The best way to understand the interface is to approach it like its MSPaint or Photoshop or some other painting program.
I don’t have a tutorial, but if I were to create one it would go like this:
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The First 2 Minutes in Zbrush (“Pixels”)
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Whether it is MSPaint, Photoshop, or Zbrush, the “Document” in these painting programs is a 2d image that is made out of pixels. Zoom in far enough and you’ll be able to see each one. The point of these image editing programs is to use the Tools that they provide in their Tool pallets (which could be a paintbrush, a fill bucket, or a 3d model) to manipulate the information (usually RGB color data) stored in each of those pixels. This information combines together to create the final image.
Unlike MSPaint, the pixels on a Zbrush Document store more than just RGB color data. They store Material and Z-Depth information as well. Due to this slight variation they can also be refered to as “pixols” (If I had to guess, I would say that the very reason it is called Pixologic Zbrush because the original intent is to use pixols to paint with depth). Ultimately these pixols are still just image pixels, and so I will call them pixels in the rest of this post just to remove any sense of mystery or doubt from them. Calling them pixels also helps stress the 2d mindset that a new user should focus on, since Zbrush is NOT a 3d environment. A pixel is not a polygon. Pixel depth doesn’t mean a 3-Dimensional object that you can rotate around. The zbrush document is still just an image, it just happens to have another channel of grayscale information to represent a depth value.
The takeaway is that it is a painting program. You use Tools from the Tool palette to modify the RGB, Material, and Depth data stored on the Document’s pixels. You can use the Paintbrush tool, a 3d Model Tool, or whatever else you see in the Tool palette.
Demonstration: I’d remove the gradient on the Document so that the new user sees it as a solid color. Make it solid white or gray if it helps the new user view it more like MSPaint or Photoshop. Switch the tool from whatever the default is over to the PaintBrush tool and let them paint some lines on the document to see that they are currently inside a painting program.
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Minutes 3-4 (“Draw Mode”):
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Whenever you draw anything onto the Zbrush Document, this most recent drawing (be it a stroke from the paintbrush or a 3d model) gets stored in a state of limbo* where it has not yet actually permanently altered the information stored in the document’s pixels. This is because Zbrush lets you leave Draw Mode in order to transform (Move, Rotate, or Scale) this very last drawing.
- I don’t know if this state has an actual name, I just call it limbo.
Once you are back in Draw Mode and begin to draw anything else onto the document (even if its an empty click), then the previous drawing gets fully converted to pixel information (because there’s only room in Limbo for the most recent drawing).
Demonstration: With the paintbrush still selected, draw a line or shape. Immediately switch to Move, Scale, or Rotate and then adjust the placement of that recent drawing. Switch back to draw mode, draw a new line or shape, and repeat the process to show that only the most recent drawing is in limbo. You could repeat again, but this time with an empty click (you can also move, rotate, and scale this empty drawing).
https://imgur.com/0BtjEeH
You can also repeat this process, but this time paint over existing pixels that you previously drew. You can turn off Z-Add, and just change the color or material settings to show how the different information channels of a pixel can be altered individually. Once again you can still change the position and scaling of the most recent altercation immediately after you draw it as the most recent drawing will have not yet permanently modified the Document’s pixels.
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Minute 5 (An Optional Example of a Painting):
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This is where I’d show people the point of all this by painting a quick image using basic materials (not matcaps). Its usually quick enough to do some kind of panel with some wires or pipes.
The coil you see here is not a 3d model made out of polygons. It was back when it was first selected from the Tool palette, but now that I drew it onto the document and kept drawing new strokes afterwards, that model has been converted to image pixels on the document (and those pixels are ultimately no different from the rest, such as the concrete details behind it). If this were MSPaint then the RGB information would form the final color that we on the image, and what we see is what we get. In otherwords, the shading we see is stored in the pixel information as color values, baked in like a photograph or painting. But because Zbrush has the additional Depth and Material channels, they combine to add additional influence on the final color appearance of those pixels. We can do things like change the appearance of light direction, or we can change the ‘material’ from something like gold to rubber.
Once finished with the example, I’d save the document as a JPG, PNG, or PSD image to stress once more that so far this is all about painting 2d images.
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Minutes 6-10 (“Edit Mode”):
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Once the point is driven home that Zbrush is a painting program for creating 2d images, it is time to look at where sculpting 3d objects fits into that. Users should know by they’re not limited to simply drawing lines and shapes on the document with the paintbrush, they can choose a 3d Model from the Tool palette and draw them onto the document as well. As with the Paintbrush Tool, you can switch to Move/Scale/Rotate to adjust the placement of the most recent drawing on the document. And once again, any further clicking or drawing on the document while in Draw mode will convert the drawing into image pixels. So functionally these different tool types are similar in how they are used to draw on the document, but 3d Models are unique in that they posses an extra option while they float above the Document in limbo. This extra option is called ‘Edit’ mode.
Until this Edit button is clicked, then everything in Zbrush has been about 2d painting.
But once Edit mode is turned on, we’re no longer just modifying 2d document pixels. Instead, we’re now editing the data that creates the Tool itself (the vertices and polygons that create the 3d model, and and vertex color information stored in the model data). The model is still a Tool because that’s what Zbrush will use it as once you’re finished messing with it. As far as Zbrush is concerned you’re just painting and sculpting on the Tool now so that somewhere down the line you might use that modified Tool to affect the MRGBZ data of the document. That’s zbrush’s assumption; if you only care about editing 3d objects then good chances are you’re only going to save the 3d Tools while mostly ignoring the document pixels.
Demonstration:
Load a 3d model, draw it onto the document, and show how further clicks on the document will convert it into image pixels.
Show how to clear the document of image pixels with CTRL+N if that is not what the user intended to do.
Redraw the model onto the document and show how to enter edit mode while it is still the most recent drawing.
Show how Edit mode causes the various Draw settings to shift their focus to affecting Brushes, which in turn are used to modified the 3d Tool.
Show how to save the Tool so that the user can save the 3d Model itself (rather than a 2d screenshot of it).
Finally demonstrate that if you leave edit mode and convert the model into pixels by starting a new drawing on the document, the sculpted work is still saved to the Tool on the tool palette and so all someone needs to do is clear the document and redraw the tool.
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Minute 11ish (“How 2d affects Zbrush”):
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Reiterate that Zbrush is not a 3d environment. When new users see a 3d object floating on their screen with a floor grid under it they might mistakenly think otherwise. That leads to frustration.
Other users acknowledge that there is a 2d element to zbrush but they think they can ignore it. This also leads to frustration.
The Document and all its 2d stuff isn’t an unwanted topping someone can simply pick off their zbrush pizza. The Document is the crust and sauce of a Zbrush Pizza; its the foundation of the program and the 2d element plays its hand in everything the program does. For example:
- A model, when in edit mode, is essentially floating in limbo above the document image (https://i.imgur.com/KckTFSG.jpg).
- You're not orbiting a virtual camera around a 3d world to change your view of the model. There is no camera. You're rotating and scaling the model itself as it floats in limbo above the 2d image document. This is why Navigation can feel different from 3d programs if you don't realize it.
- Because there is no 3d environment, there is also no actual lights to place around the scene. This is why the lighting and material system is faked with litsphere/matcap/spherical mapping.
- Because there is no 3d environment there is no 3D Scene Management and all that comes with it (one of the things Pixologic attributes to Zbrush being able to easily work with millions of vertices even on older hardware). This means there is no traditional modifier stack. And only the most recent drawing can exist in limbo, so you can only see and edit one 3D Tool at a time (this is where subtools come in handy).
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Now that your first 15 minutes are up:
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Dive into actual tutorials that begin going into the various features the program offers.
For example, this is where you might learn what a primitive is (a shape created by a mathematical formula whose values you can change on the fly using sliders), and why it needs to be converted to a polymesh object in order to turn it from an equation into a set of polygons you can then edit.
