ZBrushCentral

Lost in Z Land

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I posted this in another forum, but I think it was the wrong one, sorry

Ok I’m a total newbie and a little lost. I have downloaded the demo version and have been trying to understand it. I have been using Lightwave off and on for years and I find the interface of Zbrush to be totally alien to me. I have been away from 3D for a few years and have recently upgraded to LW 8 and I’m trying to relearn what forgot. When I ran across Zbrush and was totally blown away by the images in the Gallery. Zbrush seems to be a totally different way of thinking. I have always made objects with points and polygons, with Zbrush I don’t really understand what I’m doing. I wish the demo version would allow you to load in an object made in Lightwave. When you edit a 3D object in Zbrush are you affecting the mesh or are you painting on a displacement map?

Rayvon

#2

I came from Maya and I’ve had to adopt a new way of thinking in order to “get” zbrush. Once you get it, you’ll fall in love with it. Think of it as a paint program like Painter or Photoshop and you’ll begin to understand it more. It mixes 3d and 2d quite nicely, but in an odd (but ultimately brilliant) way. Take this with a grain of salt, as I’m very new to it as well. :slight_smile: That’s just my general impression so far.

I started with http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=3471. It’s immensely helpful. If you get stuck anywhere, a simple search on ZBC will pop up with what you need.

#3

You’re affecting the mesh when you edit an object. Of course, you can export a low rez version of the model along with a Zbrush created displacement map to LIghtwave or another program.

I had alot of false starts with ZBrush starting a couple years ago. I used it for a few weeks, stopped for a year, started again, stopped. Last month I finally became into it full time. It helped me to think of it as a unique program in many ways and not bring in every preconceived idea/method I had from other 3D programs.
Like Dbunder said, it’s a 3D/2D hybrid plus some new ways of doing things, plus the PDF manual helps alot.

#4

Thank you very much for your help, it’s a little less muddy now. I’ll get it, I know I will.

Rayvon

#5

You might want to click on the link in my signature to take you to my ZLand website. A lot of it is pretty obsolete,as it was geared towards ZBrush version 1.23, but should help you all the same.

I’m madly rewriting it and will replace it in a couple of weeks.
Upham :slight_smile:

#6

Thank you Upham, your web site is a big help to me. I would love to see the updated version.

Rayvon