ZBrushCentral

Zbrush + Wings3d = The Perfect Organic Modeler

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#1

I downloaded the freeware Wings3d Program yesterday (from www.wings3d.com ) and am very impressed. Combined with the unsurpassed speed of ZSpheres, and low poly adaptive skinning, making a basic head template with proper edge flow (including the very tricky nose), is now as easy as selcting loops and extruding, beveling, insetting, mirroring, and my favorite, “dissolving.”

I had been exporting into Lightwave 7.5 Modeler, but that doesn’t have great support for edges, so, it’s a little trickier modifying existing meshes.

For me, Wings3D is nearly as user friendly as ZBrush. Just read the easy-to-follow tutorials availbe on the website and your on your way. Combined with Zbrush 1.5, an absolutely kick-ass combination is in our graphic building arsenal, makeing a more than adequate team until Pixologic unleashes “painted edge loops” as suggested in a previous thread in the ZBrush Forum :smiley: .

Hopefully other ZBrush users, who, like me, want more precise mesh tools in ZBrush, will take solace with Wings3D.

After you’ve made a low poly adaptive skin (level 1 or 2) your Zsphere, just be sure to press the ‘Flp’ button in the ZBrush Export menu, and export as an .OBJ quad. When in Wings, be sure you’re in Face selection mode (the red pyramid) before importing.

Also, while downloading, check out the Wings3D gallery. The venerable Ken Brilliant seems to be way ahead of the curve, once again :smiley: :+1: .

On the downside, this program actually seems to make Zbrush even more addictive, as now we can put in detail, cleanly, without worrying about high poly counts or degraded fidelity with methods like dividing and smoothing or unified skinning.

Also, if you’ve paid for one of the big packages, like Cinema4D, or Lightwave, you may feel a little ripped off, as their modeling workflow may seem a little unfriendly compared to Z and Wings (at least for organic objects). Just tell yourself you spent the money on the rendering and animation tools, and you’ll be alright :slight_smile: :+1: or, at the very least, hesitant of paying for another program besides ZBrush :smiley: :+1: .

#2

Hi!

I can only second your opinion on them (Zbrush and Wings) making a perfect pair for modeling - especially lowpoly) via the obj. format. Greetings!

#3

Thanks for the tip! Wings 3D is great!

:+1:
DanS

#4

You’ve just swayed me into checking out Wings3D. I keep seeing it mentioned by people on this forum and now my curiousity has peaked. :smiley:

#5

…is one of the older member to say the same for a lot of years :wink:
Mahlikus the Black and wings3D :cool:
Pilou
Ps An avatar of Wings3D is Silo more speedy and in perpetual evolution (not free but only 109 $ )

#6

Good timing on the thread necromancy there pix0l_d00d. :slight_smile: I am just starting to understand wings 3d and sub-d modelling.

As a real noob I would suggest to other beginners to start with wings 3d rather than silo. Wings has enough documenation and tutorials out there at the low levels to get you started. Silo is a bit lean in this area.

Funny thing was I found wings about a year ago and dismissed it because I didn’t take the time to see past some of the roughness of the UI, and also because I didn’t take the time to really understand what it can do. Try not to make this mistake if you’re just starting to look at wings.

Frenchy, you had a tech tip back there about using wings and zb 1.5. Can you make suggestions about using it with zb 2?

One thing that I run into is after doing a zsphere model and importing it into wings is that the resulting meshes from each zsphere are seperate pieces (and thus can’t be smoothed). I couldn’t seem to put them back together in wings (combine? maybe I did something wrong it didn’t seem to work for me). Either that or how to “best” export a tool for some tweaking in wings.

Thanks!

#7

…in wings3D in object mode a function “Combine” / “Separate” ? :wink: (Right Mouse Button)
Mabe make a polymesh3D before export to Wings3D :slight_smile:
Wings3D for Zbrush 1.55b or ZB2 is exactly friendly the same :slight_smile:
Pilou

#8

It’s there. :slight_smile:

Attachments

combine.jpg

#9

See my last post for maybe resolve your problem! (I have edited it)
Pilou

#10

I also just found the export menu section under tools (with all the options). I think if you export with grp off, it will probably work.

Yes, that did it. Also, I didn’t use the flp button and it seems o.k. What am I missing?

Thanks