Adventures in ZBrush

So, picked up a copy of ZBrush (thanks to my wonderful wife), and have been spending every possible moment trying to learn this thing.

It...is...AWESOME!

At least in the right hands, and right now, my hands are not the 'right hands.' That is where the hard work will come in.

ZBrush is extremely powerful, and although it LOOKS very user-unfriendly, it seems to just be a matter of learning what does what.

I have gone through sooo many tutorials in the past few days, the more the merrier!  I do find it interesting to note, that sometimes it seems the most basic tutorials may have that nugget of information that makes you slam your head on the desk thinking, "that is so much easier, faster and intuitive than the last tutorial."  (example: I spent about 2 hours trying to get a cylinder to become a tube last night after watching a tutorial on dynamesh subtract...just to watch a tutorial today showing how you just change the inner diameter...)

The features to speed up the modeling and texturing process are great.  ZSpheres are excellent for setting up limbs, chains, ropes etc and with the skinning feature change the form made of them into a polymesh.

For example, the following image started as ZSpheres and then I used the above method to make the base form, changed brushes as needed in order to shape and sculpt a bit, then just colored things in.  All within the same program!

ZSpheres, radial symmetry, sculpting...all in one program!

Plus, I have the GoZ functionality from DAZ Studio which allows me to bring in models directly from Studio to sculpt on or model around, and then I can zip them back into Studio without having to worry about getting the scaling correct (because it already is!).

Still have a lot to learn, but this is the first thing I have done in ZBrush that I feel is remotely worth sharing.

Expect more in the coming weeks, I am seriously going to love this program once I get things all figured out, the possibilities are just driving me nuts!

Also, I have seen a tutorial posted for taking items out of Marvelous Designer (which is great for clothes) and using the retopology tools within ZBrush to clean them up for use in other programs - have not watched it yet, but you can bet I will!