WOW!!! Southern’s Ascension pic is in the latest Computer Arts mag (april 02) as a full page ad for ZBrush. It just looks so real, like a statue. Again, all I can say is WOW!!!
Absolutely Awesome!!! Way to go Glen!!
Excellent! Congrats, Southern. I’m eager to get this C.A. (they haven’t confirmed my subscribtion yet, so I’ll probably have to wait 2 weeks for it to reach the local news-stands) 
I’ve had my back turned so I missed this post. I will be running out to get the mag this very evening…
G
I’ll probably get flamed straight to hell for this statement, called a hypocrite, or worse…or maybe not! 
But as much as the ascension piece is lovely, it looks more like an add for Poser than ZBrush.
I like DAZ products well enough, and god knows I use Poser imports, but in an advertisement for ZBrush it’s just confusing to see Michael as the centerpiece of the ad. I had a friend email me asking if ZBrush was a rendering plugin for Poser. (He knew I used it extensively)
Nice artwork, wrong application of it.
Okay, shoot me.
I have to agree with Kathy on this one. Although this is a fine image, I had the same thought…It looks as if Z is an accessory for Poser. I think we all know that isn’t the case, but the ad might easily give that impression. This is just my opinion, but I have also had similar questions asked of me…I would have preferred to see one of Glens’ all Zee pieces in the ad.
(I guess I get flamed too? 
)
I have to agree with Stonecutter and Kathy. Basically, Ascension was predominantly Poser, with a limited amount of ZBrush. It would have seemed a better bet to have used an all ZBrush work for this advert. Won’t it be misleading to professional graphic artists who will wonder why the figure itself couldn’t have been made in ZBrush? Might they question whether ZBrush is capable of producing figures? When I was a newcomer to ZBrush, I saw a brief article in Computer Arts that showed me a futuristic car created entirely in ZBrush by The Saint. This is what drew me to ZBrush - at the time I didn’t have too much money to spend on graphics programs, so I wanted one that would do most things. Had I seen the new advert, I might well have questioned whether I needed to buy Poser 4 plus the Daz figures to really do anything with ZBrush.
I’m sorry if this offends anybody, but I just felt I needed to say it. As I have Poser myself, and programs like Vue D’Esprit, I am sometimes tempted to use these on the forum, but have avoided it up until now, basically because I was trying to show people how much could be done with ZBrush.
Dave
The points are all very valid, I think – although while the piece did have the dominant figure start out in Poser it was heavily modified and added to in Z before it even got to rendering.
From the opposite point of view, there is a tremendously large community of Poser users out there, many of whom don’t have a clue of what ZBrush has to offer. Those who are discovering Z, though, are being blown away right and left. It is a market worth pursuing. And nobody out there is about to mistake Ascension for a Poser render! It really does show a part of the power of ZBrush.
If this was the ONLY ad for ZBrush, then I would certainly agree that it’s the wrong pic to be printing. But combined with other ads that are out there, it shows yet another facet of ZBrush’s capabilities. And damned well, at that!
Congrats, Glen, for getting published!
And your points are also valid, Matthew…
You did remind me of one omission in my previous posting, for which I thank you. I would like to add my congratulations to Glen for being published…I should have stated that in my first post…
Point well taken aurick.
I still see it as a DAZ poser figure though. shrug
It’s pretty, but it’s still poser.
But since the idea is christened with applause and admiration, at least I can feel safer in using poser more heavily here at the forum.
That’s cool. 
Congrats Glen!
I think your right Aurick in that a significant number of Poser users use ZBrush for morphs and conversion of Poser figures in general. In the UK though I would not say that ZBrush is well known, and since I first saw the Sonny Santa Maria car in Computer Arts of October 2000, it wasn’t mentioned again till a letter of mine praising the program in April 2001 was printed. Certainly there hasn’t been a lot since not that I’ve seen, no other adverts to my knowledge.
Just recently when making an enquiry with a distributor of some of the well known 3D software, I was asked what I had been using mostly, I said ZBrush. The response was, ”Oh that’s not a real 3D modelling program It’s mainly suited to 2D paint". I got quite up the wall with that response and pointed out that though I personally might not produce the best examples of its 3D modelling capabilities,there were people that put all ZBrush work on the Forum that would disprove his statement. I was gob smacked when I saw the advert, knowing that it would only help to prove his point that ZBrush was at least not capable of producing figures good enough for an advert. I would stick with my point that the image was mainly Poser. Had the figure been dressed in something complicated like a ZBrush suit of armour then I feel that might have made it 80% ZBrush as it presently stands its 80% Poser. I certainly won’t feel the need to avoid using Poser figures on the forum any longer.
Dave
Congratulations!! They used an awesome piece! Be proud!! Be very Proud !! 
I know im not one who is so experienced in ZBrush, but I can say that ZBrush is a very diversified program :). To market ZBrush in its purist form would be poor marketing, while limiting the program to how people “view” the add. Too many people use it for so many different reasons. It is a program that is very compatible with other programs. People like to see or feel that it will work with what they have already spent there money on…While others are looking for that one program that can do it all!
It would be impossible for one type of add to reach the entire audience who will find the program useful.
Diversified program needs a diversified marketing plan
So weather you are purist or not, Keep up the great work!! It is a awesome program!
In the end if they don’t like what they see they wont even consider it ;(. Personally I love seeing how the company and its users are is growing
To Pixolator and the Pixologic team :). It isnt often you get to see a company grow with such a family feel :). Keep up the great work!!!
Glen, I think it’s a phenomenal illustration. And wouldn’t it be nice for ALL Poser users to be convinced they NEED to have Zbrush to make their Poser work that much better? Score one for the Zipper, in my opinion.
I bought the latest issue of the “Game Developer” magazine yesterday and it has the Ascension full-page ad too.
I haven’t had the opportunity to see the ad yet, due to the fact this back woods area I live in is very limited on computer magazines period…but if it were in a hunting and fishing book it would be quite visible…(that was a joke)…but from a marketing stand point in my eyes…the more capabilities and areas that you can show a tool being used the better it is for the product. I know some poser artists that are now picking up Z or have recently picked up Z to enhance their art. And the comments I have recieved are very positive and one in particular has all but shelved her poser stuff…Also since Z is still growing in the arts community, if you can attach that name Zbrush to poser or whatever then you will reach more ppl…and the more ppl you reach the more sales you will have and so forth…great comments yall!!! The poser ppl in the ZBC community have really made alot of leaps and bounds in the five months I have been aboard and have produced some great works…Be proud that you are smart enough to use the programs together unlike me…I have lots of probs… Geez…almost forget… CONGRATULATIONS GLEN!!! JOB WELL DONE AND WELL DESERVED
ron
hmmm i scan threw here and what i understand a Poser Model was used and there runing a add about ZBrush? :eek:
unless they stated that in the mag what was used would be ok.
you would think they would of let the Owner of the pic Reveiw there statements before publishing it…
to me thats miss leading just like a close up advertisment of this Big huge hammburger with photo trick work and when you see it the hammburger no biger then a silver dollar. :mad:
anyone can make a pre made model look good it take NO experance if you want true art do it your self…
EZ, it’s not misleading as it’s clearly written on the ad that the model is a DAZ3D poser model. Besides this picture maybe using a premade model but it’s still a work of art (and a excellent one, btw) A lot of work has been made on the model and all the stuff around it.
I know some people consider Poser cheating, but isn’t it cheating to let a software do the perspective and lighting for you? Isn’t it cheating to use a computer rather than real paint? Oh, and photography can’t be art either, according to this point of view.
Hm… as I live in Brazil I wont have the opportunity to see this ad, by I’d like to give my opinion on this.
There are lots of ads about zbrush out there. Also, there are lots of kinds of artists out there that use or could use ZBrush. I, for one, am a 16 year old girl who is luck enough to have her parents get her 3d programs on her birthday or xmas ;D
And I only got zbrush after I was sure I could combine it with Poser (wich I already had) to make really powerful images once I had learned how to use both. I think anyone who has more than one art program would like to combine all of them… that gives you a whole gamma of possibilities.
As it has been said, it wouldn’t be a good ad if it were the only or the first one… but I think anybody would look forward to be as good artist as Southern, and so it is a great ad I think.
by the way, congrats Glen
I think we need to let up on this. It seems the the larger concept is being missed completely. Glen did this with the consent and direction of Pixologic. They ultimately had the final say in what was used for THEIR advertisement. As with all businesses they decided what their target audience was and what results they were after. We sometimes forget that Pixologic is a business after all. One day when ZBrush has matured the way that the other great drawing/3d programs have it will take on a whole new life of its own. We are experiencing it in its infancy. I look forward to seeing it grow into adulthood. Has anyone stopped to think how this is affecting Glen? I know nobody here has attacked him or anything that severe but the negativity on this has to hurt. This isn’t about critiquing someone’s work- it is an all out afront on the motivations that went into the work. Let’s put this to rest. ZBrush is a program written by a company that is trying to gain market share and thereby make a profit. Let it grow. Glen if you are watching I am truly sorry for any hurt feelings this ongoing tirade may have caused you.
Right on Mentat!
My belief is that Glen made an awsome image. I don’t care whether he used Poser or not because it is just a tool like any other. As for cheating, ha! How many of us can make an image that good even with Poser, Max, Maya, Softimage, and a god, in addition to ZBrush?