Am primarily an animator who is searching for the right tools to create.
Zbrush seems to offer untold possibilities for spontaneous kind of modelling and shading but i am worried about the trillions of polygons that i read about:) and that is the buzz among animators.
Could someone take the time to discuss this - i have been unable to find a similar thread - the bar with hardware seems to be cont. rising. At least shading the models would be more intutive etc.
thanks for your reactions!
You can export a low-res at any level to animate then just transfer a high-res displacement map to your character at render time. It’s simple, effective. I pretty much use MotionBuilder for animation these days, I do transfer back to Maya to output RIBs but the process will work with whatever your chosen app.
I believe you can find a lot of info here…
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/forumdisplay.php?f=6
Many of the people here are modeling for animation. Some use other apps to start, some use other apps to end, some do it all here, many options are open to you.
I am strictly an amatuer animator, but I came across Zbrush to help me gain an easier workflow for constructing my animated models. Its been a dream.
The real beauty is the ability to create morph targets for animating.
Similarly the ability to construct a reasonably sophisticated shape by going to a higher resolution, but then take a step back and lower the resolution, to any one of several levels which still retain the subtilies of the outline.
This permits a model to be used at a lower resolution (any where between 1000 and 10000), for groups of models viewed at distance. Then substute the higer resolution version when a highly detailed close up is required. There’s no extra models, its merely exported at the resolutions of your choice. (Clearly there are UV map issues, but one basic model)
Hope this gives you some ideas. This is the opposite end of the spectrum to what the software was perhaps intended, but its perfect for me.
PS This is my first post, bascially I was one of those kids that always sat at the back of the class and watched the most capabable at the front. That’s how it can feel on this site sometimes, but I must say its a brillant place for help and advice, and that is another big plus of ZBrush.
Well welcome to you as well John. You hit one of the many intended purposes of the app right on the head.