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Why Maya

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I just watched a Gnomon Workshop tutorial (Head Sculpting & Texturing), which ended by using Maya/Mental Ray to render.

Initially I got really excited about being able to use Zbrush to produce some projects I have planned. However I was left a little disillusioned by the end of the tutorial due to the inclusion of Maya.

I really can’t afford the highly priced Maya. Therefore is it possible to render the final image including UVS, Textures, colour etc in Zbrush. If so why export the UVS, Textures, Bump maps and GEO displacements into Maya?

My work plan is to finish my project in Photoshop.

I’d be grateful for any pointers. THANKS.

#2

The ONLY reason to export out of Zbrush for rendering is just that. Zbrush isn’t a renderer. It can fake GI pretty well, and other things. But it doesn’t have the power of MR, Vray, Renderman, etc.

If you’re worried about the $$ of Maya or any other autodesk product for that matter. Why not take a look at Blender?
http://www.blender.org/
open source.

I’m not sure if it can render well without Vray though. I’ve never messed with it myself. I’ve seen great work out come out of it…im just not sure what they were using to render. If you dig through their forums I’m sure you’ll find something.

#3

The funny thing about zbrush is- if you render something out in ZBrush, anybody who knows what they’re doing will KNOW it’s zbrush. It’s that obvious. There are a number of problems with using zbrush as your default renderer (in addition to the ones that goast mentioned), but my biggest gripe is the lack of a real camera. The perspective distortion is pretty bad, and it’s really hard to get anything out that doesn’t look like crap.

A lot of people render out a dozen or so different passes with different materials and then do a lot of post-work in photoshop that yields some pretty decent results, but it adds a lot of time to a project since it’s mostly just tweaking ad nauseum.

#4

Thanks for the advice.

Does anyone know if there are any render improvements in the up and coming ZBrush 4?

#5

trueSpace is free now.
and DAZ Studio has a free version ,I think.

Don’t think Blander,trueSpace,D/S will do a million polyount thou.
I would say 100,000 is pushing it.

Some of Poser, D/S Artist use Vue for a render engine.

Basic C4D has a desent render engine & a Mod for better renders.

When ya go using multiple 3D app, it gets fun.

Go missing with any of the fab 5 app’s $$$.

#6

eldee.s: You spend just as much time (if not more) tweaking shaders, lights, render settings, etc in the above mentioned apps.

#7

Once you know how to use lights and render settings in whatever app, there’s not really that much tweaking involved. Whereas each ZBrush amalgamation is going to behave differently and will need different fudging in photoshop to make it look halfway decent.

The main difference with a proper renderer though, is that the results are consistent. the lights are modeled after realistic properties of light, bounce, shadow, bleed, etc. Most of the postwork I’ve seen done with zbrush renders has been either A) rendering out several different matcaps and trying to frankenstein them together, or B) hand painting the final render. Not to mention- there’s not much you can do with anything that’s actually moving, a turntable for example. It would take a looong time to get all of your matcap passes rendered out in zbrush and then reassembled correctly in after effects or whatever compositing app without any noticable jitter or error.

If you’re going for something stylized or illustrated, it can work fine, but like I said- most of the time you can tell when somebody has used zbrush as their one-stop-shop.

#8

Cinema 4D is 50% off until the end of July for ZBrush owners.

C4D Core - $495

C4D XL (CINEMA 4D Core, BodyPaint 3D, Advanced Render 3, MOCCA 3, Thinking Particles, NET Render(3 client license). - $1,250

C4D Studio (CINEMA 4D Core, BodyPaint 3D, Advanced Render 3, MOCCA 3, Thinking Particles, HAIR, Dynamics, Sketch and Toon, MoGraph and NET Render (unlimited clients license). - $1,850

#9

LOL we just have to many kool CGI app’s.
I play with one app untill another one looks funner to play with.
After a decade+ in CGI I still have not played with them all, but I am having fun.

Each 2D style,3D render engine will give you a defrent look.
all zBrush, or 2D or C4D, DAZ ,Maya’s render engines
All gives ya defrent looks.

If ya doing this for ya self do what ya want.
If your working for some one do what thay want.

#10

I don’t know, man. While I wouldn’t call myself a lighter/renderer by trade, I’m fairly comfortable with lighting and rendering. Maybe you’re more capable of making a B line toward perfect settings than I am. Between lighting, shaders, and rendering, I usually spend at least a day on it. I hear what you’re saying though. Cheers.

#11

Thanks for the feedback.

I suppose I’ll just have to give it a go and find out what suits me best.

As mentioned by RorrKonn, there are way too many CGI apps to choose from. I’ve never even heard of trueSpace.

Thanks again for the info.