ZBrushCentral

New here...confused regarding workflow

Hello guys!

First time when I post on these forums so hello to everyone!

I started modelling and using 3d programs a bit more than a month ago. I started in 3ds Max but now I got the chance to try Zbrush. I started to work 1 week ago but there are several confusing things I bumped into.

Mainly, the issue is the workflow… I know the tools, roughly, but I do not know exactly when to use what. Let me be more specific:

I started to experiment with the Dynamesh. Everything went fine… great tool btw!!! So I was done with the modelling part and I started to use the polypaint. This is where the confusion comes… First of all how am I supposed to start this process? If I want to finish the entire model in Zbrush without going in any other programs do I need to start Polypainting in a specific way? What I did was to go to Polypaint— Colorize— max the resolution---- paint.
So I painted my model and I wanted to… kinda wrap it up. So what I did was to try to texture it… now this is where I get really confused! I don’t understand what you have to do with the UV map and with the texture… I don’t really understand which comes when and what settings one should use. I tried to find tutorials about this but I couldn’t find something… at least not tutorials that are focusing strictly on Zbrush.
To reinforce what I said above, I am really new to the 3D programs so please, forgive me if I ask idiotic questions… But I am really desperate since I can’t finish any model I make.
Hopefully I explained everything clear and I hope you guys can help me!
Thank you very much for your time and help!

If you’re not exporting it to another program, you don’t need to texture it. You can just leave the color as PolyPaint. That in turn means you don’t need UV’s because those are only necessary for applying a map to the surface.

Check out the tutorials in your ZBrush installation’s Documentation folder. They’ll help you a lot with figuring out workflow.

Thx a lot for the reply!

What about rendering? I checked the documentation you told me about but couldn’t find something about it…
Thx again for your help!

Allright… I think I figured it out… As I was suspecting, I was going around the solution pressing buttons but I didn’t know in what order I should do it… I managed to find the proper tutorial from Pixologic so this should do for now… I’m still a little bit confused about rendering but I’m good atm. If you have anything to add on the subject please do so, now that the thread is open…
Thx!

P.s: in case any1 has the same problem, here is the tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9wYyDOvWJU