Hi James, that could be done in any true 3d app, utilizing an alpha.
Check out Cinema 4D, it’s my app of choice (Modo too 
But C4D has an incredible hair system, although, the latest 3D World has some great Tut’s on the new Blender release, and the hair system looks a lot like C4D’s at a first glance. Blend is free and maybe could be used to expand your work flow? It plays well with ZB I’m told.
-Jim
Right on! I was hoping to avoid spending more money, so I’ll try out Blender soon and download a C4D trial. I was also hoping to avoid other 3d apps since I only illustrate, but hey, it couldn’t hurt the art, only my brain. I’m also experimenting with sculpting hair in ZB, then adding fine strands with different layer modes/opacity in Photoshop. Thanks for the advice!
Zbrush 3 osx plz!
If you’re interested in getting to grips with blender, try the video tutorials at…
http://blenderunderground.com/video-tutorials/
They are really good. Also there’s a wealth of info at…
http://www.geneome.net/index.php/tutorials/blender-tutorials/
Yeah, the only thing with Blender is that the UI is really weird, IMHO.
I haven’t done a lot of looking into it, but I do know of an app called Cheetah3D which is exclusively for MacOS, and IIRC it costs around $99. I imagine it’ll be easier to swallow than Blender, but also less feature-rich.
C4D is one of my favs as well. It is very intuitive even for complete novices and seems just as powerful as Maya. Blender is getting really good, though. I just wish the interface could be improved. I just installed my Zbrush 2 license and have been playing around a little. Pixologic have really gone a long way between 2-3 with the GUI. I like how the brackets in 3.1 can be used to resize the brush. I think the most useful features they could add with the Mac version would be fully compatible plugins and possibly some improved/streamlined exporting to other mainstream applications.
I’ve been using C4D since version 4 (looong time) & Maya since '01… Love C4d, but it’s nowhere near as powerful as Maya, which is far more procedural & flexible, though much more frustrating at times.
I’m trying to learn Houdini now, it seems even more powerful than either, but takes major technical CHOPs to unleash the full power. (pun intended)
I haven’t messed with Blender much, at all, but they say once you understand it’s paradigm and interface, it is great. Beside, the next update is supposed to address the interface. So I am quite interested to see how it is.
As for Cheetah 3D, it is great, amazing little program with a single programmer if I’m not mistaken. It doesn’t have hair though. Some of the working/paradigm of it are very similar to C4D.
See, for 2d illustrators and artists like me, it’s hard to have any interest in those programs. It’s like climbing into the cockpit of a space shuttle with zero knowledge of the controls. As a painter, I would have absolutely nothing to do with 3d if it wasn’t for Zbrush. I’ve messed with the Maya PLE a little, but it’s just not my thing. I might still learn it and others…eventually, but only because I can’t implement any special effects in ZBrush such as the hair we were just discussing. Either that, or I’ll just freehand in the extra detail.
Really, this is a good example of how artistically geared ZBrush is. I’ve completely dropped traditional and Photoshop painting (except for compositing and xtra detail) and haven’t looked back once. Not only is it more fun, my work has improved quite a bit.
NOW RELEASE ZBRUSH FOR MAC AT ONCE!!!
I don’t know James, I started out as a traditional artist/illustrator. I have been teaching the Airbrush Illustration class at The Columbus College of Art + Design for about 13 years, and yes, I am still teaching it. However, when I saw images being done that I just had to do, I realized, that, like the airbrush, it was quite technical, which I like, and very artistic.
Don’t get turned off by Maya, as I understand it, it is better suited for a pipeline/studio rather than the individual, in my search years ago for this stuff, I was turned off by price, stability and the whole other jargon and terms to wrap my head around. I feel lucky I stumbled across C4D, it is great. But for the most part, you just have to read everything you can. I have a stack of books 4 feet tall and I have read them all two to three times :idea: just to understand what a seep vs a smooth shift was. The more I learned the more questions I had for a longtime, like what the hell is a normal? Nurbs? SDS? Extrude a spline? a Poly? Edge? Crazy good stuff, but I think it could be beneficial, at least you have time till ZB# come to play with Blender! LOL!
yeah, a lot of the higher end 3D apps floating around there aren’t quite as complicated as Maya.
Since there’s been so much talk about other 3D apps, I’m gonna have to take this moment to plug LightWave 3D. LW’s UI is pretty nice, because all the buttons are textual–no memorizing confusing icons! You’ll hear us (its users) complain about its tendency to lag a bit feature-wise, but it’s renderer is among the best out there, and its bang-buck ratio is also quite excellent. AND–they’re friendly to Mac users! 
…or else…
i personaly think being a maya user first than a zbrush user… that any knowledge is good, as long as u can have the patience to learn, it’s all good.
And about the hair stuff… zbrush, i personally think, still needs some work when it comes to joining hair to the skull, looks wierd, haven’t seen even one sculpt with a good hair piece completely done in zbrush… maya’s hair system, and fur, blows away that aspect…
ps… i want zb3!!! for mac!!! sniff sniff
Yeah, I think I’m gonna wing it for a little while with ZBrush, Photoshop, and Painter. I’m cranking out some good art right now with the work flow I’ve developed. Hopefully soon, I’ll have more expendable cash and time that I’ll invest into some of those programs if not for anything else but the experience. For now, I’m just glad I’m pretty good at free handing detail.
I was an airbrush illustrator for about 3 years myself! I still like to spray around with the Iwata from time to time, but not on big projects anymore.
I airbrushed for 4-5 years before selling my Iwata HPC so I’d have a little extra money to move to California. I miss it. It was a limited edition that had a cut-away handle (although I replaced it with a preset handle). The only thing I don’t miss is my Hausfeld air compressor - LOUD.
I currently use the computer for painting studies and for freelance design work although I’m not really very focused on one particular area. It’s frustrating being so curious sometimes because I go off on so many tangents. If I had Zbrush 3.x on the mac, I’m sure my attention will be piqued enough to concentrate on honing my 3D skills.
I don’t have an informed enough opinion of Maya after only playing around with PLE for a little while and getting frustrated. I really like C4D because its paradigms seem to better match the way my brain works, but I think if I was to master it, I’d be ready to look at programs like Maya again.
James I started out as a 2D illustrator but have learnt many 3D packages along the way…
I only use other 3D packages to render or make props to use in ZB though, I have never animated or wish to. A good idea would be to learn something like Silo 2 or maybe Modo for those illusive little extra bits that ZB struggles to create…
I myself have gone full circle & now only wish to create in 90% of my stuff in Photoshop & ZB as that workflow suits me…
It’s worth learn a few 3D packages but stick to what you are happy with as you’ll be more creative…
Same here, I illustrated with paint and paper for years before I even tried computers, now I love 3d. Vitually all my paying jobs are done on computer and most of them have at least elements of 3d in them.
If you want a basic modeller to support ZB I’d recommend Wings3d. It’s free and very powerful. In many ways it’s still my favorite modeller although I mostly use Modo these days. The only downside of Wings is it doesn’t work too well with a Wacom.
I’m Actually brand new to 3D modeling, Have been using photoshop and painter for years to do my illustrative and artistic work. In work (as my job as an in house illustrator) I got bitten by the 3D bug, picking up 3DMax pretty quickly, at home i’ve been using the non commercial version of Maya and Blender, Literally to learn the stuff, Its been hard bitten but I think I’m getting there, when I first heard about ZB I had to have it, A 3D app thats friendly to people more versed in 2D apps. So I went right out and bought it. Last night however I revisited Photoshop just because I wanted to, I’d forgotton how satisfying it was to just sit there and create without all the preperation! Thats what im so looking forward to in ZB, and thats why I’m annoyed it isn’t out yet, I want to be able to do what I do best in other apps and be able to view it from different angles without it crashing and such as ZB2 is so prone to doing!
One year and waiting for REAL creative freedom!
Not knocking LW, but your post reminded me, C4D is flexible enough to have either Text or Icons for the UI. It is extremely flexible.
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