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ZBrush 3.5 Status?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#188

I’m sure they’re coming up with all kinds of crazy stuff!

As far as the 3d > 2.5d > 2d workflow, it’s a gem for an illustrator. I wish I could show the work I’ve done, but it’s all under the code of silence for now. I am working on a new project that I’ll FINALLY be able to post! I’ll do a little step by step when I do.

The thing about it is you can bring out incredible detail that would normally make a computer explode. Pixols are the key. Just like pixels, the resolution of the document is just a grid of them.

Load the demo head for instance, resize to a large canvas around 2000 - 4000 pixols wide, drag it into the scene, scale it as big as it can be while fitting (you’ll have to zoom out), and drop it to the canvas by exiting edit mode. (you don’t really have to enter edit mode, you can move, scale, and rotate with the widget)

Then grab the simple brush, which is not in the 3d brush palette, it’s in the tool menu. These brushes have completely different behavior than 3d brushes. Most have no interest in them because they’re actually trying to create 3d content. All of my work is printed flat. What you’ll find is that no matter how much infinitely small detail you do, it never slows down!

The more you mess with it, the more interesting results you’ll achieve. Don’t view it as a substitute for 3d detailing. View it as a way to put that extra level of visual interest into your final renders. Push the model as far as you can in 3d, and be sure you get the angle of the final renders right. Also be sure to render passes of the original 3d model as you normally would first and save it as a separate document when you jump into the 2.5d detailing. Then render passes again when you’re done. You can still change the lights and render effects. All of the depth information of the 3d scene stays in tact.

Other tips: Mess with the deco brush as a sculpting tool with different alphas. You can achieve some cool detail. Also there is no smooth brush now. I use the smudge tool with a low intensity to ‘lightly’ smooth areas that need it. It’s fantastic for cleaning up visible polygons, but definitely not a substitute for the smooth 3d brush.

Good luck! You can p.m. me if you run into any issues, or contact me through my old, dusty, non updated website!

#189

Have they never heard of feature creep??

You sort out what you want in the new release and set a realistic production date.
If any features are taking too long so that you are going over the deadline you cut the feature and save it for the next release.
Once the point release is out you fix any out standing issues that are causing the users grief to keep them happy

By doing this you will get a more stable piece of software as there is on going bug fixing while also giving the customer regular updates

If your a home user a free update is understandably worth waiting for, but if you use it everyday in production an additional £500 is pocket money to get regular fixes and updates

I can understand that pixologic want to release an amazing piece of software but theres been no updates for almost 2years and they are now starting to alienanate there customers

Although im sure this will be ignored like every other comment on the forum

Oh any chance you can fix the smooth brush while your at it please

#190

Not doubting you. I found it cropped up most often in non-proportional scaling of the canvas and very large canvases (in the range of 4000 x 4000.) Sort of the kind of stuff Meats Meir used to do for illustration purposes.

I’ve personally experienced the topology “drag-masking” bug quite a bit on the Mac side. (I used Mac 3.12 for about 2 months when it first came out.) Can’t give you a clear picture on how to reproduce it, but it definitely sent ZB into a tail spin. :wink: I just avoided using that masking type myself (as cool as it is.) I don’t see the same on Vista64 ZB 3.10.

Overall, my personal experience since 3.10 came out is that ZB3.12 is less stable “at the edges.” If you stick to sculpting and 2.5D work (excluding non-proportional canvas manipulation), ZB3.12 will work great on a Mac. However, we have a pipeline that requires taking .objs in from other programs, UV optimization needs (which ZB use’s .obj to take in), and generating maps (displacement and normals). Here’s Mac ZB3.12 is quite inferior in terms of functionality and stability to ZB3.10.

I found the majority of my crashing under OSX came from dealing with .obj import myself. Having been using ZB 3 on windows since the day it came out, I can say, at least for my work, ZB 3.12 Mac is a much inferior product to ZB3.10 Windows. (Although there are a couple of nice things in ZB3.12 Mac that I’m looking to be incorporated into ZB 3.5 PC, such as independent textures for subtools.)

I think that if Pix had set expectations for ZB3 Mac correctly at he beginning (e.g. it’s going to be a perpetual beta until 3.5) they might have bought themselves fewer problems. As a beta, ZB3.12 isn’t bad. It’s missing features and a little crashy in some areas, but overall fullfills its primary missions sculpting and 2.5D illustration reasonably well. Certainly better than most other products that attempt the same. However in the traditional model-texture-animate-render-edit type pipelines, where ZB has to play in the model-texture space in a friendly way with the animate-render space, ZB 3.12 Mac seriously leaves a huge amount to be desired, especially when compared with it’s near twin, ZB 3.10 PC.

-K

#191

Very informative stuff, Kerwin. I’ll see if I get any of that with irregular proportioned document sizes. I do, however, resize the canvas as large as 4000 x 6000. As an illustrator, obviously I have a simpler workflow, which means a simpler list of complaints. Although, I swear, it’s not as crashy for me as it seems to be for a lot of you Mac ZBrushers. Wish I knew why so I could help, but I’m definitely not complaining. At least the early release of 3.12 revealing all of the hiccups should yield a more solid 3.5.

#192

I like your stuff Jamez. That was the kind of thing I was hoping to experiment with as well as playing with the extra dimension to get traditional impasto effects - but alas, not yet.

I do know this, if Pixologic released a public beta to its existing userbase this mess would not happen. Its not like they’re charging for the next version anyway so what advantage is there in not doing? There must be a zillion hardware set ups between us which means ZB would be exposed to every bug imaginable.

#193

Haha but entitlement != yours

If it gets built, it will be a glorious gift. It can only be built in the most efficient and reasonable ways humanly possible. Nothing can or should change that. Adults will know this.

#194

Charmed I’m sure. That was very adult of you.

#195

ideal != success
gift != cost
adult != intelligent

#196

Thanx! :smiley: Although I’d say your portfolio is quite a bit more impressive! My site hasn’t been updated in ages, actually since it was first published over a year ago…I gotta do that one of these days…too damn busy working for the man…

As far as impasto pixol painting, I tried it too. Not really the same, huh? Painter actually has pixels with depth for the impasto effect, but it’s way too far from the real thing. Painter as a whole is still nice though. In the end, I don’t mind the digital art look anyways.

Cheers

#197

You can’t really cut out features if they are already in progress, especially not if the affect other parts of the program. With 3D apps it’s extremely difficult to decouple modules. With microsoft word 2011 or some such crap that kind of engineering works better, but when you are doing stuff no one has done before it’s much harder to estimate and control a product. Everyone likes firm release dates, but what’s the point of a ‘firm’ release date that is missed over and over or doesn’t contain the promised features? That’s how most dev houses operate. It’s pretty easy o guess when it will be out based on past versions anyway, at least as well if they pulled some date out of thin air. My guess is sept, but of course that is just a guess.

#198

I still can’t figure out how such a major glitch of not being able to create useable displacement maps could have been overlooked, or allowed in a final release. That’s not some minor little issue that one can simply choose to ignore and hope it is dealt with at some point down the road. It really impacts one’s ability to use ZBrush in a pipeline. Again, I thought one of the main reasons for the last big delay was so these kinds problems could be dealt with without having to reinvent the wheel. Yet, here we are again waiting for months just to get even a glimmer of information on when a fix might be forthcoming. Going on no information whatsoever, given the length of time that has passed since this issue was first raised, I have to guess Pixo has had to go back and change a whole lot of things again.
I’m not going to be looking for a whole bunch of bells and whistles in the next update. All I really need is to finally have a complete software that does what it’s supposed to do. That’s my wish -plain and simple.

#199

You do realize why Pixologic take so long in creating new version of zbrush dont you? Its a marketing thing. :wink:
They offer free upgrades of Zbrush for everyone. So no money is made with upgrades.

They slow down the development so much and keep silent that it annoys many users so much that they sell on their copies in a fit of anger. This is where the marketing genius takes over. When the new version is finally released it is so fantastic and a must have that those who sold on their copies have to stump up the cash to get back into Zbrush. Absolute genius. he he.:lol:

Cheers

Mike R

#200

Alternatively, having to purchase and use other products to work around zbrush’s deficiencies has pretty much eliminated my perceived need for zbrush. I can’t remember the last time I even launched the program to look at it. Until this is resolved, there’s no place to use it in my workflow. therefore no reason to upgrade.

Walter

#201

Hey thanks for looking :slight_smile:

Yes I recently finally gave in and bought Painter, it is really quite spectacular. Artrage is also great and very cheap. Version 3 will be out soon and that promises a huge leap as I understand. So I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore that ZB is stuck in limbo - at least not for the painting side.

#202

I think Pixologic provided some development time helping Mubox to be ready for OSX this week. Incredible !!!
http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/25575

#203

I always said Pixo is friendly …

#204

Zbrush 4… :eek:

#205

Thank goodness Mudbox announced their release.

It will be interesting to see what capabilities ZB4 has compared to MB 2009. Hopefully Pixo releases more info soon rather than later to make the decision-making easier for those either on the fence or leaning towards MB.

BTW…this is not the first time a “release” has been announced.

Hello everyone! SIGGRAPH is in full swing, and we know that everyone is hungry for ZBrush news. While a much larger announcement with more details will be coming after SIGGRAPH, we did want to share some information with the ZBC community as soon as possible.


  • The next release of ZBrush will be Version 3.5.
  • Version 3.5 will be released in the fourth quarter of 2008.
  • ZBrush 3.5 will be a FREE upgrade to all registered users (PC and Mac).
  • This will be the first unified version of ZBrush. That means that it will be released concurrently for Windows and Mac (Intel).
Hopefully more info will be released soon so that we get an idea whether this release announcement is any different than previous “release announcements.”

As we say in the military…just being cautiously optomistic.

#206

let’s not forget this thread either:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=28498

or this one:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=42491

Z3’s original release date was may 15th 2007, it came out 3 months later. to my knowledge, pixologic has never made a release date. :lol:

which is why they should stop giving them out… i saw the Z4 thread and was like “cool!” then I saw the “August 2009” and then i said “jesus, will they never learn??”

#207

lol, they havent said anthing at all other than it begins in August, and we know whats in August, Siggraph. It is nice to see something, but thats not look into this more than whats been said.

When I read this, to me it says. “By the way your hear somthing at the time of Siggraph 09”.

Will it be here in August, I doubt it very much. just before or during 2010, yea more like it.

Update: I just logged into my support account wherte it says more directly v4 will be released in August, which is is more direct than the anouncment here. So am glad this is so.