zBrush opens the animation chapter...

[Taros]

View and enjoy:

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showpost.php?p=678350&postcount=162

[haikalle]

This is quite nice feature but it really dosen't rock my world, at least not yet.

[Jake_H]

Interesting idea - looks like I will need to keep my animation skills up to date - could be good for previsualisation of high res meshes in a production.

[Calabi]

It could just end up giving artists more work. LIke "oh could you knock up a quick animation to present it". Or a few people use it so everyone has to.

[michalis]

The video was simple and funny though.

[T.H. ROCK]

heh heh

Some good and subtle animation technique in that video.

Interesting, wonder what is involved and how much CPU time and resources is needed to render that?

[Taros]

More interesting for me: I can give the figure a rig and have dozen of different poses, that can be saved if necessary. I guess, I should begin to think about to buy zBrush finally...

[3DArtist]

Maybe having MDD support in the Paint and Sculpt rooms could be the first step?

[wailingmonkey]

More interesting for me: I can give the figure a rig and have dozen of different poses, that can be saved if necessary. I guess, I should begin to think about to buy zBrush finally...

This has been the case since version 3.0, using a combination of a zsphere rig and layers...

but it was quite buggy and control was not particularly 'easy' or precise.

Seems that some jiggle options have been added, and that lipsynch would have been tough to do

with current versions of a zsphere rig (maybe it's morph targeted/layers instead of an actual

face rig?).

At any rate, I'm sure it will be handy to have either way.

[geo_n]

That is pretty cool!

Concept artist and modellers will have more ways to present their ideas. I wonder if that animation is using all the sculpt details possible in the viewport.

[philnolan3d]

I don't see the point. No need for animation in a "sculpting" program.

[geo_n]

modo has sculpting and has animation.

Its not really an unwelcome feature since zbrush already has the most optimized sculpting engine currently.

It would be useful for many zbrush users who do concepts studies and dont need the added workflow or cost of a full animation package.

[philnolan3d]

meh, I just don't personally see the point.

[geo_n]

Don't let bias get cloud your opinion. If it was 3dc that got that zbrush feature as well as painting on animated mesh like mari, would you reject that feature?

One thing that stops me from buying zbrush is the interface. I'm sure I'm not the only one that dislikes it. Mari will probably not be versatile enough for the price it offers for personal work like 3dc. There will always be different markets for different software.

[Digital777]

It looks cool, i sometimes look at the zbrush forum because it has a lot of great 3d artists using it. Why is the trial version still ZBrush 3.1 if it's basically at V4 now though? they seem to have added some cool stuff recently like the paint lab thing and new modeling tools but i guess it's not possible to test it.

[lc8b105]

Interesting.

[philnolan3d]

Don't let bias get cloud your opinion. If it was 3dc that got that zbrush feature as well as painting on animated mesh like mari, would you reject that feature?

One thing that stops me from buying zbrush is the interface. I'm sure I'm not the only one that dislikes it. Mari will probably not be versatile enough for the price it offers for personal work like 3dc. There will always be different markets for different software.

I have said in the past I don't think animation has any place in 3DC either. What Mari does is only importing animation that was already done in another package. That's fine, but as I understand it, it's not what zb is doing.

It looks cool, i sometimes look at the zbrush forum because it has a lot of great 3d artists using it. Why is the trial version still ZBrush 3.1 if it's basically at V4 now though? they seem to have added some cool stuff recently like the paint lab thing and new modeling tools but i guess it's not possible to test it.

Careful where you ask about the trial version. I asked that same question on ZBrush Central and now I'm not allowed to post their anymore.

[michalis]

"Careful where you ask about the trial version. I asked that same question on ZBrush Central and now I'm not allowed to post their anymore."

I'm still there phil. And you've already notice that I don't keep my mouth shut.

@geo_n

"One thing that stops me from buying zbrush is the interface."

You don't like zbrush GUI? Weird. lol

Of course they don't have a mac trial for any version. Mac users (a lot there) still waiting the v3.5 update. etc etc

Its the surface sculpt tools that make zbrush a great app and that it runs smoothly in any machine. It has a terrible render engine, a terrible perspective camera too and this GUI

But exports great displacement and normal maps, nice tools for setting a pose too. For these last reasons I import 3DC models there.

IMO, voxels is the only true environment for real sculpture.

[moska]

and mudbox is using bones already and maybe yull be able to paint weights for them in .fbx ..

phil:when an arm bends ,muscles bulge so animation and sculpting are related. the morph feature of 3dc should work in .fbx too because it only works for LW.besides this animation thing will be a new pose toll (wich mudbox hadent)

all this stuff will evolve in the way its done.its the next step.

[Digital777]

Careful where you ask about the trial version. I asked that same question on ZBrush Central and now I'm not allowed to post their anymore.

Wow really? i mean they want people to pay a fairly high price for the software but don't allow testing of the recent features so you can see if you really want the program and then ban someone for asking about a trial version they put on the site themselves? Thanks for the warning i was thinking of asking if they were going to make a more recent version for people but i won't now, i don't see why they even have one though if they don't want to have support for it.

[BeatKitano]

Careful where you ask about the trial version. I asked that same question on ZBrush Central and now I'm not allowed to post their anymore.

That or maybe you've been a royal pain in the neck (to be polite) about the 3dc greatness on a rival software board... just saying.

To be honest, i can't stand you on polycount for instance cause you always find a way to promote 3dc even when it's not the subject. You're the worst kind of pr in my book.

You're a bit like those sellers that run after you in the alleys of supermarket to sell you anything and you end up running the other way to avoid them. I don't think 3dc needs that.

Anyway sorry to hijack this thread, i saw the zbc video, this look cool, but i don't care about animation, they should really work on retopology tools though, THAT is a part 3dc got right.

[philnolan3d]

Wow really? i mean they want people to pay a fairly high price for the software but don't allow testing of the recent features so you can see if you really want the program and then ban someone for asking about a trial version they put on the site themselves? Thanks for the warning i was thinking of asking if they were going to make a more recent version for people but i won't now, i don't see why they even have one though if they don't want to have support for it.

OK the entire story is that I had used the trial of an older version. But the current trial wouldn't run. I asked about using the current one because of course there were different features. The mod argued with me that I had already used up my 30 days (several years ago) and before I knew it I was no longer allowed to post. I did end up just running it on a different computer.

[AbnRanger]

Fix the under-the-hood stuff first, before we ever argue over some extra bells and whistles. Sculpting in 3DC is far short of MB or ZB, and until that changes, why are we asking for more fringe trinkets?

[Digital777]

OK the entire story is that I had used the trial of an older version. But the current trial wouldn't run. I asked about using the current one because of course there were different features. The mod argued with me that I had already used up my 30 days (several years ago) and before I knew it I was no longer allowed to post. I did end up just running it on a different computer.

Ok so it was probably the fact you had the argument with the mod i guess although i would have thought there would not be a problem with a user wanting to try the more recent demo version as apps are always getting better and there is apps that were not so great back in the day that are now must buy so why stall on the demos which people would be wanting to evaluate. After all the new version to me looks far better than the app used to be but why not show the features off if they are good so i can't help but wonder if the features are hyped up as there has been quite a few times now where i have seen a video of a apps features (not just 3d/graphics) and thought wow and then when i got around to testing the trial out there is bad work flow or it's nowhere near to as simple as they made it look in the videos etc.

[BeatKitano]

Ok so it was probably the fact you had the argument with the mod i guess although i would have thought there would not be a problem with a user wanting to try the more recent demo version as apps are always getting better and there is apps that were not so great back in the day that are now must buy so why stall on the demos which people would be wanting to evaluate. After all the new version to me looks far better than the app used to be but why not show the features off if they are good so i can't help but wonder if the features are hyped up as there has been quite a few times now where i have seen a video of a apps features (not just 3d/graphics) and thought wow and then when i got around to testing the trial out there is bad work flow or it's nowhere near to as simple as they made it look in the videos etc.

GAAAAASP.

[michalis]

"One thing that stops me from buying zbrush is the interface."

Has anyone managed to export displacement maps (decent) from 3DC? If yes, (haven't seen so far) explain how. Zbrush may have a weird GUI but how you call all these actions you have to do in 3DC to get a dis_map? If you still call this 'displacement map'. A displacement map from the voxel model please. Not from a low definition skin. No, zbrush GUI sometimes seems excellent to me.

[philnolan3d]

Has anyone managed to export displacement maps (decent) from 3DC? If yes, (haven't seen so far) explain how.

Sure, I do it for all of my exported 3DC models, just Textures > Export > Displacement Map of Visible Layers.

[michalis]

Read carefully phil, when I say decent I mean it. Here is 'your' displacement. Its simply a translation of some normal edit I did. NOTHING. I tried everything, I'm almost sure that 3DC doesn't support displacement maps. Show me something in the gallery and say 'see this, displacement maps'. REAL!!! As Zbrush does!!! As Blender does!!! Oh my god... DO I ASK TOO MUCH FOR AN APP I PAYED FOR???? I want a dis map from the 5M voxel sculpt... And symmetry support for the mac version. Nothing else. You can play with your ptex experiments, not my concern. A stable app please. You have too.

[Tony Nemo]

Read carefully phil, when I say decent I mean it. Here is 'your' displacement. Its simply a translation of some normal edit I did. NOTHING. I tried everything, I'm almost sure that 3DC doesn't support displacement maps. Show me something in the gallery and say 'see this, displacement maps'. REAL!!! As Zbrush does!!! As Blender does!!! Oh my god... DO I ASK TOO MUCH FOR AN APP I PAYED FOR???? I want a dis map from the 5M voxel sculpt... And symmetry support for the mac version. Nothing else. You can play with your ptex experiments, not my concern. A stable app please. You have too.

I did a test to export a displacement map and the results were as follows:

[michalis]

Exactly, now go to paint room, paint some bumps and you'll have some lines on this grey square. But, indeed there's a much more complicated workflow, involving texture baking tool, exporting a hi def topology etc etc. This will give you something like a real displacement map. You have to subdivide topology to millions. My MacPro 16 threast xeon just crashes.

All this conversation is about 'how terrible GUI zbrush has' remember.