ZBrushCentral

Brianstorm - Traditional vs Zbrush

Community
#1

Hi Guys!

I’m a uni student carrying out a project to look at the differences with traditional modelling (polymer clay etc.) and zbrush - and I want my writeup to focus on the differences in techniques, especially the pros and cons of each.

The final project will include one model in polymer clay and another relatively identical version in zbrush. That way I will give each method a fair try and see the differences first hand. However, it would be really useful if people could just post a few ideas regarding the differences, the pros and cons of working in zbrush vs working with physical materials.

For example laying down topology in zbrush is perhaps harder because you dont have the same physical volume that you have with a clay structure?
or
Detailing in zbrush is incredibley versatile because you have ‘unlimited’ zoom.

…Well thats the kind conjecture and ideas i’m looking for anyway. I’m pretty confident there will be some people in this forum that have used both, but if you haven’t - throw me a couple of ideas from the zbrush angle anyway!

I started to use zbrush just before xmas (I’ve been absolutley blown away by it!) and for those who are interested I will be modelling a nude female with cloth draped over her for this project.

Looking forward to the sharing of ideas!

Thanks
Jon

#2

Hi Jon,

I happend to have done both, in the sense I trained at high school in clay crafts and sculpture and now I am into 3D modelling using Zbrush as main and forgot the old days. Apart from your examples, one immediate difference that I realised is that gravity does play a major role when it comes to physical modelling vs virtual namely when modelling fine and lengthy details such as strands of hair, rods, etc.

Rotating the model and working in complex difficult to reach areas is another advantage of zbrush, whilst you can model in T pose and animate or pose at a later stage, now through other applications or with Zbrush3 if I am not mistaken, whilst with caly you generally model in pose.

Zbrush and a very good wacom does give certain physical control whilst modelling in virtual stance… such as pen pressure control etc. Actually the list of pros and cons is endless, it is really up to you to hold balance, but I am of the opinion that Zbrush is far better and now-a-days I much prefer to model in Zbrush and have the charater 3D printed…

#3

I’ve done very very little work with physical clay or the like… but two huge differences come to mind as no-brainers for me

first… the ability to Undo… I know that with clay materials you can just smooth out unwanted details, but it’s time consuming and you run the risk of unintentional damage to your work… in some forms of sculpture such as stone or wood, what fallback do you have at all if you screw up?.. in digital form you can have multiple save files and undo many widesweeping changes in less than seconds

second… the pure speed and scale you can work at… depending on the type of digital work you’re doing, the speed just isn’t comparable… if you’re trying to sculpt a basic digital form with perfectionist polygon modeling methods for animation or something, then that can take forever… but if you’re just throwing some zspheres together and then sculpting in zbrush, you can do so much in a matter of minutes… stencils are a great example… find an alpha with a nice, detailed texture that you want to use, float it on the screen on top of your model, rotate and scrub… you can make alot of intricate detail in a matter of minutes which I imagine would take hours with clay

another point I can think of is the variety of uses that a 3d model can see as compared to a physical sculpture… unless we’re talking about something specifically made for stop-motion, a physical sculpture will always just be a sculpture… a 3d model can be modified and transformed into any number of variations, be customized and posed for use in any number of still images, animated, imported into a game or simulation, or actually printed into a physical object

I respect the traditional as I think it takes a great deal more skill and dedication than digital… and those skills cross over as well… but as far as productivity and practical use go, I don’t see any contest

but then again, I’m biased… as I have very little traditional art experience

#4

proimage - I completely agree with everything you said, your comments about the gravity affecting the clay is something I had not thought of, which makes zbrush seem to me to be far more powerful not having to worry about the laws of nature.

Also, speaking of wacom tablets, mine arrived last week and has changed my experience of modelling in virtual space completely with a level of control that I didn’t even know existed with 3d modelling. Although, I do in someways feel that by not actually touching the model we perhaps loose some of the experience of modelling, but on the other hand being able to work at such high speed allows artists to create more of their ideas in a shorter amount of time.

SalmonGod - UNDO - what a brilliant concept that was! Without it I would be lost on many occassions, I also think that having a function like that where you have no risk of loosing details allows artists to push their models to a higher level of detail without worrying about the risk of screwing up the original. Perhaps in some way, the time consuming correction of a clay model is parable to the high skill involved with creating believeable muscle and bone structures in zbrush. So the challenge for artists (as proimage said) is to make the models look like they have the correct volumes and as though they are being affected by gravity to become somewhat believeable.

Another big difference I can see is the cost, and although i dont know how much a model costs to be 3d printed, I have just spent a small fortune on the clay for this current project… Multiply this by the number of models I will produce per year and modelling in the real world starts to seem pretty expensive! Infact it makes the intial cost of zbrush look really very small.

If anybody disagrees with these opinion please join in as this is definitley not set in stone and i’m very willing to take onboard peoples thoughts. However, if you have another pro or con you’d like to add to the list so far - fire away!

This is really very interesting!
Jon

#5

I once saw the trees
fallen in place
and I saw the natural
wonder

#6

Hmmmm… thanks for the ‘relevant’ reply. Not as appreciated as you might think though!

#7

my bad
I was thinkin about what to create
accept my apologise
and my spelling