… of course, pure 3d has also it’s advantages…I join a picture, on the left the 3d tool, mapped in uv mapper, on the right, the zbrush version, in 2,5; even in jpg low resolution, i thi,nk that the difference is noticeable… (on th right form, in the body, you can see the square hole you, and juandel, helped me to do, before putting the ring in it…) I should be interested by a comparative of resolution between 2,5 and 3d, but i suppose it’s difficult; anyway, what i do is: working at the max document size (4096), then in photoshop :image size at 300 dpi, then, image size divided by two; it’s ok for printing huge size! amitiés.M. 
Merci Marcel.
Thank you very much for your time and advice.
It is much appreciated.
If I may add a little on this image size in dpi and print dots. As long as your final image is no less then 250dpi, you can print it in any size in fact It is a solution to most large image file.
I work for children book publishers and have seen my illustration printed twice of the original size at only 250dpi. Of course, you should always keep it at 300 to 350dpi if possible but the result could be worst if you reduce the image more than 50% its original size at high resolution due to crowded information during screen dot emulations.( converting RGB pixel to 4 color screen dots ).
There are more to image size, dpi/dots and paper type to consider to optain an expectable output but your concern is solved by the Zmasters above.
filip: those are the numbers, that was my concern.
I haven’t had anything published in the US for awhile, that I was directly involved with.
Not much changes. But I needed a refresher course.
A long time ago you made the photograph and handed the slide or negative to the lab and everyone was happy. Things in the computer industry have revolutionized certain fields, I was afraid of what quality was expected.
Photos for books ok,photos for books and newspaper ads?
I had a momentary panic attack.
Zbrush came through again, as usual.
For more information to be aware of, digitally painted effects is quite different compared with a photograph in pixels arrangement even though both are in digital form.
Add on paint effects appear to be smoother than the crisp photo image, usually some noise is added to blend or deliberately reduce and then enlarge it back to size to reorganize the pixels to the level of sharpness matching the photo.
Whether you use a 2d or 3d render programe, the out come is not the same as those digitally captured photos or a trans going through scanning process.
Depending on the usage and manipulation required and the size or output type, you will need to justify the edditing method for each specific case individually.
Always keep your masters in its original state and use a duplicate to explore your creativity. You will only know the difference if you have gone through all the process but not important if there are someone else who will do the rest of the work for you leaving the artistic task just for you.
That is what I was told when I first took up the challenge and have proof them wrong. There are books about all these technical stuff.
This is getting too deep to a small problem, my apology.
