Using ZBrush in relation to other 3d softwares.

[himadri_sm]

i am thinking of tackling the huge & tiring task of teaching myself ZBrush solely with the help of tutorials, but i have a few questions- 1.What is Zbrush's main purpose?- it's not just sculpting or creating a lot of details.its more than that. being a max user & mostly modeling inorganic stuff, how can i use Zbrush to make my work better or my workflow more effective?
2.basically i want to know how i can use Zbrush with max?do i model a low poly object & then use zbrush to create all the fine details & then finally generate the necessary maps & apply them to my low poly model back in max?is there any tutorial that will explain these stuff, apart from teaching me all that there is to learn, like sculpting & stuff?

if anyone could give me a few pointers or direct me to a few tutorials, i'd be really grateful. thanx a lot.

[cryrid]

I suppose you could say a big focus of zbrush is sculpting hi-res models/detail, but it can go beyond that (painting, for example). While it excels with organic sculpting, later versions have been adding several tools for hard-surface modeling. If this is mostly what you do, you may want to look into it's Shadow Box, Clipping Brushes, Match-Maker, and Decimation Master tools. Some of the Beta Tester threads on Zbrush Central should give you some insight on how to go about modeling something inorganic in a different way using these tools, and sometimes these new approaches might even make a task faster.

(http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=91827 , http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=91611 , and http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=91748 are really, really good ones for hard-surface stuff)


As for the workflow with Max, you have different options. You can model in Max, detail in zbrush, and then bake the maps where ever you want (zbrush, in max, xnormal, etc). Or you could model completely from scratch in zbrush, and bring it back into Max to do some retoplogy there. The quicker approach depends on what the shape is and which program you think it would be easier for the given task, but either way you can pass a model back and forth as many times as you'd like (youtube 'zbrush GoZ' for some cool videos).

[himadri_sm]

thanx a lot...i'll definitely check those links..another question- suppose i want to create an object, that i'll eventually take into Zbrush.how am i supposed to determine the polycount of the base object.i know we can subdivide further in Zbrush, but as a starting point, i'll have to create something in max.then i'll create some maps in Zbrush & then use them on my low poly model in max.so,is there any guideline for creating these base meshes or will it all be clear with practice, meaning i'll figure it out on my own as i learn?

[cryrid]

It's something you'll get the hang of. If it's organic you can generally start with a pretty basic mesh (cubes, sometimes). If it's hard-surface you may need to add some control edges so that it will hold its shape during subdivision (just like in Max).
Things to keep in mind is that zbrush will sculpt best when it has evenly spaced quad-faces to work with. So if you know you're going to be working on a specific area, make sure it has some faces.
http://cryrid.com/3d/temp/zbrush/space_your_cuts.jpg
Also, zbrush's material system will make a model look more faceted than in your 3d program. For example:
http://cryrid.com/3d/temp/zbrush/subd_facet.gif
This changes once you start to subdivide and the faces get smaller and smaller.

[himadri_sm]

thanx a lot..i'll start checking out the free tutorials that i can find. & if i ever face any problems, polycount is always there for help.

[frankrs]

check out a maxscript called gomax written by norman3d. it's awesome for toggling between max and zbrush