ZBrushCentral

Zbrush 5.0 Wishlist (or 4.5 if possible)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#101

Well, It has been a very long time since I participated in this thread, but I have never forgotten it. Looking back on developments in Zbrush since this thread was started makes me smile - it seems that Pixologic was paying attention, since I have seen a number of suggestions made here become reality.

Today I decided to move the master list to a spreadsheet and update it with those suggestions that were made since I last updated the master list, plus a number of new ones from myself, updated comments and made notes on which feature suggestions have been fulfilled. You can view or download the pdf I’ve made of the spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8HKWtnvEJ5sWldlTnZkQnBqcG8/edit?usp=sharing

FYI - I haven’t checked every suggestion to determine it’s usefulness or whether it is redundant. If you think a suggestion has been fulfilled or is misguided, fill me in and I’ll update my list.

#102

Without looking at the long list, I only have one requirement - proper 64 bit. :slight_smile: I’m fairly sure that will already have said.

#103

They didnt change anything of the rig system since 2007… I know its a feature many of you will never use but it’s really usefull. As some users suggested before, a cool improvement would be being able to paint weights with masks.

#104

Excellent work once again, Francis! The amount of effort you’ve put into this is much appreciated. :+1:

#105

Thanks Zeddicus:)

#106

Here’s another one for the list:

Open an ideascale site for users to submit, comment and vote on feature ideas for Zbrush.

There is such a site for Mari (http://mari.ideascale.com/). And it has been quite successful. Lot’s of new idea’s have been submitted for mari via this ideascale site, and the developers are both listening and responding, which is really great. Ideascale would be an ideal place to move my list to.

#107

curve by mask
creating curves can be a bit hard sometimes, it’d be easier if it could be done with a mask

#108

That’s a very good point. If not already existing, I would extend the request to “Curve by Polygroup Borders” “UV’s” “Panel Loops”
For exact placing of rivets i.e., but “curve by mask” would make everything possible already with just one-two steps more.

EDIT: And yes, I agree. Something like the ideascale would be cool.

#109

Thanks for the additions guys. I’ve added them to the list.

FYI - I’ve moved everything to a spreadsheet with each category on it’s own sheet. You can view it here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsHKWtnvEJ5sdDRVd1BxOTRaMDZKSHM2T0xzTk5fMkE&usp=sharing

#110

New Idea: maintain mesh edge lengths, or volume control options.

This option would cause the mesh to behave similarly to how curves do now, in that when you move a given point, the rest of the mesh adjusts it’s shape in a natural way to maintain the lengths of it’s edges, or in other terms to maintain the volume of the mesh. This would be useful when creating drapery for example that needs to bend and fold without stretching the topology.

Of course, you may want to permit some stretching as real cloth can have some stretch, so additional options for max and min stretch and compression would be handy too.

Taking the idea still further: It would be useful to be able to set certain hand-picked rows of edges to have different stretch properties than others, and to apply settings to every nth row, or say three rows with two spaces between that are different. The idea here is that if you create a mesh that is dense enough to have rows and columns of faces that can effectively represent different sections of the weave of a cloth, you can cause it to stretch in parts of the cloth where it should, not in places where it shouldn’t (sorry - I don’t have a good way of describing it in words, try thinking of how the weave of a sweater deforms when it is stretched).

#111

Zbrush has come a long way!
I’d like to thank the Zbrush code Gods for …
The Topology Brush and ZRemesher, they have made retopology smoother.
Personnally I like the amount of control using the zsphere method to exactly position my vertices of a retopo.
Presently the mouse cursor highlights the zsphere chains and optimal parts of chain.
To augment this method a little further.
I wish the mouse cursor shape and/or color indicated when zbrush was in Draw, Move, Scale, Rotate mode.

#112

If they add some real animation possibilities it will become the best 3d software

#113

I think Animation functionality would just clutter the program right now. Zbrush is a sculpting/texturing centric package, there’s tons of animation software that I imagine would do a better job than if animation tools were added to it.

In terms of a wishlist for myself, I think they’ve already been mentioned here several times - subtool groups so you don’t have to have scroll through a list of 20-30 subtools. The other is per pixel painting rather than per poly or Ptex as mentioned, that would be great! :+1:

#114

Better control over subtools - grouping or something. And better painting - a bit like Photoshop brushes and/or layer blending for example.

Don’t need anything like animation as discussed by other people.

Oh, and GPU and or real 64 bit support would be good.

#115

This software has so many features. It takes a clear understanding of how all the features work, to know what is and what isn’t possible. Maybe it’s the way the menus are setup for creating the animation that make it more difficult? 2 modifier keys to press while clicking on a small dot to ‘do stuff’ just isn’t the same as a decent timeline readily adjustable and quickly accessed with auto keyframes button (on/off). Maybe working with the feature more will help me to know it better.

#116

I agree. I think the animation tools in zbrush have a lot of potential but are Underused. They wouldn’t need to add much to make me happy. Just let us define the weights for each bone using masks! Please!!

#117

Re: Animation in Zbrush

My first gut response to the idea of adding animation in Zbrush is that it’s a big waste of time - aside from using it for shot-sculpting which I think Zbrush could be ideal for (done on an alembic export, and then re-exported as a new alembic file). But, Zbrush does bring something to the table that would give it a distinct advantage in this arena over programs like Maya, namely a far superior capacity for handling mesh density. Were a truly robust rigging and animation environment established within Zbrush animators would be able to directly animate high resolution models rather than lower res approximations. This is a goal that a lot of people are interested in and working toward, most notably pixar with it’s subdivision surfaces (check this out if you don’t know what I’m talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFZazwvYc5o).

Having said that, animation is still not an area that I would choose for Zbrush to develop in the immediate future. There are still many many area’s of development that are more relevant to Zbrush’s Central focus on Sculpting and Conceptualization that I would place above animation in the order of priorities, and a properly implemented (ie production appropriate) animation solution would require a truly long-term plan that includes a lot of new technology and interface changes.

#118

My previous request was for the closing Zbrush dialog to be adjusted so we did not have to click on the save zbrush document reminder, when we had already clicked on the ‘X’ in the very top right of the zbrush interface.
As with any work flow less clicks makes life easier and maybe better.

Perhaps a button in preferences to toggle save dialog reminder would be better.

note: in the evolution of blender the save on close has just such a tweak in preferences.

#119

better posing tools.

to repose a character you basically have to use masking+transpose or make a zsphere rig.
both produce varying degrees of acceptable results and can be tedious.

perhaps some sort of feature like being able to fill the interior of the mesh with zspheres, analogous to grains of sand.
then you could bend and twist the mesh without kinking it. after it’s reposed, delete the zspheres.

same as bending a real world copper pipe.

of course that would call for some physics algorithm to be built into the back end.

#120

@Zeddie

Hmm - that’s an interesting way of looking at volume preservation during deformations. I like it.