ZBrushCentral

An open discussion on interface issues

ZBrush Usage Questions
#21

Id be happy for the moment If I could use the Maya Hotkeys for navigation. I came accross this thread in my search for a way to do do just that.

I’ve been modeling for years and don’t forsee Maya ceasing to become my main app in the near future. Navigating in the program you use for years is automatic. You don’t really think about how you do it. That causes all the problems when you sit down at another.

I’d like to know what happened to the gnoman widget for moving objects about. That one I understood. Now in 3 it appears to be gone?

I’m not complaining, but I am looking for a way to customize Zbrush for more ease of use for my work flow.

And as an aside. The Mudbox interface has a really nice feel, but the tools in Zbrush alow me to do more.
The way its going I may have to have both. (confusing the issue more.) Mudbox for interface editing style, and Zbrush for zproject brush as well as other bells and whistles.

Rich

#22

Anyone who shares this point of view please tell Pixologic.

In the hope that Pixologic take some notice of these forums I would just like to add my voice to this appeal for a rethink regarding who uses ZBrush and what they use it for. A rethink could make it so much more intuitive. The look of the interface is beautiful, in my opinion. It is crisp, clean and easy on the eye but the old canvas metaphor just creates confusion. Concentrate on keeping ZBrush the best modelling and mapping software on the planet and let the 2.5 canvas idea fade into an export feature. Who actually composes images in ZBrush? That is what Photoshop is for.

ZBrush is awesome but is difficult to navigate because of those origins. Just hide the 2D stuff from the everyday workflow. :slight_smile:

#23

I just want to adjust my previous comment slightly. I am a complete ZBrush noobie and I am slowly adjusting to the ZBrush interface and the various workflows. The more that I read about ZBrush and the more that I understand about it’s methods the more I like it.

There do seem to be a few bugs in the interface though, at least in the 3.1 trial that I am using, where things do not update on screen. Cutting into a mesh is sometimes not updated until I rotate the view. Pressing the “[” or “]” keys to change the brush size does not update the cursor on screen until the brush is moved. The brush buttons on the left of the screen don’t seem to be properly initialised on start up. I have to click on each of them before the output from the brush correctly matches the properties that are displayed on the buttons. This is only an issue when first starting ZBrush I think, as once the buttons have been pressed they reflect the current state of the brush, but for real newbies trying to learn the interface as quickly as possible these things together can create confusion and frustration which can spoil what is otherwise a woderfully natural modelling experience.

I bow to the experience of long term ZBrush users and trust them to make the informed critiques about interface and workflow issues. I’ve got too much to learn. :confused:

#24

doogle i agree that there are some refresh issues going on, not to mention how the brush icons sometimes are not the brush you selected(blob as standard?).