I’m very new to ZBrush and I have a general question about the lighting system.
I see many beautiful renders in these forums of models created in ZBrush, and in many of these images the lighting appears to be made within ZBrush itself — if it’s a stand-alone model (like a figure, a monster, a single object, etc.). However, I rarely see a model placed into an environment — a room interior, an outdoor scene, etc. In other words, people don’t seem to be creating whole scenes within ZBrush and using ZBrush’s native lighting and rendering capabilities to make the final render. On the rare occasion that anyone posts a full scene image, the ones that I have found are almost always created in some other program. The ZBrush model is imported into Maya, 3D Studio Max, or some other program to integrate it into a full scene, and all the lighting and rendering is done in the other app.
Also, although I know that 3D artists use ZBrush to create environmental objects like doors, pillars, furniture, etc., I never see renders made inside ZBrush of a full interior environment, like a fully furnished room, castle interior, etc. Those kinds of images are normal staples of galleries for programs like Maya, Cinema 4D, etc., but not for ZBrush.
So my question is this: Is there something about the way the lighting system works inside ZBrush that makes it difficult to render full scenes? Can the lighting system easily emulate light steaming through a window, casting shadows into a room, and other environmental effects? Or is it specifically tailored for lighting single 3D forms, and therefore not well suited for scene lighting?
