Since the company monitors the forum I think this is the best place to get all the issues in one place. Before I put in my two cents I just wanted to say I love ZBrush but I think it can be far more user friendly. The joke is many of the problems I have with it show up in the tutorials that were made by experts with the software.
I think fundementally the software’s interface still wants to be a 2D painter. Everything is constantly trying to get you back to a 2D environment that the software is most comfortable with. Virtually everything you do can make the software “drop” the model. Essentially it takes a 2D snap shot then resets the tool. Annoying doesn’t begin to cover it and it has made learning it a nightmare. Things that are simple in any other package are difficult to the point of being nearly impossible. The layers system functions more like Photoshop where as in a 3D package it should, at least optionally, function more like Lightwave. Trying to work on more than one part of a model at once seems to involve constantly redrawing the model from the buffer. I’m sure a lot of the reason for handling it in this way is memory but it happens even with low res models. I know every new software wants to reinvent the wheel but certain conventions exist for a reason. It took years for Lightwave to surrender and adapt the “Z, X, C, V” convention. I absolutely understand freezing the image for Projection Master but the joke is that’s the one function that doesn’t drop the model. Alot of items that you use constantly should be grouped together. Half the Tool menu should be with the Transform menu.
One major nightmare is the sysmetry. That one crops up all the time on the tutorials. How about a set of indicator buttons in the standard window indicating symetry so you know if it got turned off? If half the model is off screen you have no way to know if what you are working on is symetrical. I’ve had mixed luck with the Smart Resym so it’s not good to depend on it. On a similar theme it would be great to have a mirrored selection. It’s nearly impossible to get two sides perfectly mirrored in the selection so if you work too close to the edge you risk loosing symetry. Seems a simple fix. A mirrored Mask would be good as well. I don’t want to ramble on too long and would love for others to voice their issues so that maybe future releases would take some of it into account. I know there are a lot of comments about all this spread over the forum but I thought it’d be good to get a lot of it in one place.
PS my last comment for now, how about grouping the Save functions together? Another standard convention that wasn’t followed. Document saving and Tool saving should be grouped together as well as saving Alphas, Color Maps and potentially seperate bump maps. I’ve seen a lot of people comment on that confusion and it’s a pain to go hunting when you want to save a map.
Most of it tends to be tweaks except the butter finger tool dropping issues. Out of the gate ZBrush became my favorite software. As a sculptor it’s the software I always dreamed of I just think it can be even better and far more user friendly and a lot less frustriating to use and learn.
Fun discussion.
(*except some webaps with overlib)
