hi i was wondering witch programs do you use
i use maya and photoshop but realy wanna get more into zbrush (can i get a "ple" version of zbrush or some thing like that if you know where and maybe some tuts pref free then tell me)

i just wanna know what you guys are using and what you think of the different programs

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"If some thing is hard to do it isnt worth doing"

at work i mainly use Max, Maya, and Photoshop. Plus some proprietary things. When I start my new job next month, I'm gonna be alllll Maya! Woo!

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

I'm at Uni using Maya, Max, Photoshop, a bit of Mudbox, Combustion (compositing) and Virtools (game engine).

Congrats on the job and the other news by the way mike - you'll be joining the ranks soon

Si

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Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

I'm using Maya, Zbrush, Photoshop, After Effects, Premier, Audition, Endorphin, think thats about it! Quite a list really, but all the adobe stuff is from the creative suite so ive got Illustrator and some others that I dont use.

Congrats on the Job Mike, could I ask whats the company?

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"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Sure, it's called iWin North. It's a casual games studio based in Seattle. I'm moving up there next week! Pretty exciting. I've decided to change my sig. if you guys want any additional info regarding my books and other products, just check out the site.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Apedominator!

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

hehe it is okay :p congratulation on the job !


I would like to know what you think of the programs a well

btw mudbox is like zbrush right?

and what would you suggest me to do? all maya, maya+zbrush or something els ?? (what)

:attn:

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"If some thing is hard to do it isnt worth doing"

Mudbox is a sculpting tool only at the minute (that will change with version 2). You can download a trial version to play with. Apparently the interface is far easier to get into than ZBrush but then again ZBrush has far more tools and capabilities.
I'd suggest getting fairly competent with a standard modelling program like Maya so that you understand polygon/nurbs flow, edgeloops etc and how to block in form in your models. As you get better then progress onto integrating either Mudbox or ZBrush into your workflow to create highly detailed models.
Just my idea, I'm sure some people have skipped that and gone straight into Mudbox or ZBrush

Si

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Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

thx

im gonna try zbrush a bit to see what it is but focus on maya:attn:

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"If some thing is hard to do it isnt worth doing"

Silo, Mudbox and Painter. Old version of basic maya now and then. Doing all modeling and re-topology in Silo these days though.

I am evaluating to buy ZBrush but it has put me off for the longest. To be honest I could not figure out the interface and I dismissed it quickly without figuring out what was under the hood. Recently I was at a friend's place and we watched Meats Meier introduction to ZBrush and everything sort of clicked and made perfect sense. The Pixols (insane polycounts) and 2D/2.5D capabilities interest me the most. It is a very impressive application with a very well thought-out user interface once you grasp it.
Mudbox is great too, and it will be interesting to see if it can compete. It feels more like super sculpey hehe.

t1ck135 is absolutly right. Also by doing base models before starting work on them in Mudbox/ZBrush it's even helpful if they have basic edgeloops in place before any sculpting work. The reason for this is that the finer details flows and fall much easier into place without too much effort, and you will have a lowpoly mesh to apply normal and displacement maps onto. Best of all you can make 20 (just a number yeah) completely different looking characters from the same base model.

Now, both applications are capable of starting from scratch too. It's just much more tedious and cumbersome and you have to retopologize later.

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Currently working on reclaiming Space
The Salvation Prophecy

Maya, Photoshop, Mudbox, AE, Motionbuilder (when I get around to it), Softimage|XSI.

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Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
Twitter
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix
Winner SM VFX Challenge 1
3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

How's Motionbuilder to work with? Broad question I know, but can it be summed up briefly? Doesn't have to be a perfect presentation, but I have never seen it at all, and I am easily impressed.

I do only art and anatomy studies to learn and improve slowly so far and I am not very technical. One day it would be so much fun to evolve into making decent characters and making stuff move, you know, but it's all science fiction to me. Is it easy to work with? I'd make a lousy TD and cannot figure rigging for the life of me (truth be told I've not invested the time and it is a specialized field that I have nothing but respect for the people doing it).

The principles of animation comes easier with the help of a couple of books. The Illusion of life, and Animator's survival kit.
Come think of it, Mike's books should help with the technical stuff (surfs to a digital bookstore.)

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Currently working on reclaiming Space
The Salvation Prophecy

Motionbuilder is a great tool, theres a PLE version you can download and try for yourself. But its no the be all and end all of animation.

Check out Autodesks the-area and, have a look through. 3D World also have a pdf tutorial for the ple version they gave away late last year. I think its a very good tool and well laid out.

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Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
Twitter
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix
Winner SM VFX Challenge 1
3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

is there a ple for zbrush (or any other program?)
can you send a link or something

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"If some thing is hard to do it isnt worth doing"

https://cust13.mn1.fasturl.net/zbc/sh...1&postcount=11

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Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
Twitter
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix
Winner SM VFX Challenge 1
3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

okay ... do you know any free tuts for zbrush/mudbox/photoshop ?

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"If some thing is hard to do it isnt worth doing"