After toying around with it for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that the interface is so clean because it isn’t very feature rich.
Honestly, Mudbox seems pretty much like a sculpting/painting accessory to an external 3d app. Good for the pipelines, but definitely not a complete digital art studio like ZBrush. So it comes down to how much artistic freedom you’re after and what your actual goal in using it is. For me, there’s not really much point in comparing the two. With what I use ZBrush for, it would be settling for less while paying more
Just a thought, here is a nice example of a web site that tracks issues/feature request for current and up and coming software.
It looks like a great way to log request, bugs and then have the community rate the importance of the request/issues. This way the developer knows what the highest priority is.
P.S. I have developed some tools in the past for game development, and to put it mildly, it isn’t easy work to do. I could only imagine trying to develop something as mind blowing as ZBrush…I think we have all become very spoiled lately! The field of CG has grown to levels so quickly that it makes my head spin to think about it all some times! Enjoy these times!!! These are good days to be an artist!!! Create, share, enjoy and most of all have FUN!!!
There’s no hate here, just an observation. Yes I’m 61, started when computers were big as a room, and retired 6 years ago as the Chief Operating Officer of a software developer firm for architectural and engineering CAD out of Germany. I’m not an old fuddy dutty, have dealt directly with Pix management at my level, and pushed to have ZBrush at a major university in the states.
Your private message directly to me with the missing profanity from the post shows me a strong dedication for the software, and that’s always good, but I was asking for people to look at this from a business prespective.
Is mudbox able to match ZB at this time, no, but again, look at it from a development timeline. How long has mudbox been in development, maybe the same time as ZB has gone from 2.5 to 3.5.
My posting, as a ZB registered owner, was as a responce to the news that there was going to be a 4 in Aug. and my thoughts about it. No getting mad about it. My reference to Modo, which I see you did not reference, was to point out the, not typical corporate news release of a developder, but what is considered exceptional developder to user information flow.
Be supportive, sign the unique features, but be watchful. I’m retired and enjoying unlimited time to work with all these packages I choose, application that I could only dream about 30 years ago.
Having spent almost a year after being contacted by upper management before, I simply will wait until Aug and hope to occasionally see a highlight once in awhile. LIke all of you, I hope for the best.
Your anger, not mine, only shows a sensitivity to what is an underlying current of thought.
See that’s why I stopped posting here.
People, as a whole, and in one facet or another, just can’t grow up.
I hate crabs in a barrel.
Is it so hard to be positive, patient, and respectful?
Yeah, peace Brother! Lol. Now I am back for this Z4 journey we are all going to take. I’ll just exercise my patience and the right to ignore low status behavior. Thanks man…
With the upgrade prices for autodesk, there’s simply no reason to buy one of their products if it doesn’t do what you want already.
Maya and max have both been virtually unchanged for years now, but if you payed for all the upgrades it would have cost more than buying it new now.
I thought mudbox was great (it’s what I tried first), better than zbrush in many ways. Certainly the navigation works more like you’d expect. Some people say it’s preference, but honestly I just think maya navigation is better. It’s easier and simple and takes almost no memorization or awkward keystrokes.
Problem is you just can’t get as find of detail without really huge sculpts, you have to have absolutely no quads on import, and the painting just isn’t really as good. The little things all added up to not working out as well as zbrush. Maybe they will get fixed, but it’s not really like they are broken per se so I seriously doubt it.
Autodesk has left many annoying little things that would be easy to change in maya and max unaddressed for years on end so I can’t imagine mudbox is suddenly going to leap ahead of the pack. If anyone does beat zbrush it will probably be 3dcoat. Its current issues are a lot like mudbox’s, a myriad of little things that hold it back, but it has a developer who adds new features almost daily.
I like your response. Thoughtful, clear and to the point. Your assessment of the current situation is professional. I am not a programmer, but having listen to my group of 80, the inability to do some of the things that have been requested, should have been implemented… the Mac side, or even just clean up of the UI, would lead me to believe that the code may be so patched, that just keeping it afloat is more the enough for the development team.
I would love to be wrong and I hope in Aug people are posting me to drop off the earth because ZB 4 is everything all would hope for and more.
It’s a long time waiting for the new 4. Special for people who could not use the most important functions of ZBrush for a real long time.
It’s hard to see other users are accusing them of being dissatisfied and nagging. They just want to use that program like others without being ignored.
A good Windows computer is also expensive, like a Mac, and green people are as friendly as the orange.
I’m a real ZBrush-lover and I cant wait for the next release, so I can finaly make displacementmaps, render without crashes and use some important plugins.
I am not demanding new funcions, just asking for a funcional program. Let’s hope Pixo will surprise us (in a good way).
And euhh… euh, ofcourse, I’m still P##
If Pixologic charged for upgrades, then the release dates would be a little more on time. There’s a reason Autodesk is on top of their game (regardless of whether or not you like them). I, personally, fear ZBrush’s life when Mudbox’s SDK gets released. That is, of course, if it is as good as Maya’s. It’ll take a while, but being able to write plugins for already powerful software is going to kick some serious *ss. Also, seamlessly integrating it into Maya, Max, or XSI will turn some heads. I may be completely wrong, but I thought I’d point that out.
i say go for it. sucks for the casual artist- but for professionals, i don’t know a single one that wouldn’t pay for upgrades and consistent and timely fixes. and I don’t know of a single casual artist who doesn’t think it’s worth it (short of the mac users who have likely already jumped ship).
honestly we’ve all been getting stuff for free from pixologic for far too long, I would see pay upgrades as a welcome change. just my two cents, take it or leave it
That is simple BS of someone who is not using them.
Other thing is if always upgrade is cost effective - I guess you have to think about what you need before you decide to upgrade. Other thing is that on maintenance program you have all updates included.
Another aspects - Maya and 3DSmax are all-rounders, mature programs with long history - is hard to add anything to something that long on the market. Autodesk is not taking a p*ss when comes to release dates and that’s one of the things you’re paying for :lol:. Pixologic GIVED YOU NOTHING EXCEPT BANNER WITH NUMBER 4, yet is enough that bunch of people get excited about… What exactly? Because we all know NOTHING about new version. Some of You is acting like beggars - doesn’t matter whats going be served and when - IS FREE!!! Y :o EAAAHHH!!!
Ow, and no - I am not negative about nothing (except childish attitude of some people maybe :lol:). I just do not understand what actually is in that news to be happy about it. Like someone said - in similar manner you can be already excited about Photoshop CS5, Maya 2010 or Mudbox2011 that would be - trust me on that - amazing piece of soft.
One big joke all that thread and that populist talk "innovative new tools coupled with unparalleled leaps in performance"… WOW! I hear that with EVERY new version of ANY application
I am not a guru yet and I have come to doubt I ever will be, but practically all I do all day for the last year+ is use maya (and other apps) and lately have settled on zbrush + maya as the best tools possible today. I liked max a lot at first but ultimately I realized beneath the ooh easy interface that it kind of sucks, I guess sort of like what I realized with mudbox.
It’s true maya and max are more mature products but all I see with max is rolling features in plugins into main package for last couple releases (and really, polyboost and character studio are not all that, people only like them because they help work around max’s core failings).
For maya they do make more stuff, but everything signifigant is a sperate package or upgrade that costs an insane amount of money. There is only one new feature in last two versions that I find useful, though admittedly it’s very useful one making it easier to skin characters. Even after all this time, though, maya has a terrible UV mapping system. The only way I can get anything out of it is to either cut apart my models and transfer maps (which sort of blows and has led me to accidentally delete more than a few models) or to endlessly cut and sew UV maps until I get everything just right (which blows horrendously).
I end up going into a free app most of the time, which does them 100x faster. It’s kind of ridiculous that even the free modelers all beat the pants off of maya’s UV system. I see lots of suggestion to get headus, but it’s ridiculous to pay 300 bucks for something that you can do in 5 minutes with same quality in a free app. You could almost get modo for that price, which is better with UVs and also does a lot more (though it’s only competitive with its peers in modeling and UVs).
Still I say maya is an amazing value, though, and I am a big fan of its power. But, if it were really headed forward it would have sculpting that work really well by now instead of the same halfassed ones. Failing that, I’d at least expect better UV mapping tools, there’s also a myriad of minor stuff as I said before - and yes it’s minor, but it seems a lot of it is obvious to me. Instead we get more and more fancy features as expensive addons like fur, muscle, dynamics etc. etc. while the core stuff that could easily be changed to make it more pleasant and easy to work with gets neglected.
I guess it’s true if you subscribe you get updates. But, most people don’t like subscription software. It makes sense in many ways and makes it easier on the developers but you are at their mercy as far as future pricing goes etc. And also, if the updates are meaningless, what’s the point? The core for maya has not changed a lot since 6.0 and many people I know still use that version after all this time. For game making you hardly need 95% of what maya has, and for movies no one but a big movie studio has the rendering power or manpower to make serious use of most of all the features in the full maya version.
Zbrush on the other hand, with free upgrades and a relatively cheap price, how can anyone complain too much? It has a ton of areas to improve, and many of them are obvious and easy fixes, but it also works for what it is very well in its own goofy way.
People complain pixo doesn’t communicate enough, but then whenever they do say anything people immediately call them liars. I can understand some of the mac rage, but unfortunately macs just lag behind in importance for most software companies.
What a shame,people complain about getting a free version upgrade.
At least its not the majority of the site/members here.The thing is when people had zb2 and got bzrush 3 free they moaned about bug fixes not being met then moaned that its a huge conspiracy because its just adding a version number and conning us to belive its a version 3 we are getting hmphhh…History repeats itself.
1.The ammount of new content in zbrush 3 compared to zbrush 2 is staggering and in no way was it NOT a completly new version compared to zbrush 2 and was given to you (Loyal rofl) community for free.the same will be for zbrush 4 it will make zbrus 3 look dated.
Oh what a con zbrush 2 is that were not getting a bug fix in zbrush 2.5,instead were getting zbrush 3 with no bug fixes we were promised??
“People get a grip” the bug fixes come later on just be patient.Surely its better to have a free version given to you that has brand new features not seen in any other application than reject a free version in order for some minorbug fixes that lets face it, we all used zbrush for so long we already have a workaround for it anyway?There is a ton of features that zbrush has that mudbox still cannot do, or do properly or as fast.but hey at least it has pretty lights you can switch on ooh hdri yay.
I got an idea says pixologic…Im gonna make zbrush 4 with a host of new features that are mind blowing…Im also going to post all over the internet the new features and new ideas before siggraph and have my competitors scramble to copy my ideas and quickly implement it into their own software.
It should be enough that they told you and wanted to see the reaction god bless them they even hoped you would be kinda pleased too? In life you gotta learn to be patient,you will get your zbrush 4 it will be free you will have to wait for it and bug fixes will come.Meantime relax and enjoy making your usual fantastic artwork and being the happy helpful community I respect so much.
