ZBrushCentral

Z4 wishlist

ZBrush Usage Questions
#101

A top notch renderer.

I always see better images coming from Mental Ray and other 3d apps. ZBrush renders seem to be much more dependent on Photoshop compositing. Why not have Mental Ray quality rendering coming straight out of ZBrush?

(of course, 9/10 of my requests can be answered with: “because ZBrush is a pipeline app, quit being cheap and buy the software that specializes in it.” For those that do 2.5D compositing, which eliminates the option for external rendering, it would be nice for ZBrush to be more independent.

Plus, I’m broke. I can’t quit being cheap until I quit being broke…)

#102

Zcubes & ZPyramids as well as Zspheres, would be handy for creating sharp edged geometric shapes.

Also, a nice polygon reduction tool, for those times when you can’t reconstruct subdivisions, or simply for creating a lower poly mesh than the one you began with.

#103

viewport memory dots

woudl be great to have the ability to memorise say 6 viewport locations
that store within the ztool…so you can set up a full view, head view, hand view etc and quickly get to those views at anytime simply by selecting the veiwport memory dot you saved to in the ztool.

#104

I’m quote you 100% :slight_smile:

#105

I think it would be great to add some features like “Teddy” and “Archipelis” programs. Things like that would make the working progress faster. And that’s what everybody wants.

#106

FLOATING LICENCES…
It’s simple to install a licence on a single computer, but i know a couple of company that would like to have floating licences…

#107

…some functionality that you can find in 2D program (Illustrator for example): snap, align or parametric transform.

Maybe the possibility of make a “closed ring” with ZSphere.

#108

Not sure if this was suggested yet, but I d really like to have an option to have “undo” command undo a bunch of strokes in one go, (perhaps sorting them by the time passed between each one threshold?) instead of one stroke = 1 action of undo.

Reasoning for this is that if a bunch of strokes are grouped into one “action”, then if you’re like me and use lots of short strokes to define something (that’s essentially 1 spot), and then find that you don’t like the whole thing, you d be able to undo it all with one command, instead of having to go back one stroke at a time (which can take a lot of time, esp at high levels of subdivision, when making an undo is becoming a really time consuming procedure).

#109

for 3.5. not that i believe the developers at pixologic give a rats ass for community input but. off the top of my head while working :

opacity setting for transparency
all objects behave as transparent - toggle ( if an object cannot be edited until selected it should not interfere with any other operation in the viewport. have the option to have unselected objects behave as though they are invisible ( applies to navigation also ) )
no perspective shifts ( the jumping around and blatant distortion of isolated areas of a model )
subtool master functionality as core. and then hopefully . . . *

  • no jumping closed of subtool palette anymore
    remove tools from tool palette ( the ability to actually clean up what can become a very messy palette )
    a ’ no drop ’ canvas environment. unable to snapshot to canvas. drop out of edit mode. resizing the canvas does just that ( no having to clear and re_place tool )
    alternative navigation options
    edit the nullspace ’ gutter ’ around the canvas ( increase / decrease gutter size )
    proper windowed mode ( respects windows taskbar as standard )
    floating palettes

to be continued . . .

#110

Add AUTO-RETOPOLOGY function Pixologic guys :smiley:

#111

Multi viewports would be killer. Someone else suggested it already. It really would be very useful.
I see it outright solving one issue I’m always dealing with.
I like to mask off areas of my model and sculpt on them from the inside with “double” turned on in display mode.
This is a great trick to use to make strong skin folds, sharp inner creases, and finer wrinkles.

I can see it now. One viewport displays the model. If I want I can make this viewport ignore any masking effects applied to the same model displayed in the other viewport.
I mask the area off that I want to do some inner negative sculpting to. I turn on double in the display tab for that viewport.
I do my negative sculpting, and I see my model in the other viewport updating in real time.

Now I’m not guessing what this negative sculptwork will look like when I return to the outside of the model, and I don’t have to rotate the model around every few seconds to check it out. I’m finally seeing whats happening to the models outer surface in real time in the other viewport.
Imagine multi viewports with imageplane abilities for each viewport. Man…

#112

I want back the scale brush. I never understood why they got rid of it - transpose-scale is not anywhere near a substitution.

Masking layers would be nice, too. But I’m not sure if that is feasible.

Gyros for the transpose-line would be great, but i doubt that they would be very exact due to the 2.5d-space.

I also miss the global perspective. Using subtools with perspective is quite a workaround, but no solution for 2,5D work.

Oh, and a bug-fixed UI is a must.

Cant recall more whishes atm, maybe later =)

froyd

#113

Many times I run into the problem of some parts of my model having way too much mesh detail while other parts are not fine enough. It would be great to push a button and have all the mesh ‘normalize’ for lack of a better word. Sure it would be great to have the mesh recontour to my detail but for now I would just be happy to have things even out over my sculpt.

Subdividing at a group level as an option would be nice. That way I can add finer detail only where it is needed.

Another feature I would like to see is the ability to add another z-sphere mesh to my model like a sculptor would add more clay once he discovers more is needed. Combining sublevels to make a smooth transition on the mesh is almost imposible in version 3.1.

#114

1- Would love to have something like a “digital chisel”. You would be able to use any model you want as a tool to push in your working model from the outside. That would make working with profiles so much easier/fun. Just like using a tool in clay to push against your sculpt.

2- Wacom 6d pen support, that would be awesome with the above “digital Chisel” tool. You’d be able to have very precise control over your strokes. Kind of like photoshops implementation.

3- PSD layers for polypainting and textures that you would be able to send over to photoshop and back.

Can’t wait to hear what’s new with 3.5!

#115

i would like to see support for tilt sensitivity since most wacoms support it and im sure it would add more control and precise strokes based on the tilt and the shape of the alpha one could get more variation in there stroke. and also make the brushes follow the contour of the model instead of it being based on which way it is facing towards the camera.

but at the same time i would also like to see some kind of collision detection so placement of subtools are more precise or the ability for one object to be deformed by another based on how there pushed into each other. i would also like to request that that we bring back the scale brush that was in zbrush 2 it was great for concepting or making large scale changes on the fly so i recommend we add that as a brush in the future update i really miss it and it was so quick to use im sure there are many here that miss it.

also further advancements for subtools maybe the ability to lock different subtools together so we can deform or sculpt across multiple subtools at a time or move multiple selected subtools at a time like we have now with the ability to show or hide multiple subtools at a time something like that will make a a huge difference in my workflow i feel subtools have the potential to be great with certain implementations and the barriers and limitations removed. a simple switch to make selected subtools susceptible to deformations would really make them that much more powerful.

oh and more compatibility’s with zspheres having the ability to copy and paste different links or chains to another location would be useful for conceptualizing and combining pieces to another rig. and more accurate unified skinning and adaptive skinning.

oh and last but not least the current known bugs removed

#116

My ZBrush wish-list.

Multiple - Layered Textures - Per Sub-Tool w/support for mapping files or layers into different shader channels ie:Bump, Diffuse, Spec, etc., so that things like specular maps could be painted with realtime lighting feedback displayed. I imagine the Pixologic team could put together quite an elegant solution for this. And the competition who’s name rhymes with Crudbox is launching a new version in a few days with these features built in, (too bad the rest of their program is so clumbsily difficult to navigate using a 3 button mouse scheme when I’m trying to paint with a stylus)… Oh, and the ability to work back and forth with Photoshop .psd’s would make this new feature set even sweeter, because, lets face it, Photoshop is the best at what it does. As well as the quick ability to save/over-write all these maps so that I can quickly preview the results in my naitive packages renderer. (XSI for example updates itself every time it recognizes a texture has been over-written, this would be simple)

Multiple - Views\Windows (and menus) that can be torn off and put onto a second monitor. Think having a flat 2D view to see your UVLayout, and be able to paint in this 2D layout view on your second screen.

Dunno if there is a way to fix this already but, not having to flip my textures on export all the time. That should be automatic as both Maya and XSI are opposite by default of what ZBrush is set to… This is a no-brainer. And a simple “save” button for textures would be great to just quickly over-write the existing file instead of the several clicks and windows it takes to export and over-write manually when saving off your textures.

Some simple but effective poly-editing tools would be nice from time to time.

Continued refinement and addion to Re-topologizing tools, especially ones that are designed to play nice with naitive 3D modeling apps.

Built in functionality to make importing/exporting from your favorite 3D app a breeze, including automatically hooking up your textures to shaders, maybe even custom shaders that are identicle to the matcap materials we use when painting.

More Brushes, More Matcaps\Materials, More Stencils\Alphas etc.

Take the best of the best plug-ins and either install them directly into the package or compile them into an easy install plug-in that knows when a plug has been updated, just like Mozilla’s Firefox does with it’s User made extensions and keeps itself up to date automatically. This would be absolutely brilliant and would really get the coding community inolved even further.

More 3D camera settings, the ability to zoom into the model further with many sub-tools and a nice simple way to overlay reference pictures for accuracy…

OPEN BETAS…

And oh yeah, 64 BIT, duh, more polys, etc. I have 8 gigs of ram going to waste over here…

#117

I think it would be great to apply keyboard commands to things like gravity… right now its all or nothing and for some odd reason gravity goes up when you alt click for different brushes. It’d be nice if you could set the amount then just hold down a key when you need it… and get a direction you set all the time whether your pushing or pulling.

This could be useful for other things that have slider values to them but no on off switch.

something similar to a distortion lattice would be nice as well. The move brush is great but it’d be nice to get a grid to manipulate that you can go back and move back later. Depending on what you do with you move brush. Its hard to use that brush to shift polys back after the fact.

Is there a way to get an axis indicator in there to… I’m always wondering which axis I’m looking at.

#118

Most of the time, when someone is using the pinch brush, the goal is to create the appearance of a sharp crease, whether it be in or out. A pinch brush that creates a crease WITHOUT distorting the polygons around the crease would be great.

Essentially, what the current pinch brush does is draw polygons to the center point of the brush, which creates a crease during the stroke but stretches polys in like crazy. How about one that does it by cleanly folding the polys directly under the center point in or out to a sharp crease, without any pulling?

That sharp fold is what we’re all really after with the pinch brush, not the distortion.

Unlike the snake hook brush, which also ruins topology, the pinch brush is an essential tool for sculpting and should be built for maintaining even topology.

Just my two pennies…

Edit: There comes a point when one must realize, when I have 8 gigs and ZBrush running on 64 bit Leopard @ the end of this month, I’ll no longer be able to see the polygons that the pinch brush distorts! So screw it! My issues are related to my current polycount limit w/ only 1.5 gigs for ZB and 32 bit XP.

#119

When working with zbrush we use lots of masks…But when building new one we lost last…so is it possible to add a feature, saving masks with .ztl and when we create a mask type name and save in to UI. I want masks list…

ps. I know uv - mask thing…

#120

id love to have a tape measure tool so you can measure things and make sure they are the exact same length with out duplicating the shape or tool because sometime you want a different tool thats the same width ro height as something else Id aslo like to have the poser buildings and models to import properly into ZB4 (fix symmetry and correct the polygons) I also agree with James we need a striaghten edge brush to make sharp edges for non organic builidings or armor type projects the pinch brush is ok but i find my self having to smooth all around were i pinched i would also like a way to keep the primitives well more for the cube to maintain its sharp straight edges while being able to divide it still, its hard to make detail on a cube 3d in division 1 but then you divide it and it rounds out the edges but i would like it to be still straight and sharp while having the ability to detail the faces of the cube