How many ZBrush users are there ?

[TVeyes]

I recently returned to using ZBrush and ZBrushCentral after a brief hiatus. Brief in the sense that I started using ZBrush in 2002 and … well, what is a couple of years disconnect between friends But after returning and seeing the main forum and the question & troubleshooting forum as busy as ever, I was wondering how many people use ZBrush these days.

I know the userbase has expanded immensely since September 27, 1999 (ZBrush Demo 0.86 release date) and like most software businesses the growth has probably followed an S curve, with several of ZBrush’ software innovations extending the ceiling of the S curve. For example; Normal Mapping in games and Displacement Mapping in offline rendering fit ZBrush’ increased focus on dense polygonal meshes perfectly and was probably the major driver in increasing the user base during 2003-2009. The arrival of 3D printers would likewise have increased interest in ZBrush from multiple, diverse markets such as toy, jewellery and industrial design. Recently, in videogames in particular, the scope and detail of assets has seen photogrammetry become a useful tool. A technological change that Decimation Master complements well but with an increased focus on texturing in ZBrush 5 (?), ZBrush might become the de facto tool for manipulating photogrammetrically derived meshes as well.

Back in May 2005, 10 years ago, there were 50,000 ZBrushCentral members. Mindboggling to me at the time as when I joined there where only about 2-3000 members (I think I am member 2324). Be sure to check the above link for some serious nostalgia. Adaptive UVTiles? Everyone uses those nowadays

In 2008 (as far as I can see) Pixologic celebrated having reached 100,000 ZBrushCentral members. That was 7 years ago, about 2 years into the XBox 360 and 1 year into the PlayStation 3. Normal mapping was THE thing, especially with Unreal Engine 3 titles. So many studios must have bought ZBrush licenses during those years.

In 2015 I have no idea how many users or members there are, I can only guesstimate. Looking through some 3D World magazines it seems like 70-80% of the reader submitted gallery pictures have ZBrush listed in the software credits and at least 30-40% of the tutorials involve ZBrush. Which is very, very good numbers.

I would probably lowball the ZBrush user base at 150,000 when taking into account 1-2% ZBrushCentral members were probably marketing enthusiasts (spammers), 10-15% have stopped using ZBrush for various reasons (job change, retirement) and some people just signed up to ask a question about the demo version of ZBrush.

The part of me that is enthusiastic about ZBrush would say 220-230.000 users. But that is just my inner fanboy speaking.

So, what do you think? How many Zbrush users are there out in the wild?

[Doug_Jones]

Only Pixologic might be able to tell you ;). That wouldn’t include pirated copies though. Mines legit

[TVeyes]

In case anyone is confused by the term Photogrammetry, here is a wonderful blog post by one of the artists behind The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, best viewed with a WebGL capable browser (works fine in Safari 8 on Mac OS X and Chrome on Windows).

Edit:

Aw, come on Doug! I need your guess as to how many users there are.

[bicc39]

Remember when there was a number on the upper right.
Everytime a new member purchased a license it changed the “scoreboard”.
Zbrush 1.55 I remember the number as 10000.
At that time the only artist making money was a kind man named Glenn Southern.
He was extremely generous with his knowledge and time.
He was, also, if I am not mistaken the pioneer of the zsketch feature.
The good old days.

[TVeyes]

Thanks bicc39, I cannot remember that ZBrushCentral feature but I was one of the 10,000. Bought ZBrush 1.23 with the promise of a free upgrade to 1.23b which included an amazing little plugin called Projection Master. I had so much fun discovering what was possible in ZBrush during the 1.23 - 1.5 period. My measly Pentium 3 PC with ZBrush on it was all I could think about when I got off work back then.

Glen Southern did amazing stuff back then and continues to do so, I think I still have a magazine with a ZBrush 1.55b advert featuring his cyborg basketball player. Just imagine, back then we modelled the hand, forearm, upper arm, torso and head as separate tools and he somehow managed to compose them all together so very well on the 2.5D canvas. No, we did’nt have subtools you newbies

Regarding the good old days, well, they will always be there to reminisce upon. For me, the good old days are right now (so many excellent updates to a single ZBrush version) and when ZBrush 5 comes around it will probably be then. But that is me.

[bicc39]

Also remember the fighting.
If you posted a “bad” post, Aurick would delete you.
Because of the time difference, I would deliberately post something I knew would be
provocative at a time he was asleep to see how long it would take him to delete me.
In retrospect I feel slightly guilty, but I take heart in the knowledge I contributed
to his growth as a moderator.
I could not help with the rehab, unfortunately.

Ps. Obviously he did not get a lot of sleep, now he only drops by sporadically, he has minions now.