ZBrushCentral

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ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi guys, I’ve recently landed a spot teaching Zbrush does happy dance again It’s the first course of it’s kind that I’m aware of and it is split into two main chunks… Intro to Zbrush for illustration etc and Maya to Zbrush and back for animation… I’m currently in the early stages of developing a course structure and I’m wondering what you guys all think the main challenges are that I’ll encounter in helping people to adapt to Zbrush…

The course is aimed at mostly industry professionals so I’ll be dealing with fairly 3d literate folk… My understanding is that most people are so accustomed to the rigid structure of modelling, editing etc in 3d apps and when they initially switch to the intuitive based approach of Zbrush it confuddles them a little… For me as a previously analogue based artist, Zbrush was like exactly what I’d been wishing for and I had no trouble diving in and figuring out how to achieve my aims in the app… From what I read tho, that’s not the case for most…

I hear a great deal of people talk of how they struggle coming to grips with the app and am wondering if some of you, for whom the journey has been a bit rough in Zbrush, would share with me what you think the obstacles were so that I can better equip myself to meet everyones needs while developing and implementing these courses in the near future… I’d love to discuss it with you guys here and am happy to offer whatever advice/ insights that I can in return…

Any help here will be greatly appreciated

#2

Congratulations!

Hiding and selecting sections of models; workspace navigation. These procedures are the most different to standard 3D programmes and are there right at the beginning of the student`s Z-B learning phase, like a whacking great wall.

Cheers,

R

#3

some thinigs to consider when trying zbrush for the first time:

  1. let people play for a good 15 minutes for the first class session. let them try to figure their way around the software. they will get lost pretty quickly.

  2. then, if 3d is the focus, have them load an OBJ file, and have them draw it on the screen, do not tell them about the “T” button. watch them get quickly overwhelmed by drawing the model again and again on the screen, until it fills up the canvas.

  3. finally, after much floundering, have them load an OBJ file, and kindly tell them about the “T” button.

  4. after that, have them try to navigate the space intuitively. after much floundering, tell them about the uses of the the shift button, and the alt button when navigating 3d space.

  5. after that, have them play with the sculpting abilities, let them drag the simple brush along the model, and do not tell them about the modifier keys, let them experiment with their own intuition.

  6. then, after much floundering, tell them about alt and shift for sub and smoothing. tell them about right clicking for draw sizing.

  7. then, inevitably, someone will have found the ctrl-key, and have gotten confused, with half their mesh missing, and no apparent way to get it back.

  8. tell them about hiding the mesh using the ctrl key. tell them about unhiding the mesh by ctrl draggin in an empty part of the canvas.

  9. then, when they get to a point that they migh even remotely be happy with the project, have them do a document>save, then tell them to reload the document. watch them get confused when their model is now dropped to the canvas and no longer a 3d entity.

  10. then tell them that next time, remember to tool>export or tool>saveAs instead!

these are some big initial concepts to get around. just realizing those basics are enough to get people frustrated, since they do run counter-intuitive to the mainstream 3d dogma.

#4

Haha! - that is soo cruel, mudboxhype :

  1. then, if 3d is the focus, have them load an OBJ file, and have them draw it on the screen, do not tell them about the “T” button.
    but a great general intro, nonetheless :+1:

They’ll need to know about the ‘pixol/pixel’ relationship pretty early on, along with using the ‘Local transformations’ and ‘Reflection’ painting tools also.

Sometime later, it might be a good idea to introduce them to the ZSphere’ concept, if only for the purpose of roughing out quad-based models to
detail up later on.

Will speak to you later as planned anyway, Rob

good luck!

Chris

#5

Rory_L… Thanks, hididng and selecting still gets me sometimes but I’ve developed a decent workflow now… Cheers, I will definitely implement this early on in both courses

mudboxhype… Love the ‘cruel to be kind’ approach here… thanks, it’s like forcing them to learn what not to do (like we all had to) before showing them the light… I’m thinking that this approach has a great deal of merit (as well as entertainment value) and will probably implement it… CHeers!

Atwooki… you legend;) thanks mate, I’ll definitely cover zspheres, it currently slots into the 3rd of 4 days in the intro course… the first day is all 2.5d and interface/ workflow… We wont even import and obj until the last day so that we can really focus on the art of creating n zbrush… Your help in zsphere land will really get to stretch its legs here mate Cheers!

Much appreciated guys, you’ve made the research phase of this course much easier for me, I plan to start writing the intro course next week and much of what you’ve offered will be included

#6

Wow, it’s been a year probably since I posted here. Mudboxhype, you must’ve been watching over my shoulder when I first (second, third…) tried zBrush. It seems like every available tool is somehow represented onscreen, but as soon as you click something it’s like “OK, that was not what I expected that to do…” But in all defense of zBrush, reading your post also shows how simple it really is. While I never dreamed I’d still be waiting for 2.5 almost two years later, I plan to actually try mastering that one. I figure anything that still doesn’t make sense by 2.5 will be set in stone and worth learning in the long run.