ZB4 can:
but we’d all have to subscibe our version @ $100/month and be prepared to wait some three years.
Long live Pixologic! May they stay as creative as they are now and surprise us in the future with solutions we haven’t even dreamt of!
A C++ API for developers with a nice UI abstraction layer that has lots of documentation that ties to the wiki. Debugger integration with Visual Studio/Code Warrior/Eclipse for both UI and logic. XML based UI definition layer with with a nice GUI designer and layout tool. ZBrush enhanced debugging integration for per pixel debugging.
Multi-touch remote UI for collaborative modeling on the same tool and ‘scene’. Users sculpt the same mesh in their own viewport simultaniously with potentially multiple end-users up to ‘n’ users alloweing for ultri-rapid collaboratoin on concepts and details… Include chat of course for later ;). Emphasis on mult-touch.
Mental ray integration with shader tree as mentioned by others.
Simpler UI for baking out textures and maps with mental ray.
Animation and IK.
1 a way to recenter the symmetry pivot when you lose it, like in maya where you can grab the center and snap it back to the axis. I find that I lose symmetry unexplicably sometimes, and s pivot c pivot and smart resymm don’t quite work for me, always.
2 I 8th the idea of texture layers would be so great to be able to make all your subsurface scatter maps right in ZB, even if you couldn’t see them comped together.
3 hot keyable color sampler.
4 color cloner
5 layer merging
6 retopologizing small sections of your lowest level of subdivion, as opposed to having to redo the whole model to fix one bad star location or add an edge loop.
7 default document size to be at double (i’d guess that 98% of people would prefer the doubled size) having merge checked and group unchecked by default in export options. or better yet…
8 a one button press to set which program/programs you are work flowing from, so that UV’s are auto flipped for maya etc.
9 a way to save ALL your settings in a file so that Zbrush will open at your preferred document size with brush curves/export settings etc, ready to go.
10 the same exponential leap you made from Zbrush2 to Zbrush 3 : )
Ditto all the other requests…
and capability to do/save transparent materials in subtools.
I also think it would be nice to be able to export without the black and gray background. I know to use the alpha for a selection mask in Photoshop. However, it would be quicker if there was an option to only have the tools export from Zbrush. In other words, the psd would have no background and the export would simply be the models only. Then you could jump right in and add a background no sweat.
Another good addition would be if you could still see the high subdivision sculpting live while rotating the object. It’s annoying that it switches back and forth to a low polygon preview because it makes it more difficult to analyze the model.
In the Preferences - Performances palette, adjust the QTranThreshold slider.
You can do this using ZAppLink.
Just saw an Alpha Demo of Mudbox2009.
All in all, pretty unimpressive. But two things stood out.
1 realtime IBL and reflections.
2 Texture layers, including realtime reflection/spec masks etc.
While Z4 clearly has little to fear, After modeling in Zbrush, I’d consider taking my sculpt into Mudbox to texture for a Maya render, if that alpha was available to me right this second…
Hopefully it will be in Z4 so that one wouldn’t even have to consider it.
Hey thanks, this is cool. I just received the Kurv studios training dvd that explains all of the menus, but haven’t watched it yet. After finding little handy sliders like that, I’m sure there’s plenty more neat features to learn.
My only wish for Z4 is licensing in the spirit of Luxology’s setup for modo.
Part of what is making the wait for the Mac version more tolerable is the fact that I can just download and generate a license for the Windows version of modo and run it along the Windows version of ZB in Boot Camp. This greatly reduces the need for annoying reboots and is making the wait a little easier.
So please, license the program to the USER, not to the MACHINE. The fact that during the first week I blew through activations just trying to get the app running on VMWare/Parallels/Boot Camp is an ominous sign. Yes, it was my fault for activating the installs before I knew 100% that the setup would work, but that’s because for the past few years I’ve gotten used to Luxology’s much more customer-friendly policy of trusting me.
“buttons”
i’d like buttons for everything…all shortcut keys that have currently no equivalent button in the u.i such as paint mask, drag rectangle select polys to hide/show
with no button option using a tablet pc in 100% tablet mode is impossible to do these functions as is now.
“nudge view”
i’d like to be able to nudge my viewport left, right, up and down with shortcut keys as well a buttons in the u.i rather than have to drop my brush to do so.
“scale in/out”
same again as nudge view have dedicted in/out buttons plus shortcut keys that work like the brush bigger/smaller size shortcut keys we have already.
WISHLIST…ZBRUSH 4 or 3.2
KEYFRAME ANIMATION
:JUBII:…
OR…the POSSIBILITY FOR EXPORTING A Z-sphere RIG TO MAX OR MAYA:…FOR ANIMATION
BUT IF NOT Before 2012 , Than It could be very cool!! If there where more tools for editing your Retopolized model Eks… Edge loop selection…etc…
zbrush 4 on linux would be intersting for sure!
also maybe have plugins for 3dsmax and maya…‘live link’
While I have only messed around with it a few times, retopologizing a model seems like something that could be automated rather than done by hand. It basically seems like the goal is to achieve more even geometry within the topology of a model to prevent polygonal distortion during sculpting, rendering, and animating. With all of the other crazy math that Zbrush pulls off, why couldn’t this be automated with a menu set for various adjustments? It’s easy for my eye to see problem areas, why couldn’t a computer? Retopo opens up the opportunity for more freedom during sculpting, but it just seems like it could be approached differently than drawing it out point by point…Z4? Or impossible for reasons I don’t understand?
A material brush opacity slider (right by the rgb and Z intensity slider). That or a way to control the “fall off” of the material brush cursor to give it a soft edge would help me a lot as an illustrator. I tend to combine a few materials across one object to achieve realism without having to create an entire new tool, especially in 2.5d mode. For example, if an object has water running down it, I paint in a shinier material there for effect. Unfortunately, it doesn’t blend at all which creates obvious pixols and requires touch up. If anyone knows a way to control this, please respond.
Hair!!! I want to a see a Kick Arse Hair tool in the Next Iteration of Zbrush.
I came up with a crude tool interface menu.
Heres how I picture it working. You mask off any area on the model where you want hair to be applied. You click on Tools> Masking> and in the Masking Toolbar interface you select “Create Hair” Button. Then you have the options of how many hairs per area and so on. Now What I like about this is how you can apply the mask to your model and pull of all sorts of shapes using the mask airbrush interface. Imagine mask painting Letters or designs, a MR. T hair style or a mustash or beard or odd hair line shape.
There still one more Interface Feature after this that add something new to the way you can manipulate digital hair, and this is were Zbrush makes Zhair it’s own, and does something really cool with it.
There is a Hair Control Interface. The hair of course becomes it’s own subtool after the Masking “Make Hair” command is done, but you can still edit the hairs direction, shape, thickness, color, and opacity in this “Hair Control” Interface Menu. Like I said my image of this is crude, but I hope it helps somehow to see this “Digital Hair in Zbrush” Dream Realized.
Nice. I like everything about it, except not being able to see results in real time. I’m hoping the next version will have real time renders as well, but I guess I’m just greedy!
I would also really like to see a hair feature. since ZSpheres are already such a tightly integrated feature in ZBrush, i would like to see the hair feature incorporated with a ZSphere interface. For instance, one could make a polygroup(s) from which hair will be emitted. Parent ZSpheres could be emitted from the vertices or polygons (or random arrangement) from the polygroup’s surface as a subtool, and children ZSphere’s could be interpolated (at render time or real time [probably render time]) between the parent ZSpheres. This way one could “style” the parent ZSpheres in a similar fashion that one would work with ZSpheres already, but maybe with some extra hair productivity brushes (or reuse some of the brushes already available for 3d sculpting).
One for the illustrators…the 3d brush options added to the the 2.5d brush pallete.
errr… and vice versa for poly painting 