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ZBrush 3.5 Announced

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polycounter lvl 12
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Frump polycounter lvl 12
So I was just browsing Zbrush Central and I see an announcement for Zbrush 3.5. Apparently ZB 4 is now delayed, but they are including a lot of the shown off features. Take a look.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=073517

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  • 3devo
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    3devo polycounter lvl 12
    at first i thought this was old news. but they're delaying zbrush 4 and putting out 3.5 in august with some of the features from 4 brought in. zbrush 4 release date now unknown. just great.
  • Frump
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    Frump polycounter lvl 12
    Yeah I tried to change the thread title to "Zbrush 3.5 Announced" so that people would realize it is news.

    Well, having some new stuff is better than having to wait a long time for a release. I prefer shorter incremental releases. Though, if all of the new stuff is what was going to be in 4, I wonder how much different 4 will really be from 3.2.
  • Jeremy-S
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    Jeremy-S polycounter lvl 11
    Completely un-shocked by this delay. But at least they recognized the issue in that very thread, instead of trying to wipe it under the carpet like they did with version 3. I'd have been absolutely shocked if they had stayed on time with release.

    Basically just typical pixologic behavior.
  • ScoobyDoofus
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    ScoobyDoofus polycounter lvl 19
    Well, hopefully they get strong community feedback on this iteration and have some more time to add novel new features like true Voxel sculpting.
  • iatriki
    pixologic weirdness
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    I can't argue with free updates
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    Will be interested to see what they've done to improve the tool/subtool palette and what this "improved navigation" is. If it means no longer needing to do the "ALT press/drag mouse/ALT release" dance then I'll be happy.

    AO baking will be awesome, provided the quality is ok, which at this point I'd hope nobody can get wrong given that there's so many examples of "good" AO baking out there, you'd have to be actively trying to make a bad implementation. Lack of AO bake was pretty much the only thing stopping me using ZMapper, as bakers go it's bloody fast and has a huge amount of options so your output can work with pretty much any engine or 3D app, which is quite impressive.

    As mentioned too, it's free, I'm not going to complain unless they actually make the app worse somehow :)

    Hopefully ZB4 has some even more useful stuff. And hopefully they've improved the file browse dialog systems, those things are so outmoded it's like a kick in the face every time I have to browse for an external file. Remember the bloody directory per file type, that's all I ask! Since when has anyone wanted to browse for ZTL files in the folder they just loaded an alpha or imported a TGA from? Those things are totally separate actions, they should not share default directory lookup... rant over.
  • Vitor
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    Vitor polycounter lvl 18
    Indeed, the shock would be ZBrush 4 released in August, that would be ridiculous lol .I'm liking this update, and it's free so let it come. Multiple textures come handy too, AO, improved perspective... all good stuff if done right.


    Mop, you serious on the Zmapper? that thing always scared me....
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    GoZ sounds like it might have some potential. Max to Zbrush and back always takes soo many tests to get right at least for me.

    Has there been anything about a tool in 3.5 or 4 that will project a texture onto a surface that follows the contours of that surface? The projection tool projects head on, even with wrap. So from the side of the projection is elongated.

    Zmapper wouldnt be so bad if they would use more relevant terms. Nvidia normal mapping means nothing to me. I need to know what is _+ for each of the axis. Which AFAIK I cant directly access.
  • Compo
    Cant wait for Zbrush 3.5/4 especially now that it will be a free upgrade. But sadly it wont be coming out till after my game class ends. :(
  • Ancient-Pig
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    Ancient-Pig polycounter lvl 18
    I dig ZMapper.. really only use it for cavity maps, but I'd be willing to take a whirl with AO.
  • Mongrelman
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    Mongrelman polycounter lvl 18
    If they don't fix the problem where switching brushes via hotkeys propogates the settings to the next brush I may eat my own foot.


    Well, maybe not mine...but probably someone else's.

    Looking forward to GoZbrush though, hope it soon becomes available to be used with the other apps too.
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    Mongrelman: Haha, yeah.
    In the meantime what I've done is actually saved over the default brushes with my settings (each brush is it's own separate file in the ZData Brushes folder).

    Also you can get the "Reset Brush" script although that means you need to hit a hotkey every time you switch brush while keeping the settings, to set them back to your values.
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    MoP wrote: »
    Also you can get the "Reset Brush" script although that means you need to hit a hotkey every time you switch brush while keeping the settings, to set them back to your values.

    well then could you not wrap the call for that script and the switch to a brush into a macro and assign your brush icon/hotkey to that? seems i have to check that reset brush script out.
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    I've found it's actually faster just to replace the default brush files in the ZData folder and only use Reset Brush when something really messes up... :)
  • adamlewis
    Regarding the brush settings bug, a while ago on ZbrushCentral I posted up for a fix for it that seems to work without issue. Give it a try if you're interested and let me know if it helps.

    Here's the old post:

    "You may notice if you turn ZAdd on and off through the menu before switching your brush via hotkey you won't have this issue. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it appears to break whatever is causing Zbrush to think you want to transfer brush settings. So the idea here is to create a macro that turns ZAdd on and off and then selects the desired brush. You then assign a hotkey to this newly created macro and use it as your new brush.

    For example, lets say you wanted to create a macro to fix the Clay brush:

    1. Start a new macro.

    2. Turn ZAdd off and then back on via the menu button.

    3. Navigate to the brush menu and choose the Clay brush.

    4. End the macro and save it in your Zbrush3/ZStartup/Macros/Brushes folder under the name ClayFIX.

    5. Navigate under the macro menu and find the button for the ClayFIX macro you just created. Assign a hotkey to it that you would have normally used for the Clay brush.

    6. You should now be able to switch to the Clay brush without encountering the bug. Repeat these same steps for every other brush you use. It didn't take me much longer than 10-20 minutes to replace all my brushes with the fixed versions."
  • Mongrelman
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    Mongrelman polycounter lvl 18
    Cheers, guys I'll give try those since my method of swearing didn't seam to help much, it may just save my feet (or someone else's).

    Curious as to what this unannounced feature is.
  • mdeforge
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    mdeforge polycounter lvl 14
    Are they still going to be offering a free upgrade to 4 then since this 3.5 upgrade is free?

    EDIT: Oh, nevermind. Yes =]
  • Vitor
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    Vitor polycounter lvl 18
    http://www.pixolator.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=073619

    PaintStop, a new plugin for ZB3.1 . Well I'm a little bit divided here, seems a good add but won't change a thing in my workflow, probably cool for ilustrators and so on, but isn't Photoshop better for that? Perhaps some good use on the sculp paintovers for quick concepting and developing ideas?
  • killingpeople
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    killingpeople polycounter lvl 18
    grr, i want to grief that first poster that asked when the release date is when it was explained in the post right above his. i'd want to constantly ask him questions to any answers or information he's already just typed.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    what is this zsphere 2 stuff? the posing looks awesome, looks a bit of a wierd way to start a creature but I suppose its like laying down a muscle structure

    http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=073956
  • CompanionCube
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    CompanionCube polycounter lvl 12
    Zspheres II looks amazing!!!!!
  • conte
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    conte polycounter lvl 18
    do someone use zbrush for bake normal maps?
    i've always had seams on it(
  • Marine
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    Marine polycounter lvl 18
    zsphere2 looks badass, gone from building volume to building skeleton and muscle, can't wait to give it a try
  • Renaud Galand
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    Renaud Galand polycounter lvl 19
    Zsphere II is *mind blowing*, really ! One of the reason I wasn't using Zsphere that much is because the "volume" control between each Zsphere was a pain in the ass to setup. Now it looks like Spheres are now what they was supposed to be from the beginning : control bones-like ! And on top of that, they (finally?) added this nice muscles/clay layer to really control the volume and how you really want to have your base mesh before start the sculpting step.

    As a side note, I really like how they always try to mimic sa much as possible the process of a real traditionnal sculpture.

    /me CAN'T WAIT.
  • Vitor
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    Vitor polycounter lvl 18
    Zsphere II is really fantastic, I wasn't expecting that.

    Can't Wait +1
  • |Buddy|
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    |Buddy| polycounter lvl 11
    Vitor wrote: »
    Zsphere II is really fantastic, I wasn't expecting that.

    Can't Wait +1

    +1
  • Mongrelman
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    Mongrelman polycounter lvl 18
    Indeedy, liking the look of building an armature and whacking the mass on after, hoping the resulting geometry is nice and clean too.
  • Davision3D
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    Davision3D polycounter
    Yeah, Zsphere2 is just awesome!

    I was hopeing for something like for some time now, painting real geometry which adds to the topology. The Topology that comes out of it seems pretty high from what i could see from the short wireframe shot in the vid but it also seems very even which was always a big problem of zpheres.
  • Ben Apuna
    Wow! Zsphere2 almost makes me want to be a character artist. Why did I have to waste all my money on Mudbox :'(
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    ZSpheres II looks really interesting. Much more like traditional sculpting where your ZSpheres are your armature, and you lay volume on top of that - with the added bonus of being able to adjust your armature from inside easily :)

    conte: I've used ZMapper before, it is very powerful and has a lot of options, so you really have to know what methods your target renderer is using to calculate tangent space etc. otherwise you might bake completely inappropriate normals just by having one wrong setting in ZMapper.
    Try loading one of the different presets that matches your requirements (eg. Maya or 3DSMax) - ZMapper comes with a lot of presets so you should choose the right one, or learn the settings needed for your target renderer.
  • robioto
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    robioto polycounter lvl 18
    That looks fantastic, like working on an armature. Hopefully it's as fun to use as it is to watch that video.
  • Firebert
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    Firebert polycounter lvl 15
    wow... zspheres2 is awesome... the amount of control it gives you is a huge bonus............... and boner.
  • Vrav
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    Vrav polycounter lvl 11
    They look so awesome.
  • elte
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    elte polycounter lvl 18
    Ben Apuna wrote: »
    Wow! Zsphere2 almost makes me want to be a character artist. Why did I have to waste all my money on Mudbox :'(

    Don't worry Autodesk will implement it in mudbox 2011
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    AAAAAAAAARGH the Zspheres 2 video won't load for me!
  • Unleashed
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    Unleashed polycounter lvl 19
    wow, looks like the best new addition so far to 3.5
  • IEatApples
    Wow dieing to try this out...
  • ironbearxl
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    ironbearxl polycounter lvl 18
    This looks cool, glad to see Pixo is still innovating!

    I always find polymodeling faster and more practical than zspheres though.
  • ScoobyDoofus
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    ScoobyDoofus polycounter lvl 19
    Yeah. Best new thing I've seen. Here it is August 12th...they've got just about 2.5 weeks to finish and push all this shit out the door. (They did say before the end of August)
  • elte
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    elte polycounter lvl 18
    I always find polymodeling faster and more practical than zspheres though.
    you'll never know until you try and find new workflow, like last time zbrush 2 was launch which was intended for 2.5d painting, let's see how it grows.
  • elte
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    elte polycounter lvl 18
    4 days left now I assume? Or they gonna postpone it again and call it 3.99?
  • CrazyMatt
    More like 6 days left.
    I wouldn't really expect to see Pixo release this bad boy until the 31st at midnight.
  • metalliandy
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    metalliandy interpolator
    Ok chaps, it turns out that 3.5 is definitely being released this weekend ^^

    Log on to your Zbrush Support Account and you should see the following message
    ZBrush 3.5 for the PC is scheduled to be released before the end of August, 2009. (The Mac version is to be released sometime in September.) It is our great pleasure to be able to provide this new version as a free upgrade for all existing customers. Please keep in mind that because this is a free ugprade for everyone, there will be tremendous demand for it. Your patience will be greatly appreciated as we get the upgrade distributed to everyone. Additionally, there are a couple things that you can do to help ensure that the process goes smoothly.

    As soon as the new version has been released, Cleverbridge will begin sending emails to all users of ZBrush 3 for the PC. These emails will go out in batches, based upon Cleverbridge's server capacity. This means that it may take one or two days for all upgrade emails to be sent.

    If your email address has not changed since purchasing or upgrading to ZBrush 3, there is nothing that you need to do. Your instructions will be sent automatically to the address on record. Please simply ensure that your spam filter is set to allow emails from cleverbridge.com.

    If your email address has changed since purchasing, please submit a support ticket to let us know. We will update your records for you. Alternatively, you can contact Cleverbridge directly to update your email address. They can be reached at cs@cleverbridge.com or by phone at 312-922-8693 (United States) and +49 221 222 45 0 (Germany).

    If you do not receive your upgrade instructions by Thursday, September 3 please submit a support ticket to let us know. We will be able to look into the matter and get your upgrade instructions sent to you. Please do not submit a ticket before then, as we will not be able to assist until after all upgrade emails have been sent by Cleverbridge. Any support tickets requesting upgrade instructions that are sent prior to September 3 will be closed without a response.

    Thank you for your ongoing support of Pixologic and enthusiasm for ZBrush! We are looking forward to seeing what you can do with the new features.

    Happy ZBrushing!

    Sweet :D
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
  • CheeseOnToast
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    CheeseOnToast greentooth
    Wow! Zsphere2 almost makes me want to be a character artist. Why did I have to waste all my money on Mudbox

    For terrain sculpting, I'd still take Mudbox. Zbrush's shitty camera controls, specially zoomed in close and trying to rotate the camera in a predictable way make it a pain in the arse for this kind of thing.

    Like the look of zspheres II. If they'd show a movie of someone making a five-fingered hand with them......
  • CrazyMatt
    You won't take mudbox no more!!!

    HOLY SHIT!
    -
    New 3.5 VID CLICK!! :D
    http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=599965#post599965
  • arshlevon
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    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
  • lefix
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    lefix polycounter lvl 11
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