Z3 (5-15-07)

I thought people might want to take a look at Pixologic's latest if they haven't already. I recommend turning audio to low levels before clicking on this link. Note the Poly Painting features

Yes this looks absolutely awesome!

Definitely on my new tools to get list!

Wow, nice. They make it look so easy, hehe. Much of what they're doing in that movie are scales and rotations using feathered selections of vertices - something that's been available in other apps (like Max) for years, but it looks like their widgets for defining the selections and manipulating them are more refined, not to mention Zbrush's ability to handle a bazillion polygons without bringing the system to its knees. I didn't really see anything in there that's a feature not available elsewhere, but they've made a lot of things look like they're much easier and more streamlined to accomplish. I'm not sure any other app can match Zbrush for brush based sculpting and dynamic subdivision. Cool stuff!

Wow! Well, I've found my next toy to buy, for sure. I've been meaning to get into ZBrush for some time now. Version 3 looks really incredible. I'm seriously drooling here. And May 15th just so happens to be a pay day for me .

Thanks for the link, Nam.

Some of the descriptions are a little vague in the highlighted features list, but if I'm not mistaken artists will be able to translate high resolution topology across different models and UVs. I realize this is probably nothing new to some other 3D apps, but it will open new doors for me since I have based a lot of my workflow around custom scripts to overcome limitations in Z2. What really caught my attention though is the full 3D capability. They seem to be moving away from the 2.5D workflow in Z2 to somthing much more like Maya and Max for Z3.

Yes, definitely. Having come from a 3D background before I ever tried out Zbrush, I found the 2.5D paradigm very difficult to wrap my brain around. Z3 looks far more understandable to me, and if they keep the price in the same range as Z2 was, I will be thinking very seriously about adding this to my toolkit, especially if it has good import/export functionality. Z2 was already hugely impressive as a tool for creating normals maps. Z3 looks like it's becoming a full fledged modeling app. Combined with a capable poly modeler for creating base models to import and refine, this looks extremely powerful. I had to wipe the drool off my face after watching the demo movie.

Nam, Chip, good comments. I too am extremely excited to see ZBrush evolving into a full-fledged 3D app, capable of standing on its own.

What caught my eye in the video the most though was their use of the projection brush. As you've probably seen me comment on before, I've been chronically disappointed with 3D painting applications. When the spot in the video came up showing how well they were able to clone facial photography onto a 3D head model, my jaw was on the floor. If that feature works as well as the video makes it seem, then that alone will be well worth the price tag to me. It could revolutionize avatar skinning as we know it.

Yeah, that was pretty impressive, Chosen. It's very similar to the technique I already use, but not with that ease of workflow - but that's IF it works as well as the video makes it look. If they put out a demo I'll definitely be taking it for a spin. I'm not sure I ever tried Z2, but I remember trying out the first version of Zbrush. I hated the interface with a passion (it was right up there with Poser and Bryce on my list of worst UIs of all time, hehe). It just wasn't intuitive at all. I really hope they've made the workflow more like other apps rather than something that requires learning an entirely alien system.

I was not so impressed with the technique used in that part of the video. It was a poor representation of what that tool is capable of. The tool, however, did impress me. It should streamline the photo projection process tremendously. It won't revolutionize the skinning trade, but it will make skinning those kind of details faster with less post production work needed in Photoshop.

What Zbrush does better than most other 3D paint programs (like Deep Paint 3D) is produce very precise alignment on the UVW seams. I already use Z2 for projection painting. It just takes a little longer with custom scripts. In fact, it is so precise when used at it's fullest resolution that quite a bit of post production work in Photoshop is needed to blend the details back to where the SL avatar and it's clunky seam distortion can handle it.