Just recently I took delivery of Kurvs new “Get into ZBrush” DVD, so I thought it would be cool to do a little review of it compared to Gnomons “An introduction to ZBrush”.
Whatever you decide, I would recommend any new user to Zbrush to get one of these DVD’s, I hope you find this useful.
Ok first off Gnomons “An introduction to Zbrush” with Meats Meier. On first load up you’ll need to check you have all the bits to view it, which if you haven’t, you are prompted with appropriate links. When the DVD kicks in you get a sweet spinny “G” logo & some good sub woofer killing bass which makes you feel you have purchased a top quality DVD, which in effect you have. You are then presented with a list of all the lectures & an introduction to the artist.
On the disc you get around 4.5 hours of lecture, teaching you the basics from, interface navigation through to more advanced stuff like texturing in Projection Master etc. However knowing ZBrush quite well myself, many things that are extremely useful are missing. One which springs to mind is the use of stencils for modelling & texturing. Although the presentation is top notch the content lacks a bit & Meats’ teaching style is very random but easy to follow. Also the sound is very erratic, sometimes it’s so low that Mr Meier can’t be heard at all, only to blast back in a second later destroying your speakers & eardrums. The DVD does help you get started in ZBrush, but you can’t help thinking that Gnomon have blatantly omitted some content so that it’s essential for a follow up DVD. This is good buisness, but at $69.00 dollars plus postage you can’t help thinking you’ve been knocked just a little.
So now onto Kurvs “Get into ZBrush” with Glen Southern. On first load up (which isn’t the quickest) You are faced with a HTML page with a list of links to the various tutorials plus a short profile on Mr Southern. Basically the DVD interface is Kurvs very own website, which isn’t the best to navigate & to be honest seems a little cheap. When I clicked on the links to get to the tutorials, Windows gave me a warning about active x & basically refused to play the files, this may be my PC settings, I don’t know, but I don’t have any special settings that I’ve used, as far as I’m aware my PC settings are pretty much standard except for Firefox (hmmm). I explored the DVD & found the tutorial files, which I then opened in Quicktime with no problems whatsoever.
Apart from the interface & general bedroom built look & feel, Kurv has given a mind boggling 9 hours of lectures for half the price of the Gnomon DVD. Glens teaching style is much clearer & thought out too, plus you benefit from following one project from begining to end, unlike Gnomons more random bit & bobs. This DVD still has sound issues though, but not as bad as Gnomons. For half the price you get twice as much content, which covers virtually every aspect of ZBrush. With this title you feel you have got your moneys worth. The only thing that could do with some thought is the user interface, it just doesn’t say professional when you compare it to the likes of Gnomon.
Pros & Cons
Gnomon Pros: Excellent presentation, good quality tutorials, Meats teaching style is a little random but easy to follow.
Gnomon Cons: Doesn’t cover everything, sound is quite poor, price is a little steep.
Kurv Pros: Insane amount of content, Glen is an excellent teacher, the price.
Kurv Cons: The presentation’s a little cheap & I had issues using the links.
Conclusion
Both titles are excellent & give you a good jump start into Zbrush, but Kurv give you much more for much less, albiet slightly rough around the edges compared to Gnomons title.
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