ZBrushCentral

New to zbrush. Modeling question

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello

I’ve been working with Maya up until now and I would like to incorporate zbrush. I’ve had a chance to look at the galleries as well as tutorials but I still have some questions which I hope somebody will be able to answer.

  1. I have created a character in Maya and I would like to bring into zbrush to ad details. Once that has been done can I export back into Maya for animation?

  2. The zbrush tutorials I have seen include posed characters. If the character has been posed in zbrush and then exported into a 3D program, will that cause rigging issues?

  3. Characters created in zbrush have eyes. Once exported into a 3D program, how does one animate (rotate) the eyes of that character since they were part of the original geometry?

  4. Regarding clothing. Maya (as well as most 3D software) allows for cloth dynamics. I wish to create stylized clothing for my character. When I look at the zbrush gallery I see some amazing clothing designs for characters. How does one apply cloth dynamics to clothes modeled on a character in zbrush?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Thank you.

#2

Hello @persius7 ,

Yes, but. :slight_smile: ZBrush works at much higher polycounts generally than most traditional modeling programs or animation processes could comfortably handle. In most cases the high resolution detail is exported as normal or displacement maps and applied to lower resolution geometry in the external rendering engine. This will require intermediate to advanced knowledge of the UV, texture, and rendering process in both programs.

If a character is going to be rigged in an external program you would generally export it in a neutral or T-Pose, then rig and pose it in the external program.

It will be useful in this case to create the eyes as separate geometry that can be rigged and animated independently of the face/head.

The Cloth Dynamics simulation in ZBrush is generally a modeling/sculpting aid, and not an animation effect. For animated effects these would need to be created and applied in your animation/rendering program. Note that this feature has performance limitations, and is best used with lower resolution meshes.

Many clothing effects you see in ZBrush work are the result of sculpting artistry, not just the Dynamics feature.

:slight_smile:

#3

Hello Spyndel

I really appreciate you taking time to reply.

Based on your experience with zbrush, would it be wiser to just create the character entirely in zbrush alone and then export the final into a 3D program for animation?

Can you suggest some good tutorials that I can start with where the instructor actually knows what they are doing?

Thanks again.

#4

This would certainly be the easiest thing to do if your workflow allows it. But many animation workflows have highly specific needs. Of all the various output goals , 3D animation tends to have the most exacting needs for deliberate and highly optimized topology. You will almost certainly need to retopologize the character at some point, in ZBrush or elsewhere, to prepare it for the best results when rigging and animating. Some production workflows may even require that the mesh be created from the start with a specific, fixed topology that cannot change. Your needs will vary with your tools and output goals.

This is a widely covered subject in videos all over the internet. However it is also a complicated subject requiring multiple disciplines. It would probably be rare to find non-commercial instruction that covers the entire process from start to finish at sufficient depth. I would recommend looking for tutorials on how to rig and animate in your chosen tool, and then you would better understand what you need to get out of ZBrush.

Good luck!

#5

Thanks again for your time.

Just for the record, I’m doing this for myself. I do freelance but before I venture into character modeling/animation I just want to hone my skills using other available programs.

Thanks again.