Switching to Zbrush
polycounter lvl 18
Ok, so here's the thing, Zbrush seems to have a lot of tools that I want to use, is used by many companies, etc...so I want to learn it, maybe to totally switch, maybe to just do what I need/what it does better than mud, and I know mud09 will have similar features, etc but still I think it's a valuable skill to have.
As a mudbox user, I'm quite lost in it, I've been looking for tutorials but all I can find is how to doodle on a shitty sphere...I'm most interested in zspheres creation/manipulation (IIRC Mop made a full character out of them and the end result was really good), subtools/layers, polypainting/materials, retopo and transpose (well this is all I can think of now) I have used the projection master in z2 and liked it, but preferred mudbox's simplicity.
anyways, if you have pointers to tutorials, videos, etc...
Thanks.
As a mudbox user, I'm quite lost in it, I've been looking for tutorials but all I can find is how to doodle on a shitty sphere...I'm most interested in zspheres creation/manipulation (IIRC Mop made a full character out of them and the end result was really good), subtools/layers, polypainting/materials, retopo and transpose (well this is all I can think of now) I have used the projection master in z2 and liked it, but preferred mudbox's simplicity.
anyways, if you have pointers to tutorials, videos, etc...
Thanks.
Replies
Alot of the basic tutorials in their learning section are pretty good for learning the basics of the tools and how the interface works.
One of the nicest learning features of ZBrush is that most of the tools you can hold CTRL and hover over the tool for a breakdown of what it does.
Zspheres are interesting, but I have not found them as fast as hacking out a quick base in Silo/Max/etc. The topology tools are there, but not as polished as Nex/Polyboost/Silo.
Some of the features that you might want to look at are: the brushes (clay, clay tubes, standard, pinch all get specific results which speed things up). The transpose tools. The layers. The polypainting (though MB2009 looks to far surprass ZB in that area). If you look up brushes, transpose, and layers on the wiki you'd be well on your way.
You'll want the subtool plugin to make it less annoying to deal with files, and kill any chances of an on save bug.
http://www.pixologic.com/blogs/ryan/
ryans blog is pretty awesome
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/ZBrush-Character-Creation-Advanced-Sculpting/dp/047024996X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218667630&sr=1-1[/ame]
1. look up for the rs2 materials, very good for modeling.
2. press p for perspective.
3. make a startup macro with your favorite material, brush sizes, etc. and map it to a key.
4. map keys by ctrl-click a UI item, so you should have your favorite brushes etc.
5. I know you are busy with work etc, but what helped me switch from mudbox to zb3 were 3d total sculpting competitions, 4 hours each, after doing 3 of them and seeying what other people come up with the same basemesh I'd say I'm much more confident in zb3.
Kurv Studios - Introduction to Zbrush
Are very helpful. The Gnomon one jumps around different parts of the program, the Kurv one is a project (alien head) from start to finish). The Gnomon Human Anatomy one is also very good.
are there any scripts or tools to modify the UI for instance to only display the tools I use ?
trying to learn the shortcuts tho, some are quite weird when you come from Mudbox/XSI
getting there slowly though !
thanks again
Yeah you can modify the UI like crazy, you can add/remove buttons, create custom rollouts, position stuff wherever you want it. I think you can even have buttons on the canvas if you want.
For shortcuts, you can change these if you have ZBrush 3.1 - just CTRL+leftclick on any button and it will toggle the "hotkey assign mode" so you can assign any key combo to that button.
I would also recommend getting the "Reset Brush" zscript, you can have that on a hotkey to restore your favourite brush settings for each brush tool.
It sounds like a good idea, what you said, to make a full little character (mainly organic monster or something) - start off with ZSpheres to rough out the structure and proportions, then do some quick sculpting to refine the volumes, then use the Retopology tools (very fast once you get used to how it works), and you will have a completely custom basemesh with detail exactly where you need it. Then you can just get on with sculpting, using custom brushes/alphas/polypainting etc - you could even make the lowpoly in ZBrush and bake it all down if you wanted (although the UVs would suck).
You know, I tried this zscript, and it takes a while to run each time - instead I've found to make my own startup script by setting the values for brushes I actually use m, and it runs much faster.
anyways, I imported a polysphere to use as an eye for my lill' shitmonster and was wondering if there was a way to mirror the subtool or if I had to do it in a 3d package/get a pair of eyes ready to import and transpose when I need.
thanks again, all this info is getting assimilated as I go, taking some time though
lulzcrapshitmonster
http://www.pixolator.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=57154 makes dealing with import/export easier, avoids the onsave bug, has a mirror function.
The first monster is cool
as for the monster, well that was just some random doodling to test out zspheres, polypainting, etc
gonna third this book. really great source of information, and well written to boot.
I'd like to see you slap an AUV tileset on that dude and convert the polypaint to a bitmap, then use it to bake color from the high rez to a proper UVd low rez. Do you plan on doing that for this guy?
I got the hang out of the masking and started playing with polygroups too, again that takes some time to get used to, but it's getting there
Gwotto : thanks sir
as for finishing the monster thing, I could eventually...dunno, that was really a test, I started a new one, still an exercise, but that may be an interesting thing to do, like retopo it and bake, at least to test the workflow...
With subtools whatever one you have selected will be displayed. If you turn on the eye next to it while it's selected all other subtools will be turned on, and turn it off while selected to turn off all. Select a tool you don't intend to turn on and then click the eye symbol for all the ones you want to get multiple (but not all) subtools visible.
For Polygroups, to view multiple ones: ctrl+shift click on a desired group and again once the others are invisible, then ctrl+shift click all the other groups you want to view. do the same thing in blank space to invert the visible groups.
While the first worked perfectly and was really amusing, the second was a bit trickier, I tried 2 methods, since I can see both of these happening in production.
First I tried to import an obj mesh, followed the PDFs, videos, etc instructions to avoid the scaling problem, but then I see that a lot of zspheres are missing, resulting in gaps and streched verts when transferring the sculpt details. I tried to recreate them, but I apparently had to delete a bunch before being able to create one, so I abandonned that method.
then tried the built in retopology, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, this is really easy to work with, very straightforward, and besides a few glitches that are easy to get around if you are careful (double edges, connection to the center sphere, multiple points on the same spot) this was a real breath to work with. There the transfer was easy and perfect.
any idea on the obj import thing ? I'm specifically thinking of that to transfer some of my basemeshes from mudbox to zbrush while keeping all the subdivision levels.
That'll be much easier than trying to import the high level and the cage and trying to Project it.
And yeah I agree, the retopology is actually pretty fast once you figure out how to set it up initially (which isn't too hard anyway). I've used it a lot and it works great.