Learning Zbrush is driving me nuts!
polycounter lvl 7
God, I couldn't figure it out. I had to go through all the digital tutors starter videos step by step just to figure out the wonky UI.
I know it has powerful tools and I've seen amazing things created with it, but it makes me want to punch my monitor!
I'll get it, but I had to vent.
Sculptris is much easier, but it'smissing all the cool features Zbrush has.
I know it has powerful tools and I've seen amazing things created with it, but it makes me want to punch my monitor!
I'll get it, but I had to vent.
Sculptris is much easier, but it'smissing all the cool features Zbrush has.
Replies
Also, you can customize your UI.
Didn't like it at first
A week went buy then it grew on me. 8 months later I customize ye old UI.
The thing i disliked the most was how it handled rotation with Alt and its free rotation around all Axis now i prefer it over all others.
The transpose tool can fuck off though its a disgrace to transform manipulators
Try do something > Fail > Find Solution > learnt something new.
That'a exactly where I'm at right now.
Hazardous, I've already learned to convert to dynamesh but that opens up another kettle of worms that I'm learning to sort through. The main one being losing definition when I dynamicly subdivide. DRiving me bonkers.
So about 6 months ago I bought some dvd's and dedicated a few weeks to learning zbrush every night and I'm still learning new things everytime i start it up.
So bottom line is that there is no easy way of learning so you will have to go the hard way of trial and error
break free of the old and embrace the new dude!
People at my non-gamestudio work are learning zbrush. Everyone is bemused and baffled by it's decisions to throw most CG program put the window, but after enough time you just remember the weird way zbush does things and notice less and less.
Hold Ctrl over every button. Instant help is awesome.
You can try increasing the dynamesh's resolution, up to 2048 (which could leave you with a very heavy/dense mesh). The scale of the model makes a difference as well if you're importing from another program. Also try using Dynamesh's project option to preserve an existing shape better.
Lastly, keep in mind dynamesh is more suited for creating basemeshes. Personally I try to turn it off as soon as I have a shape I like, and then I start subdividing and sculpting in the real detail like normal.
perhaps I am missing something.
All YOU NEED
learn the rest with time.
It's hard to let go of the ways you interact with 3D object in other programs like max or maya but you just have to let that all go and learn their weirdo way of doing things. After a while it starts to make sense, for me that took a long while because I hated having to fight it just to do basic things. Drove me nuts, it still kind of does.
I barely use it now, even though I own it and keep it updated. It's something I felt like I needed to know to do certain things but I still don't enjoy it like other people do. I'm happy to fill my time doing other things.
About 2 years ago I sat down for 2mo and dedicated a few hours each week to getting over the gag reflex. If I used it more it probably would have been less. I got about as far as hazardous described. There is a bunch of stuff I'm not sure how it works or what it does but I can sculpt and do most of what I want to do with it but I haven't dug into a lot of the other stuff yet and I've just come to accept that I'm not going to bother with it unless it does something I really need to do or somehow I find the time and interest to learn it.
At this point the only thing holding me back is a focus on other things that I find a lot more fun like animation and my lack of practice/refinement. It still hurts my brain a bit to switch gears but the more I use it the less it hurts. But yea I feel your pain, it gets better you just have to put in more time with it.
Just go with it...
Dynamesh is good for quickly remeshing your forms as you're working, getting them down quickly and merging things together. After you get your form down you can use qremesher to get a cleaner mesh for subdividing and working on more detail.
Look into features like 'freeze subdivision levels' and 'project'. When your comfortable with those things, I'd suggest watching all of the zclassroom videos and following along with them on your own.
I can agree to some extend, yes. I've personally been using zbrush for about 4 years now. And for what it does (sculpting, organic detailing workflow, masks, displacements, etc etc), its the best tool around zero doubt in that matter. But also I realize that there are tons of stuff I don't know about zbrush (example: fibermesh, zspheres, lights, zsketch and to some extend extreme hard surface /shadowbox/)
But having said that, I personally dont need any of those features, as that part of the process is done somewhere else in my workflow, so I wont bother to learn it just for the sake of it. Theres tons and tons of stuff to learn..not only in zb but across many apps.
I have a workflow in zb that I am very happy with, and thats probably using 50% of the app total features, and maybe around 5 to 10 brushes.
(ocasionally some more, and lots of custom alphas) I dont even use any special matcap or any of that jazz. I know for what I need zbrush and thats to generate highres detail, refine mid res detail and concept quickly for retopo and further mesh detailing.
So yeah, thats basically it. Ocasionally some new stuff comes along that I truly find useful. (again thats personally) like the new noise generator. So in that case is worth learning.
I know each person have different needs, and so every industry. Film, Video games, Arch viz... etc
So what I'll advice you is to try to anticipate what is that you want to accomplish with the tool (zbrush, maya, xsi, 3ds, nuke ..etc etc...those are simply tools, very cool ones, but tools in the end) And then find the workflow that fits you the best. That ll save you lots of time in the future.
knowing stuff for knowing stuff might sound cool, but is it really useful?
Also this is to take carefully because it is also a good practice to try and learn different ways to accomplish a task. In the end its a bit of trial and error as people is been pointing out. Eventually it ll become more natural to identify what you really need and why.
Hope this helps
Maze the main reason I even started doing art was to bring my imagination to reality. Everything else is cake. At this point in time that's my only goal with these tools.OnceI start to learn the tools better I can get more specific.
Right now I'm importing my base meshes from sculptris or max. That my main goal right now is to learn the workflow and the issues that can happen. Reset Xform has now be relearnt on the Max side. Qremesher for the tesselated Scuptris models. Next is learning the sculpting tools. I basically have the interface down now.
Mark, I can completely understand how you feel. Working in IT, I have to use somany UIs and interface with new programs all the time and can usually learn them quickly. Zbrush has the steepest learning curve of any of the softwares that I've ever tried to learn on my own.