z-brush vrs Mudbox

# 1 18-06-2008 , 01:20 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2007

Location: Melbourne

Posts: 347

hey guys i am aware this may start quite a fiasco but i am looking for which software i think i should buy i have tried them both out and i picked up the interface and the workings of mudbox almost instantly yet with z-brush is taking a while longer but from a look into it i believe z-brush could have more power behind it.

so all in all i would like to know peoples opinions, pros and cons of both of these sculpting programs.

any help would be great.

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# 2 18-06-2008 , 01:37 PM

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Join Date: Jul 2005

Location: Boston, MA

Posts: 2,314

Zbrush, if you want alot more detail. It can handle a much higher poly-count. But the learning curve is kind of steep.

With mudbox, its more of a traditional layout, with almost no learning curve, but it cant handle NEARLY as many polygons. I personally would say to go with Zbrush, because its brushes are much more customizable, and you can texture and make normal maps right in the program. Mudbox doesn't do that.

Environment Artist @ Plastic Piranha
www.joopson.com

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# 3 18-06-2008 , 04:13 PM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

Zbrush is more of an all rounder, you can model, sculpt, texture and generate maps, as Andy said it can handle more polys BUT, its quirky, things dont work as you would think they would, thats where mudbox comes in as its got a very "maya" control system to it and its very easy to use.

Get the demos of both and have a play around to see which you prefer

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 4 18-06-2008 , 04:39 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: UK

Posts: 594

i prefer mudbox over zbrush, as it's much more user friendly,
as previously stated it does have a "maya feeling " to it and has alot of the same shortcuts, in my opinion its only a matter of time before mudbox includes the ability to texture too

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# 5 18-06-2008 , 05:26 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

As yet Mudbox doesnt do what Zbrush can already. You could wait around until Autodesk impliment it into Maya and get their act together with 3d painting features too, we all know artsian paint is an arse to use at times

But if you want it as a stand alone software, Zbrush wins, more features and value for money despite an unusual interface, which I may add is completely customisable as well.

The only cool thing with mudbox right now is the Maya interface which is good but not a feature I'd buy if for primarily.

Lastly if youve tried both go with your instinct....its what works for you at the end of the day and how you use it as an artist not because it has all the bells and whistles to make your software collection look cool...

Jay

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# 6 19-06-2008 , 02:36 AM

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Join Date: Jul 2005

Location: Boston, MA

Posts: 2,314

but if you are thinking about getting a mac, zbrush 3 isn't on the mac yet, with no release date in sight... but its great on windows, haha.

Environment Artist @ Plastic Piranha
www.joopson.com

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# 7 19-06-2008 , 02:53 AM

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Join Date: Sep 2002

Location: Connecticut

Posts: 188

Mudbox is only for Win xp, not for Vista. And personally, I found this software unstable when there are too many polygons, it will just crash. And I haven't have any success exporting the displacement map with the highest settings. I can only use the lowest settings. And there is not much references out there when there are problems with Mudbox compare to Zbrush.

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