ZBrushCentral

Brand Newbie wanting to model real faces

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I was just sent here by a friend today and the program looks very interesting. I make 3D signs currently and have a modeling program for that. It can then use the model and create tool paths for my cnc machine. However, the modeling quality looks to be on different levels, thus raising our interest in ZBrush.

It just so happens I have a client wanting to send me portraits of people, their faces. She wants to know if I can model their face and will they look like the photos. This can actually be done to a degree in my current software Aspire 2.5 by Vectric. My question is would it be easier to get done in ZBrush…How about the quality? I realize most of you wont be able to compare if you don’t use Aspire…and thats fine. In that case could you tell me how to learn to do it in ZBrush? Where do I start? Are there tutorials for importing face pictures and modeling them? Is there a free demo of the program?

Sorry for all the questions! TIA for any help though. It is much appreciated!

Melissa

#2

Let me simplify my questions…

Can I take a photo of a person and model it in 3D fairly easily as a beginner with Zbrush?

If so could I export them as stl?

#3

Hi Melissa and welcome to ZBrush Central.

Originally posted by nicecarvings:
Let me simplify my questions…
Phew!..that’s a relief, it was hard to understand what you meant the first time.:rolleyes: :lol:

Originally posted by nicecarvings:
How about the quality?
To see what ZBrush is capable of (in the hands of talented people), all you have to do is browse through The ZBrush Gallery.

Originally posted by nicecarvings:
My question is would it be easier to get done in ZBrush
That would depend on the “doer”. What capabilities do you have? For some people, it would be very easy. For others, not so much. ZBrush is a digital sculpting application and it does this exceedingly well. You can import reference images into ZBrush and sculpt from them, but how good of a sculpter are you?

Originally posted by nicecarvings:
In that case could you tell me how to learn to do it in ZBrush? Where do I start? Are there tutorials for importing face pictures and modeling them?
Clicking here should answer that.

Originally posted by nicecarvings:
Is there a free demo of the program?

At this moment, there isn’t a demo version available of ZBrush 4.

Originally posted by nicecarvings:
If so could I export them as stl?
With the free ZBrush 3D Exporter plugin, you can export in STL, Binary, Ascii and VRML.

#4

Thank you for the help, it’s appreciated! It looks like a lot of work and a whole new learning curve. As awesome as it looks, I don’t know if I’m up for the challenge. Maybe after some youtube videos! :slight_smile:

Have a great day, zber!

#5

What would be nice is if someone sent me a model in stl format so that I could open it in my cnc toolpath program to see how it looks!

Anybody willing to do that for me?

#6

For now, just to give you an idea, you can check out the 3D Print Exporter plugin here and see what other people are doing with it.

#7

There are programs out there that can take one or two flat photographs of a head and create a 3D mesh out of it. Facegen is one and I think Poser can do it in the face room too.

Unfortunately neither of those is free and I don’t know of a similar free app that could do it.

You could then export the 3d mesh as an .obj and import it into Zbrush.

The model could then be textured in ZBrush, and if needed further sculpted.

If you want to learn ZBrush there are a lot of videos both here in the forums, on the main ZBrush site and also on Youtube.

Good luck and happy modelling.