Transistion Mudbox to zBrush. How to make things more easy?

Rumkugel

Well finally i´ve been screwed over at my workplace and we´re switching from Mudbox to zBrush.
Eventho i´m more or less the only guy who sculpts extensively and mainly does chars, i have to use a tool i dislike, dont feel comfortable working with and generally find it pain in the arse to work with, despite it being powerfull and having alot of fancy things ( i dont need..)

Is there any way to make zBrush more like mubox in terms of control, perspective, ui etc?
I do like mudbox simplicty and clear layout and i´m really struggelin with getting along with zBrush, been trying to get into it on several occasion.
It´s really frustrating and basically doubles my worktime.


Any help is appreciated.

And yes, i´ve worked through tutorials. I just cant get along with zBrush.

nasty1

I know the feeling. zBrush can be super intimidating but there are a lot of resources out there. Your just gonna have to face the music brotha. The zBrush manual is a good place to start. Once you start getting used to zBrush you'll look down on every other interface out there imo. Main thing is find all the tools you need and use, than make a custom ui so you can find them easier. Is there anything you could be more specific about?

pior

Before diving any further, have you asked your lead/producer if you can stick to what you like, or even use both ? Forcing you to switch could be quite counter productive, especially since the end result is just a universal OBJ model anyways.

Nasty1 : I don't think this is a matter of finding the tools or getting used to the UI - coming from Mudbox RK probably only needs a mere handful of tools. The problem is probably more related to the Zbrush navigation being much slower than what he is used to, the perspective being less accurate, and so on. These are things that Zbrush users just accept, but coming from other sculpting apps working in "real" 3D space this can feel like a rather big setback.

I personally came to terms with this by simply using both. Mudbox for any sculpting requiring subtlety and accuracy, especially anything related to anatomy ; and Zbrush for bruteforce work, hardsurface models, and mesh operations (dynamesh, zremesher, and so on). It works great that way.

Rumkugel

pior is right i dont find it intimidation, i learned maya and modo on my own and using max on a professional basis. i can deal with it.
zB just sucks for what it is. it is powerful yes but its a pain in the ass to use for pure sculpting.
Everyone knows the downfalls of zBrush.

As pior says i cant "feel" it.

Problem is, we are a small company and we cant really afford using many different platforms ,due to -as the boss says- other artists not being able to open and edit them.
Well for the stupid fact i´m the only one who ever does characters...
The others hardly sculpt.
And i´m like over 10 years in the biz, whereas the zBrush introducer is maybe 3 or 4...
Yay.

Have been thinking about using both. We have fixed licenses for mudbox.

onionhead_o

I feel your pain. Im pretty much the only one that uses mudbox at my studio. luckily I manage to stick with it unless I really need to use zbrush. I think you will need to customize your UI alot to make it more comfortable to use. I myself learnt Zbrush first in School but moved onto Mudbox.

nasty1

Pior: I was unaware of the accuracy issues with zBrush. Can you please elaborate? I'm a non professional so I guess I haven't really pushed zBrush far enough yet.

pior

The issue is related to the way it deals with perspective. At the core the ZB viewport is pretty much 2d, which can causes unexpected distortion especially on faces and this can make likeness sculpts very tricky. Now of course it is still possible to make fantastic work with it, but yeah, for someone coming from other sculpting environments it is bound to feel very odd. I have seen extremely skilled artists being "tricked" by it.

2bytes

Mudbox is slowly getting integrated into Maya, and getting a fraction of development time that it needs to remain up to date. Dont expect Autodesk to continue the app for more then a couple of years from now so see learning Zbrush as an investment in your own skillset and value in the market.

Short of that, you would only need to learn the sculpting feature set...so things like texturing, hard edged modelling, UVs can all be done in your standard modeling package. That makes your approach a lot easier to ease in to the app...and you will only win in the long run. Converseley....it is also your argument to keep using mudbox because there really is no learning curve.

Rumkugel

Converseley....it is also your argument to keep using mudbox because there really is no learning curve.

And is this a bad thing?


There´s quite a lot of things i dislike about zBrush. Starting with its Navigation and UI.

As i said, i have no problems "learning" a new program, i´ve did in the past several times.
I just dont get along with zBrush.
Just as some people prefer Max over Maya or over Blender whatnot.

I dont want to whine around, i´m up for an solution, which enables me to work as efficiently as in mudbox.

Quick Question, is there a similar feature in zBrush, that allows you to import a lo and high poly model, subdivide the lowpoly to the respective polycount of the highpoly and apply the the hpo data onto that subdivided model?
Similar to the import as layer function in mudbox.
That alone would tackle alot of my problems.

cryrid

Look into https://draster.com/ZSwitcher/ for the navigation. I'm not sure how well it works (or if it even does on the latest versions of zbrush) since the controls stopped bugging me about a week into using the program, but if it does work it might help make the transition easier for you.

As for the projection between different meshes, you'll want to look into the Tool: Subtool: Project All options. Basically just select your low poly mesh (after subdividing it) and hit the project all button to try and project it to take on the form of any other visible subtools. You may have to tweak the distance and projection shell a bit, and its recommended to save a morph target before projecting in case there are any projection errors that need to be painted out with the morph brush.

pior

Similar to the import as layer function in mudbox.

Not that I know of. As mentioned by Cryrid Zbrush has some very solid reprojection tools, but its layer system is very limited and does not allow for the kind of layer importing operations you are used to coming from Mudbox (this can be quite troublesome when dealing with blendshape authoring within Zbrush).

Popeye9

I wanted to add that when using the "project all" button that you can use the zproject brush to push or pull the mesh to the high poly.

2bytes

The Mudbox import layer feature uses either point order or UV space...so you can get a near perfect transfer...something you cannot with projection methods which is how Zbrush works...and Mudbox can also do.

Rumkugel, not arguing...an app with no learning curve is reason enough for an enyire studio to adapt. Someone that doesnt know Mud could easily get the assets into Zbrush if needed with no help. Unfortunately...even studios get into a fanboy mentality and become defensive of their app of choice. As professionals, we have to adapt...and Mudbox is getting the axe.

cryrid

The Mudbox import layer feature uses either point order or UV space...so you can get a near perfect transfer...something you cannot with projection methods which is how Zbrush works...

Zbrush will automatically update a sculpt when you import an obj with an identical point order. No manual projection required. If desired, new shapes can either be stored as a morph target or to individual layers.

The projection tool is for projecting details between entirely different mesh topologies.

2bytes

Cool...will it also preserve the subdivision layers?

thomasp

if the point order is consistent then subdivision levels and sculpt layers will be updated without requiring any reprojection. use it all the time this way. you have to set a layer to record mode before importing geometry into your ztool for this.

if your mesh comes in with a different point order however, zbrush will reproject automatically (can this be turned off? older versions used to warn you with a dialog box) which can introduce projection errors and softness for fine detail witohut you realizing it at first.

i'm referring to 4R6 btw. not too up to date on what - if anything - has changed changed in R7 regarding this behaviour.

claydough

If yer company uses Maya maybe in the future u can have yer cake and eat it too if the integration goes smoothly?
Don't understand the problem if like u said they have a fixed license of Mudbox and every update of zbrush is free.
+1 to any company that gives u a choice.
It is one issue over another ( integration pain vs artist using the tools they produce best with ) one side will always be screwed. I would assert myself.