ZBrushCentral

Sneak peek #1 of ZBrush 4R2

ZBrush Announcements
#41

I have to agree with most of what’s been said. Users actually interested in rendering are, I think, more likely to export their file to another program and start rendering passes. All these rendering features are very very good for people like me though (people that really understand nothing about rendering and don’t want to bother learning Mental ray or Vray or whatever ^^)

They are trying to make rendering easy and accessible to the average Joe, and I can’t blame them for that. The only actual renders I ever made were done with BPR because rendering is something quite counter-intuitive and hard to get your head around. So to sum up on this, improvements in rendering are good for noobs like me but still not very satisfying for users that know how to get the most out of Vray, Mental Ray etc…

As far as I am concerned, I have to admit I cannot wait to see a new retopology workflow appear in the next versions of Zbrush (Retopo from Polypaint? Colour-coded extraordinary vertices detection? RetopoMaster?) because when they get there, people will have no excuse to use Polymodeling anymore. The only problem of digital sculpting is the incredibly high number of Polygons and crappy edgeflows that make your model not-usable for anything. But as soon as it gets retopologized… hehehe :wink:
So maybe instead of making rendering easier, why not make retopology easier? It would make more sense I think.

So, yeah, I think Zbrush has a lot more potential on the modeling side of things than any polymodeling program. Therefore, I think engineers, programmers and artists teams at Pixologic should focus their efforts on making their modeling workflow even better.
The Clay Algorhythm changed our lives, the same for the Clip Brushes and ShadowBox. This is the kind of novelties we want to see again and again ^^

#42

Absolutely awesome Pixologic teams! but please fix some current problems (i.e: auto masking, make 3d…) and stability for the next release!:):):slight_smile:
U guys r having the best sculpt software!

#43

Animation, rendering who cares of that? Zbrush meant to be sculpting aplication.
Maybe You should ask people from time to time what they realy want to see in next zbrush and not making such mistery around every release.
Even autodesk realized that comunication with customers is necessary.
Don’t get me wrong, I just don’t like the direction that zbrush take.
Best regards,

Tomek

#44

Tomala why you are still complaining. Try to appreciate new render, maybe one day you will use it (i hope);D Who needs new retopo or x64 version - nonsense.

#45

Once again, love you guys! Really, I do.

#46

Holy smokes!!! :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

#47

I use Zbrush mainly for newspaper illustrations. Better renders are just what I need. Thank you very much!

#48

When I clicked on SNEAKPEAK I was curious to find something really useful for my sculpting tool.
This is for what I bought ZBrush and for what I am learning it.

But some users seems to use exclusively ZBrush.
For those it should be a blast I guess.

But I hope it’s not the end of this sneakpeak.
I hope it’s more just the beginning toy and you keep the best for the end .
…like striptease :wink:

Knacki

#49

This is great news.

Just trying to figure out the current release and BAM a new update comes out.

Like the program a great deal.

:slight_smile:

#50

Awesome add !!! being able to render so well i n ZB is a great thing. And…hey this is only the first thing unveiled for R2, who knows what comes next ? Maybe better retopology tools will be coming as well. So don’t be negative at the start, and let’s wait patiently to know what Pixolator is cooking this time. Thanx Pixologic ! :slight_smile:

#51

Thats what I am talking about! Previews, sneak peaks! Amazing work Pixologic and DOUBLE THX for showing us whats to come instead of just being silent. :+1:

#52

Who could stop them now? :wink: :smiley:
Can’t wait !!

#53

I do.

#54

me too :slight_smile:

#55

you do realize that when they ask they will probably get just as many asking for improved rendering as those who want something else ?
plus, they anyway certainly do observe what people ask for around here and with every new release we did get quite a few more very useful features/improvement, apart from rendering.

Oh and… if you want to compare Pixologic with Autodesk - try asking Autodesk for a free upgrade to the next Max/Maya/Xsi/Mudbox :wink:

#56

Great render of the zwatch man!!! Nice material selection! I NEED that timepiece on my wrist :bulb:

Excited to try these new render features, just keeps getting better :+1:

#57

Please note what I’m about to write is NOT a personal attack to either you or the good people of Pixo, they’re humans, just like us, who work on a product at the end of the day.

First of all, I understand that, it's fine, and while my previous rant may have sounded sour, it honestly wasn't. The thing that perplexes me is when a new release comes along, for every hundred people who shout "YAY" we only have one "NAY", and that "NAY" usually gets shucked in one corner. I'm honestly starting to hate ZBrush's userbase, because they're killing ZBrush. "WAH, animation would be cool for Turntable." *Done* "WAH, but we want real animation, we cannot use a recording program." *Erm, Done* "WAH, I need to render stuff." *Simple enough* "WAH, but I need real SSS and backdrop scene integration, not fake fresnel!" *Ooookay...erm...done* "WAH, I cannot Hard-Surface in ZB" *Control loops will help?* "What the **** are control loops? Do something bitch!" *Ugh, fine!* Then people like me come along and do this: "Dear Pixo, do you mind giving an ETA on when base updates that have become base-work-pipelines in both the movie and game industry will come to ZBrush?" *...* "Pixo? Hello?" *...* "Don't leave me, I love you!" So what is the problem you ask? ~(64-Bit) You don't need 64 bit to use ZBrush, I'll be the first one to admit this, but when people like Scott Spencer in their Tutorials are pushing 6GB of RAM in ZB, me mailing ZB and asking if there is a way to do such as thing and getting the bold faced answer of "No" doesn't help. AT LEAST the bloody promise that ZB might one day become 64-bit if we hung around long enough will be enough to keep me going, but it doesn't help when they stay quite about it. I mean honestly, what would happen if they just hinted us that 64 bit might one day come? What? You guys think Mudbox will become 128-bit or that Andrew with 3DC might come up with 256-bit? ~(Hard-Surface) People complained about this issue greatly, as in we don't have the tools. It was pretty stupid for me since we could still model in out 3DS Packages and with control loops still export something workable, but no, Pixo thought it was a good idea to put time and effort in creating Brushes and Tools to do this, when they could have done one simple thing, create a system, a la Pixar-Sub-D to automatically do the hard surface retention properly. If some lone scientist guy was able to figure out how to create a Max Plugin which imports Smoothing groups, surely Pixo could have figured out a way to keep the hard edges for a 90* mesh. ~(Animation Timeline) I feel indifferent to said tool, but I honestly believe they could have been working on stabilizing the Deformations tools rather then doing this. -(ShadowBox) I feel indifferent to said tool, but honestly believe they should have at least cleaned the said tool. One of the walls in ShadowBox is bugged and will give lower resolutions then the other walls, and sometimes, the walls won't even increase in resolution when ordered too. And why is it called ShadowBox? I'm frankly suprised you people didn't stick a Z instead of an S. ZhadowBox...afraid Cthulhu might get you or something? -(Retopology) Honestly, just drop this tool already. It's bad enough since 3.5 version it flips the normals of mesh if they're not connected in Sym mode, but the fact that you cannot add points which 'conform' to your model as desired forcing me to delete entire sections of the model? What? You guys have some kind of masochistic fetish where you rub yourself as you imagine poor little guys like me crying my-self to sleep because we have to delete entire portions of our character? If it means the tools can become better by some magic, just stick a Z infornt it guys, Zesus... -(Texturing) Stop calling it Polypaint, this is the only point in ZBrush which brings my blood to a boil, I'm a pretty calm guy, and if you read my previous points, you'll notice that generally you can skimp on them with other packages, but this is the needle in my side. VERTEX-PAINTING! You Vertex-Paint in ZB, not Poly-paint, for Poly(gon) would at least imply some kind of Face painting in question with a ideal ratio, not the blending of colors between vertices! And how come you guys didn't call it something else with a Z in it? What? Was saying ZolyPaint too hard?

I don’t hate you guys, but honestly guys! Every single update to date has been a useless cavalcade of mediocrity which could have had an easier solution or not been added because we already have the tools in other platforms.

You guys had a powerful render system which was amazing, and that fact that we could modify it around as needed was fantastic. You guys updated a few things, and thank you, really, thank you, the ability to simulate refraction and convexity of glass so easily is amazing, but everything else was already there, done, all people had to do was explore the tools.

Please, just tell me what your road-map is and I’ll be very happy. If you guys are going to keep on pampering the to the people who are simply lazy and want a bajillion things in one software and sometimes not even bother learning the in and out of ZB to get things done, forcing you to create a homogenized dumped heap of a pap software, then please tell me.

At least then if I get my heartbroken, I’ll get it broken by Mudbox when using it, not from a company who had the potential for a great software but kept on the giving to the lower demographic just because they asked more useless stuff.

#58

wooooow this rocks

#59

Well said.

As a render leader in animation industry i must say this is an excellent update for Zbrush.This is a great support to zbrush users, many of them will not need to purchase any other software to just render thair models or thair arts.

For 64bit and better topology (current topology in zbrush is good, it just need to be a bit automatic) I will wait for next updates. I know Pixologic will do it nicely.

[I have some idea about topology, how i can send them to you?]

#60

Hey I love the folks at Pixologic and I know they work really hard and yet I do agree with many of the complaints raised (although Julian_K’s response is right on - every one is gonna ask for everything). But I will say this as my small bit of advice: You will have a much easier time getting hold of Pixologic’s ear by posting cool artwork as often as possible. When they SEE how you use the tools it gets them excited and more motivated to improve ZBrush, add tools, etc. People have been posting cool BPR renders since the release of ZB4 and that gets them excited about BPR so hence, more improvements to rendering.

If you start posting whatever images you can and include your workflow and grab their attention you’ll start seeing the tool change the way you want. Don’t like retoplogy in ZBrush? post some images of your work and show them why you don’t like it. The guys at ZBrush are human beings just like all of us. They like shiny, pretty things. simply complaining in the forum every once in a while is not going to get you as far because everyone is always doing that all the time (yes, I get tired of the knee-jerk cheerleading too but knee-jerk bitching isn’t any more productive).

Not that they don’t listen, they do, but when they SEE what you’re doing they get inspired. Go back in time and watch Meats Mier’s early ZBrush DVDs, see how many techniques he developed and see how they evolved into common tools (mesh extraction for example) look at Zack Petrock’s early ZBrush DVDs and see how that inspired Transpose.

I’m not interested in starting a flame war or smack down or anything, its just my opinion. Yeah, I want instant retopology but at the moment posting images of new retoplogy tools is not as sexy as some cool renders.

but really what I would like is the same software developed in the movie “Weird Science” that allows you to instantly print a living super model with super powers but that may be a few years off still. Even is it does come out I doubt I can sneak it past my wife.