After seeing some samples images, and trying the demo, I’m sold. However, I would like to get some opinions on accompanying software. My budget is limited, and my thoughts were to grab something like Vue 5 Pro Studio for no fuss environments to place my models in add some nice lighting effects etc. Would such a program work ok, or do I really need to look into getting Maya Complete, or Lightwave, etc. (Can’t afford Max, and as it is I’m stretching my budget from tax returns.) I’m going to be upgrading my tablet form a graphire to an Intuos 3, and grabbing some training DVDs all at the same time… Any input on what would work best would be great. I have AutoCAD and am familiar with it’s workflow but most of the high end 3d applications seem foreign to me so I have to get over that learning curve to boot but Zbrush seems pretty intuitive. Thanks for the help.
If i was on a budget i would buy Carrara, it has a lot of features, good rendering
and is used buy at least one professional Zbrusher : Marcel (or sometimes Celmar) …you can check him out on this forum or on Cg-talk .
jantim
Personally, I’d try and see what you can get going in Zbrush alone, first.
Thanks for the tip on Carrara. That’s one application I didn’t look too carefully at. In my initial search, I grabbed all the major landscape specialty software packages and reviewed their features and their galleries. (Vue, World Builder, Terragen, etc.) And the closest match I could find was Vue. Carrarra however does have a few features that grab my eye. The ability for non realistic renders, and the CADstyle plug in so I could work with IGES and STEP files. On the other hand, it’s landscapes and vegetation don’t seem that evolved in relation to the other Specialized programs. I’ll see if I can find more galleries and images created with the two.
Hi Malloc,
Carrara4Pro has a lot of bang for the buck, and the Carrara plugin development community is growing. I decided on Carrara because I simply did not have the budget for Max or Maya and the expensive plugins. Carrara4Pro has improved animation over earlier versions, since users have targeted animation as one of the weaker points. The developer, Eovia, seems dedicated to responding to the needs of its users and maintaining a reasonable price.
Chris
PMG has a nice version of Messiah Studio (work station edition) for $300.00 US No modeling features though. Here is the link http://www.projectmessiah.com
It is worth checking out.
What do you want to create in ZBrush/ and or make in CG? I’ve done my share of budget based research.
It seems the first post was skipped over a bit. I too would like to know which 3d software has a seamless integration with ZBrush.
I purchased ZBrush to get my feet wet in 3d and it seems I need a 3d software to compliment it. Maya and Lightwave would be good for me because I am a Mac person. Which is better for ZBrush?, experts? 
Thanks in advance, Steve
I just read an article somewhere …maybe computer arts or 3d world…can’t remember now…they compared maya, max, lightwave, cinema 4d, xsi. It gives some ins and outs of each but they chose cinema 4d overall for various reasons, one of which was ease of use…good for newbies and cost I think was one as well.
You could probably find the article online somewhere.
I have tried maya’s learning edition and I like it. There are tons of tutorials etc if you are leaning that way to learn from.
Nice thing about cinema4d though is it is modular and as you can afford more you can build or add more features as the pocket book allows.
anyway some food for thought.
XSI leaves C4D for dead, when it comes to value for money.
Heh.
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it won’t be this subject.
Well if you are a mac user I would say it’s pretty much a choice between Maya and C4D. Lightwave does not have the all important sub-pixel displacement capabilities. Lightwave also has extremely poor texture filtering. Maya and C4D are both going to give you high quality rendering, though niether offers a “seamless” integration with Zbrush. If you are wanting to do character animation Maya would probably be the better choice, though beware it’s rendering workflow, though extremely powerful, is not newbie friendly in the least. In the end I think you will just have to try the demos of both (Lightwave does not have a demo, that should tell you something) and just see which one you can get the furthest with before your demo expires.
If you’re on a Mac and want external software mainly for rendering I would recommend Cinema 4D. I use Maya 6 and C4D r.9 and for me at least it is much more enjoyable to set up a scene and render it in C4D. Maybe I don’t know enough about Maya :o but every time I have to use it to render I wish I could be using C4D. In both Maya & Cinema you would be importing an OBJ and they both have sub-pixel displacement as someone mentioned earlier. there are demo versions of both available, maybe try them out and see which suits you better.
It might help if you read the first post in the thread.
Thanks all.
Both Maya and lightwave seem to be great programs.
And now that I have been apprised of Cinema 4d…well
now I’m totally confused… lol
hello -
the new Cinema4D 9 ist really good with ZBrush! - i only said stability - Subdisplacement - the renderer and the new modelling tools ! and easy to use!
i also use Carrara ! the new terrain shader and the renderer ist the best for
less bucks !