ZBrushCentral

XSI worth it?

Community
#1

I’m thinking seriously about investing in the XSI “Foundation”. I’d really like to get some input from any of you XSI users on this forum about using XSI with ZBrush. Does moving data between them work well for you? Are there any hangups I should be aware of first? Why is the base XSI package so much cheaper than Max or Maya anyway (whats wrong with it :slight_smile: )? It seems that some of the most impressive renders on this forum (IMHO) where done in XSI - is this really a result of tighter integration with Mental Ray (which, by the propaganda I’ve read, is one of the best renderers), or is it mainly the skill of the artist (somewhat of a religious question I guess)? I have noticed that 5.0 is going to include import options specific to ZB disp. maps. Currently, if I “pre-order” 5.0 they’ll ship the current 4.x version and then ship 5.0 when its released :slight_smile: - so, it seems like they’re interested in supporting ZB users anyway. Anything else you can add?

Sorry for peppering you with questions; I’m still a bit of a 3D noob and just trying to get some homework done before I drop XXX dollars on a big glop of binary data. The only 3D DCC software I’ve used other than ZB is TrueSpace - which just isn’t cutting for me anymore (I’m working on breaking into digital art as a career change - I’m presently a software engineer, but I happen to have an art background). If users of other packages want to chime in that’d be great, but I can’t afford Max or Maya.

     Thx in advance  :+1:
#2

Hi khassey, i m very pleased with the xsi-zbrush flow.Even without the 5 release i found out its pretty easy to pass things from one to the other.And the result, i guess u ve seen it.Nothing is “wrong” with found. you need to check the official site and check the model comparison (it fully explains what does xsif doesnt have).I thing its a great offer and a must have for freelancers.
:slight_smile:

#3

Thx for your response mr micro. I just found the evaluation version on their web site (I don’t know why I didn’t see that before :rolleyes:), so I guess I jumped the gun a little by posting here. I did see the comparison chart but foundation seems pretty complete (minus hair and a few other cool things) - I’m just wondering if they aren’t telling me something there. I suppose the concept of market segmentation explains it pretty well though. At this point its looking like a good compiment to ZB however!