ZBrush 2021 features have been announced. Some really nice stuff there.
Latest update, August 22 — ZBrush version 2021.1.1 has been released. Probably a minor bug fix release. No details have been published yet at the time of writing.
Update 2 — The ZBrush 2021 features have been introduced and the update will be available on August 12th, 2020, 11:00 PDT / 20:00 CET. It will once again be a free upgrade for all current ZBrush owners.
Update 1 — A ZBrush 2021 live-stream will be broadcast on August 11th, 2020, at 11:00 AM PDT / 8:00 PM CET.
The easiest way to upgrade is running the ZUpgrader application in the ZBrush installation folder.
Definitely. I also love how Pixologic manages to keep all tools and functions in harmony with each other. Very powerful.
True that, but once you’ve given thickness to a mesh, the thickness starts varying immediately when you further manipulate it, and if you forget to activate Backfacemask, things can get messed up rapidly. With dynamic thickness the thickness will always remain constant and automatic. I use the Solidify modifier a lot in Blender, and I was also a fan of the Max Shell modifier as soon as it was introduced.
Edge extrusions are most welcomed by me personally. This will greatly benefit modeling with the dynamic thickness function.
It’s what I’ve always harped on about. A lot of light Zbrush users never realise the true power of the ecosystem, and just how cleverly it has evolved early days. This is why it’s going to be difficult to draw more than the casual ZB user to Blender for sculpting(and even moreso now with additional ‘traditional’ modeling tools.
Same. I would certainly welcome it in ZB. Use Shell in Max ALL the time and same for Solidify. I just hope it deals with normal directions/corners properly.
Definitely. Lately I’m really enjoying switching back and forth between Blender and ZBrush using GoB. The latest GoB version has improved importing / exporting using a custom ZScript.
Yes, I’ve been using GoB for a few months now and it works perfectly. It essentially makes Zbrush and Blender a single program
This single addon working is what finally convinced me that it’s safe to leave Max behind(I’ve been using the Styx plugin for many years that gave me the same Max/Zbrush flawless integration) Without having this integration with Zbrush I wouldn’t be using Blender, so GoB was one of the very first Blender addons I tested.
ZBrush may now have cloth brush… But we have a trump card. We have Pablo Dobarro!
And Blender is free for ever. That does it for me. Its Blender all the way.
Yes, I’ve owned Zbrush for over 10 years and it’s been free ever since then.
Sadly, as much as I want to love sculpting in Blender, it is far, far, far behind Zbrush in so many ways. I sincerely hope this changes, but Pablo won’t do that alone. Aside from the fact that it’s a monumental task for one man, the features and workflows he concentrates on are specifically created for his art style and personal work.
His cloth brush was a nice idea, but I’m afraid ZB’s cloth system is going to make it look like a toy in comparison.
Well, for starters, the results in Blender on anything other than a tablecloth are pretty bad. Try the clothing example on woman shown in the video in Blender and compare the results.
You say that but i know that Zbrush has a heft price tag. Pixelogic is in the business of selling software the last time i checked.
And you say how Blender is far far far behind in sculpting. Well i sculpted a perfectly good head and a lizard within a week of getting a drawing tablet. And i found blenders sculpt tools absolutely fantastic. Now you may laugh at that as you sculpt the next marvel character or the next Godzilla, but fact is the vast majority of Blender users are going to be hobbyists and independent artists and also find Blenders sculpting tools more than adequate. Certainly its light years ahead of C4Ds sculpting tools.
And lets just say for the sake of argument that working with Blender you become a highly accomplished 3D sculptor which IMO is entirely fundamentally possible with Blenders tools, then at that point if your portfolio is good enough to land you the job at a studio, at that point you can start learning Zbrush at the studio because thats what they will have running on their machines. Then fine whats wrong with transferring your skills to Zbrush it snot going to be a hard transition if Zbrush is the better program usability wise.
But guess what? 95% of Blender users are not going to land that studio job and will remain as a hobbyist, freelancer or independent artist and will happily carry on using Blenders free and constantly evolving sculpting tools.
We could use a second Pablo, one that is dedicated to polishing everything the first Pablo does (so the first one can focus on powerful new features). Sergey isn’t the guy for that job as his work deals with the underlying multires and subdivision code.
Though it won’t be easy to find one even if the BF can afford him, as a developer good with sculpt code does not come around often (providing Pixologic doesn’t snap him up first).
All of this is irrelevant to what I wrote, and overly emotional. The skill of a sculptor/results is not a factor, there are many fine sculpts made from stone with chisels, or clay with sticks…
Blender as a sculpting environment is simply a long way from Zbrush, that’s just a simple fact. You have nothing to compare the experience to, so you are delighted with the toolset in Blender, and that’s great. I would never take that away from you, or others. I’m not trying to condescend or sneer, I’m a passionate Blender user too, I’m just giving my honest opinion regarding my thoughts on how Blender sculpting is in comparison to Zbrush. I’m sorry if that offends you, but there it is.
Again, this is irrelevant and has no bearing on the discussion. I really don’t know why you would even raise it?
Well, who knows what will happen in the next few years? Blender has caught a lot of attention in the last 18 months and has turned a lot of long-term Maya/Max users’ heads(myself included) The future is bright for this program. Cheer up.
I fear you may be right. One thing is for certain though, Pablo is bearing a lot of weight on this. There is a lot of work to be done in just streamlining the sculpting UX/workflow alone. It’s far too clunky and unwieldy at present.
Just a quick question then, you must have already had early access to Zbrushe’s new cloth system because you said it is going to make Blenders system look like a toy in comparison. So did you try it and how is it better? Also is it not true that Blender has a cloth simulation separate from the cloth brush,and the cloth simulations can achieve artistically better results?
Why does it always have to come down to Blender vs everything else ? It’s so tiresome.
Blender is good because because it is very good at what it does. And ZBrush is good because it is very good at what it does. And surely it’s not what software you know thats most important long term. It’s how flexible and adaptable you can continue to be as an artist and creator.
This looks like a very substantial release. I was going to mention before that it looks like ZModdelr now is a fully fledged manual re topo tool. And I guess there must be the potential to use it with ZRemesher now. And I was also wondering if these particle animations could be exported as Alembic’s ? I saw today on youtube that ‘ Ask NK ‘ was wondering the same.
It’s still in beta so you’ll have to leave it at that. As I said above, look at the ZB preview vid and then achieve the same results with Blender Cloth brush as you see in the woman’s dress demo. I think it should be glaringly obvious to anyone who has tried the Blender Cloth brush in its current state.
Yes, but that’s not what we’re talking about, we’re talking about the sculpt brush.
Ok, (and im not trying to be a dick here, and i do agree Zbrush is by far the best sculpting software) lets compare some videos so we can see what you are talking about… Because in my opinion you’re being too overly harsh about how inept Blenders cloth brush is, vs a speedup jazzed up promo video of Zbrush’s Cloth brush system(of which you haven’t actually tried yet to actually get a direct comparison. Blender videos from 5 months ago.
The easiest way to upgrade is running the ZUpgrader application in the ZBrush installation folder.
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