ZBrushCentral

Zbrush 3.5 First Impression anyone?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#61

Loving everything so far. I only have 4 GB of ram, but I was able to push a polysphere up to 24 million polys. It took a couple minutes to do the last subdivide, and movement was choppy at that point… but brush strokes still applied pretty smoothly. I couldn’t come close to this before.

I’ve mostly played with the new zsphere sketching. I’m loving it, but I do have a major gripe. Smoothing seems essential to laying down clean sequences of spheres. It must take tons of practice to lay down precision forms in single strokes like in the demo videos. I love the way smoothing merges spheres and cleans them up into minimal strokes. It’s just perfect… except when you have multiple protrusions from a larger base that aren’t built around armature. It doesn’t matter how you zoom or size your brush or anything. You just can’t smooth, say, tentacles (a kind of shape where smoothing is essential) without those tentacles getting sucked together. There can be a good distance between them, but unless you put the armature underneath them, they will leap great distances to be unified. Pretty annoying.

But I can tell that this update is very transitional. We’re getting mainly a performance upgrade with added special sneak peak into tools that I think will be much more polished and unified in Z4. Can’t wait.

#62

Sorry for double post, but seems more right here my considerations.

Hi all, love this software but there are some thingh about upgrades, where i’m lost…
It’s strange, you have break up the cg world and miss this little thingh


  1. This software , not like so many other software don’t allow an easy translation about data and preferences…(you do this by hand)
  2. every upgrade is a revolution in the workflow, this is welcome if simplify, but the revolution in Zbrush is in everythingh
  3. In this moment , correct me if i’m wrong, there is no possibility the use of many plugins, then you are able only play with the new brush; why not wait and put all togheter?
  4. Why not realese the docs and info , to avoid searching in the forum for everythingh
  5. is a better thingh a pdf where you show the principal modify beetwen the useful command and workflow.
I know, there are a market rule you are follow, and surely in no time i’ll be catch in the new realese.
With respect
Leo (a Z-addicted)

#63

Marciani,

Quote:

In this moment , correct me if i’m wrong, there is no possibility the use of many plugins, then you are able only play with the new brush; why not wait and put all togheter?

We are updating the plugins for 3.5 and will release these as soon as they are ready. Other plugins created by users will need to be update by users. Check the Download page at Pixologic.com for updates.

#64

I hope the Subtool Master Plugin for 3.5 is first to be updated for the new release. I use that plugin every day all the time and I freakin love it! Such a time saver. Surprized it isn’t part of the actual program now. Please come out soon. Please! *begging…

#65

Why aren’t all these plugins a part of 3.5? Are they going to be integrated ever? I mean what’s the point of keeping them separate?


#66

I’ve been wondering that, too…

#67

This is my perspective:

You could wait until ZB4, OR
…enjoy the fact that Pixologic released ZB 3.5 and you can test some of the new tools.
Use 3.1 and all the plugins that work with it until the ZB4 release. :confused:

#68

Are you just assuming that the plugins will be integrated in ZB4, or has there been official confirmation of that?

#69

About the plugins for ZBrush V3.5:

Plugins created for 3.1 or older, are not compatible with 3.5. By using older plugins, you may get unexpected behavior.

Please wait for the updated plugins. When they are ready they will be posted in here at ZBC.

Thank you.

#70

Tez,
When you are working in topology for projection there could be settings that you will need to change for certain meshes. Try setting your Max Strip Length to 4 on the hand you put up. That should solver your issue. It’s not the projection necessarily. When you are speaking about smooth UVs you are assuming that it has the same effect that 3.1 does.

Do you have a screenshot of the texturing issue?

What is your polycount of the tool that will not Group Split? Not having this issue.

Thank you for the info. Small note from your Video the Flip V in the displacement map will only work with Create and Export button.

Paul

#71

Call me when your program works. Going back to 3.0.

#72

Yeah I’d call it a nice toy to play with before 4 comes out and maybe then some.

I’ve put in about 20 hours on it and had several crashes, and one major file corruption. Apparently none of the old plugins are supported and using them can cause major problems. For the record, the file that got corrupted was not using any of the plugins. I was simply saving the tool and it crashed. Now no open.

The new tools are awesome and it can do much larger meshes than before. But I don’t like the new way the UV/Texture/polypainting works. Its just a nit pick but its like double the button clicks to do the same things I’ve gotten used to doing before. And I still havn’t figured out the new way to bake Materials to textures after just learning the old way.

I’d call it fun to play but don’t use it for pay (ie expect some heartache if you lose a file or model that’s on a deadline.) that or save often.

It’s an upgrade for sure, but still pretty buggy, especially compared to PC 3.1 :slight_smile:

Just my 2 cents… your mileage may and probably will vary.

#73

Call me when your program works.

Call me when you learn to post a decent reply.

#74

Where’s zmapper? And how do I export a normal map now?

#75

3.5 is way more stable than 3.1 was. at least for me. no crashing while working except you have no memory left (i got 4 gb ram) but then there is the recovery file :slight_smile:
it worked fine here.

#76

I think it can be usefull. you can “zketch” with zspheres2 over the surface of every subtool just by making it visible. just adding a zpshere as subtool.
pretty cool!

#77

Hello Paul.

The max strip length is so Zbrush can calculate missing gaps in your topology. In this case there is no missing gaps, all the topology is drawn out by using a low poly cage of the high res geometry, so Maxstrip length will have no effect. The other settings do have a effect, but am aware of these settings, normaly its the case of having a plus or negative value for projection range when some meshes apear somewhat distorted.

The 4 poly ring loop issue is a old one, and is still present, this is what is causing the gemetry caving in on the fingers. Aside from the also caving in around cavities like eyes is still a issue.

The smooth Uvs called (SUV) is located in the geometry tab to the right of the UI. It must be enabeled before you start sub deviding so that it can smooth uvs for texture maps, made from poly painting. Smooth Uvs for dispalcment ,and normal maps do have their own smooth Uv button which do work.

Again this is a known issue with Suv, where by if you sub devide with SUV enabled, then go back down a sub d level, which you will do if your sculpting, then SUV will fail to smooth the Uvs.

Thanks for your reply, but both issues are present in 3.1, and are still there in 3.5.

Iv not had problems with flip UV for displacments, it was just odd that normal map settings didnt have it in the normal map settings like the displacments settings does. This is a minor issue as you can still flip from the texture manu before exporting.

Thanks for your time to reply Paul.

#78

…When i loaded a 3.1 document and did a best render in ZB3.5, it took twice the time it did in ZB 3.1…i had to change the saturation setting in the material because it had a strange blue-ish sheen on it .And don’t change a setting in a matcap material thinking that you can use it in the "old"ZB 3.1…you can’t !
I don’t want to sound like a party-pooper ,but it seems that ZBrush has taken another step in the direction of the user who makes his high-res model in this program and then takes it in another to do a render !

jantim

#79

Either some of the original materials and rendering parameters have been eliminated all together (I certainly hope not) OR they have been restricted or turned off for the 3.5 interim release and will return with version 4.0.

If not, a serious blow has been struck against the use of ZBrush as an illustrator’s medium. It’s as if the son has killed the father.

For the moment, it would be a wise move to maintain a strict quarantine between 3.5 and 3.1 materials.

Veteran users of ZBrush would very much appreciate an OFFICIAL clarification on the whole issue of LEGACY MATERIALS and changes in the RENDER ENGINE.

Matt?

Sven

#80

No need to worry, there will be changes in Z4 but the goal is to do more with ZBrush materials, not less.