Z brush is something i’ve being looking at with interest for a while now, so it’s about time I got into it. Initially the interface is very strange and models are referred to as ‘tools’ which really doesn’t help if you are from a Max background !

I treated myself to a couple of Z brush books from amazon and downloaded and watched all the tutorials on the z brush website. After immersing myself in the program for a couple of days it started to all come together.

I did a lot of searing on using Z brush with Max and using displacment and bump / normal maps to add the high level of detail that a typical z brush model has but without the silly polgon counts that will simply kill Max. It seems that this is something the every Z brush user stuggles with as working with Max or Maya and saving / generating the appropriate maps is far from straighforward.

I’ve found a good workflow now that involves getting to a point with a model in max where th basic shape is set as an editable poly. I then use the Unwarp UV and pelt mapping to bake the texture co-ordinates into the mesy, then export to z brush. Once in Z brush, i’m still learning, but i’ve had good success with generating maps and pulling them back into Max and using Vray displacment for the renders. So watch this space for some Z brush models soon !