I am kind of at a crossroads. I am choosing between Max, Maya, and Cinema 4d. I want to incorporate Zbrush, but I need to know what things to think about when considering the apps. Zbrush is not my only factor, but it is a Big One. My output is not animation, but I do want to create figures that I can pose. I am producing high quality still images for iPhone comics. I also own Modo, but have not had time to delve deeply, and am awaiting version 4.
Thanks,
Jarrett
Hi Jarrett. It just depends. Each application has it’s own idiosyncrasies when passing geometry assets to and from ZBrush, and also when handling displacement maps generated by ZBrush. These indisyncracies have a tendency to change slightly with each new release of the software - engineers like to keep us artists on our toes for their sick ammusement 
I would recommend reading up on the workflow for doing these things in all three apps to see which method you like best, since you seem to have a choice in the software you’ll be using. 3dsmax and Maya both use Mental Ray, and the MR components in both programs are very similar in many respects, but there are some differences. I can’t speak for Cinema 4D as I’ve never used it.
Also, as these programs are quite expensive, make sure you really need them. You mentioned that you aren’t doing any animation, so if all you’re doing is rendering stills, ZBrush can render stills. You can render multiple passes and composite in Photoshop to get some very cool results including transparency and SSS. Blender is another free option but, again, I can’t speak for it because I’ve never used it.
-Dustin
At lot has been published on the Max/Maya pipelines.
I’ve seen equally good results with C4D and Modo. Any pipeline will likely take some time to tweak as you feel your way through the ins and outs of moving displacement maps/normal maps to the target package.
Thanks guys, you helped me to focus. I am going to dedicate my self to modo/cinema/zbrush. Looks like all 3 will be getting updates in the next 6 months!