Next version of ZBrush

Pixologic have announced the next update to ZBrush at their summit which will be 4r7 (version 5 is due to be released this year sometime as well apparently). This will be the last 32bit version of ZBrush. So far it seems to have some new dynamic sub-D modelling tools and a bridge to Keyshot (with a Keyshot bundle that will be available for $349 with an intro price of $249).

Somebody did a capture of the livestream (EDIT - video replaced with better quality one):



Day 2 reveal video (beginning is a rehash of the first presentation, new stuff about 12 minutes in):



Day 3 video:

Digital wrote:

That was pretty cool to watch Banj, thanks. Will you be picking up this version? I like the bridging part, and being able to switch back and forth between the two.

As far as I know the update itself will be free to existing license holders like the previous versions (EDIT - confirmed at end of second video), so I should be grabbing it as soon as it's available. It's the Keyshot bundle that costs, but that is actually a pretty low price considering how much Keyshot normally costs, so I'm tempted to get that. I need to see more info on it though.

The stuff in the video didn't really blow me away as I can already do that kind of thing using ZBrush and GoZ it over to Modo to model, but I guess it is convenient to have that stuff directly in ZB.

EDIT - Updated first post with new video.

Digital wrote:

I'm not familiar with Keyshot at all, I'm guessing it's a program one can paint in, or can you also modify? I'm guessing by the vid, you would have to bounce back and forth between the two for this?

Being the Z-Brush guy (man, that sounds so French, Zeebrush-guy ) can it also be bridged to PS? Or do they have something in place for this? Or is Keyshot the better program to finish it up in?

So for someone who doesn't have either program, would the intro price of $249 get them both? If so, I might indeed be interested in picking it up myself. Or would you have to purchase ZB first and then upgrade?

Keyshot is just a renderer, so you import your objects and light them, then render them out. So that's pretty much all it does, but it does so fairly quickly and simply (I've never used it so I can't say much more than that).

I would assume based on what has been said that the $249/$349 price is a bundle for existing license holders and not a price for a full version (considering the usual prices of both Keyshot and Zbrush normally).

ZB has a plugin for various other applications called GoZ which provides a single click button for sending to the supported app and back again. There is a GoZ plugin for Photoshop so you can send back and forth between the two. I've never used the Photoshop GoZ because I only have an older version of PS which isn't supported (I believe you need one with 3D functionality), but I do use GoZ back and forth with Modo and Sculptris. GoZ bascially just automates something you can do manually though through import and export.

Keyshot website: www.keyshot.com

I don't know whether the version they will bundle with ZB is going to be a special cut down version or what at the moment.

Kynamh wrote:

So I play around in Sculptris instead, or I did until it broke. Still haven't isolated what I suspect is a driver conflict on my pc, but I just loaded it on my surface pro 2 and it appears to be working.

What problem are you having with Sculptris?

Third video added to opening post.

Are ZBrush and Sculptris similar or completely different? Er, yes is the answer They use very different methods for creating the geometry but the basic process of sculpting is fairly similar I guess.

Sculptris is free so you can try it out yourself: pixologic.com/sculptris/ (as I recall you are using Maverics on the Mac so you will probably need to edit the config.text file to get it to work correctly by changing "enable_shaders 1" to "enable_shaders 0" ).

Keyshot probably isn't necessary really. ZBrush has it's own native renderer already.