ZBrushCentral

How is Zbrush for Landscape Generation?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I am considering buying zb3 but I would like to know how well it could fit into my workflow.

I am looking for a way to work with the heightfields (16 or 32 bit images)produced in World Machine to create meshes of landscapes. These may or may not be rendered in zbrush, so I’m interested in exporting a frozen mesh and painted texture maps.

If I may ask a couple of questions.

Can I easily displace a subdivided plane with a 16 bit height map? Can I export a frozen mesh (to render in other applications)?

How well does zb3 handle painting/sculpting of large landscapes (and export of the painted maps)? Large would be 500k-1M polys…

I’m considering a book project and I’m looking for a solution that fits with my heightfield generator (I use World Machine…).

#2

That should work fine.

If you want to post a sample image I’m sure somebody could whip up a mesh from one in a few minutes to show you.

#3

Wrong forum… There is a Question and Troubleshooting forum. But we also shall be constructive… so look here for a few quick samples I whipped up a while ago:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=343216#post343216
And
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=342784#post342784
Lemo

#4

He had a question. :wink:

#5

Thanks for the offer Lemonado… I’ve been pouring over the forums and have found many examples of landscapes… It would seem that what I am after is definitely within zbrush3.

My only concern now is whether or not I will be able to export my meshes… I have read that many of the plugins for zb2 have not be ported to zb3!?

#6

First, I have to apologize… I was 100% sure that post was in the main forum.
Then, I did not use any plugins for the Landscape stuff I did. It’s all just loading of so called gray scale alphas. But, try first if you like it. You might be better of with a program like Terragen 2 or something similar. Zbrush for Landscapes is a bit like MSPaint for fine art. It might work if you put enough effort into it.
But in any case, Z3 is WAY better in exporting high res meshes right now.
No problem exporting a 8 Mio polygon mesh. Except for the 1.5GB .OBJ it generates… I have to find a program which can load it… XSI did load it but then was pretty much un-maneuverable, Modo and other just blew up. So, the challenge will not be how to export fine meshes, but where to use them after that.
Lemo

#7

Lemonado… it was originally (misplaced) in the main forum… the moderator moved it.

Thanks for your comments back.

I do make use of Terragen (TG2) and it will be great when optimized for creating the grand landscape.

I assume that I would have control of the size of the mesh I choose to export… I’m hoping for displacement and normal maps to add the additional detail to a more modest mesh.

I am interested in using zbrush for creating a more illustrative style of landscape rendition… it appears that is possible within the zbrush renderer and painting system (I really like the cartoony style of Bannerman’s work seen on the forums).

But it is also true that I would like to be able to export meshes and maps for use in other applications (such as Maxwell Renderer and modo)… so there is one of my concerns.

I have been reading the various posts and it looks like zbrush3 lacks some map exporting capability (things that were previously handled with plugins).

I think I want to buy… but I wonder if I will have access to zb2.5 and run both as necessary to get the workflow to go.

Here is one I rendered a while back in Maxwell…

#8

I might be wrong, but you can still export displacement maps by generating one and then exporting through the alpha menu.

You just lack fine the control that the plugins give you.

#9

MRCHARLES as i can see your are a LandscapeMaster and all the things you are asking are in Z3 the maps issue will be completed when is released all the plugin that were in Z2.
I really suggest buy right now! Is the best money i spent in my live:D
Andreseloy
ps: this to images were done with alpha in Z3 nothing elaborate but show what can be do i your artist hands.

Attachments

ZB3 LANDSCAPE.jpg

ZBrush DocumentLAND.jpg

#10

I cannot tell you if you will receive ZB2 and ZB3 when you buy ZB3 now, a question best directed to the pixologic support.

Do not worry about the current lack of map exports. It cannot take long till those exports are available. The plugins were from Pixologic, so it does not depend on some mystrious third party which may or may not release those plugins. Just go for it.

Exporting the geometry is more a trial and error thing regarding the geometry those programs can stand. It’s not to shaby in my experience. I often import high res meshes to position other items in the environment. Otherwise objects might get stuck in the landscape once that is displaced.

With a limited amount of trickery you will be able to create your ‘cartoony’ Landscapes with ease.
Lemo

#11

hi, lemo, have you tried Vue? I tried importing 5 mil geo into it and it works like a charm. It does tricks with the display mode so that it displays a low res for good interactivity but reverts back to hires for rendering. I tried and cranked it up to more than 30 million polys in the x64 version with only 2 gig of RAM. It can also use large displacement map.

In XSI 6.01, I tried to load 2 million poly cube and it’s still manoeuvreable (though don’t even think to edit it), did you try it with older XSI or somethin? Apparently there’s an update to the gigapolygon core. Maya needs that.