blender vs zbrush

[Jucabiriba]

I would like to know if there is any chance that the blender will support more polygons in the viewport than the zbrush. I already saw works in which the zbrush had 187 million polygons moving smoothly = (

[The Renderer]

I don't think so. ZBrush is a highly specialized and optimized tool made specifically for sculpting. Blender is a multipurpose tool and only has basic sculpting capabilities. Hence it probably will never surpass ZBrush in that specific area.

And it doesn't have to, just use ZBrush if you need a detailed sculpting tool. That's what it's there for. As far as I know there are free-ish versions available (Sculptris? Still a thing?), so no need for Blender to compete with ZBrush for "most polygons displayed".

[Mr Chappy]

Hi,

AFAIK ZBrush's viewport does not actually render in true 3D(unless things have changed, a lot of the info on this is quite old).
People call it 2.5D, where as Blender uses true 3D which requires more power to render.
So AFAIK in order for Blender to become comparable with ZBrush in poly count terms the entire engine would need a rewrite and it would loose its "true 3D" aspect in the process.

I do hope that Blender's sculpting becomes a focal point for development once 2.8 and Eevee are fully released. For me it would seem like the next logical step but I could be completely wrong...

[The Renderer]

Originally posted by Mr Chappy:

Hi,

AFAIK ZBrush's viewport does not actually render in true 3D(unless things have changed, a lot of the info on this is quite old).
People call it 2.5D, where as Blender uses true 3D which requires more power to render.
So AFAIK in order for Blender to become comparable with ZBrush in poly count terms the entire engine would need a rewrite and it would loose its "true 3D" aspect in the process.

I do hope that Blender's sculpting becomes a focal point for development once 2.8 and Eevee are fully released. For me it would seem like the next logical step but I could be completely wrong...

2.5D is actually something different, it's a special mode in ZBrush where you can kind of "paint" height information on a 2D canvas, hence the name.
Of course that doesn't mean that they aren't using some "trickery" to draw that many polygons in the viewport, just saying that 2.5D is a specific term used for something specific in ZBrush and that it has nothing to do with viewport rendering.

Blender isn't that bad either, btw, currently working on a model with 10 million tris without noticable slowdown in the viewport.

[Mr Chappy]

Originally posted by The Renderer:

2.5D is actually something different, it's a special mode in ZBrush where you can kind of "paint" height information on a 2D canvas, hence the name.
Of course that doesn't mean that they aren't using some "trickery" to draw that many polygons in the viewport, just saying that 2.5D is a specific term used for something specific in ZBrush and that it has nothing to do with viewport rendering.

Yep heard of this. In the old info that describes how it renders this term is also used, prob because it's half way between 2D and 3D...???

Originally posted by The Renderer:

Blender isn't that bad either, btw, currently working on a model with 10 million tris without noticable slowdown in the viewport.

Generally I start to chug at around 5-6 million but I've noticed this can be less with sculpting(especially if it's all one mesh when it can slow at around 1.5-2 million)

[Womb Raider]

Blender is a multitask tool which is primarily used for different things, including sculpting.

Zbrush is a dedicated sculpting program, it was created, improved and still updated to act like one.

Blender is, in my opinion, pretty rudimentary with its sculpting tools, while zbrush expands it heavily due to it being, you guessed it, a sculpting program.

All in all, they complement each other but you don't necessarily need ZBrush, although it makes things a bit better.

[criticalphil]

Just remember the tools are as good as the artist, yes zbrush will make life a lot easier but if you are good at sculpting with a good understanding of anatomy you will still be able to create some amazing sculpts.

a few good examples

YanSculpts channel is full of useful and helpful tips and tricks plus gives you a good understand of what can be done in blender.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfjswDVU0XHyBN7UFG0Mi5Q

One of the best sclupts to show the level of detail you can get in blender, created by Ismale Fuentes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLb_CCoWn5o&t=89s

one more really good video to watch is from Zacharias Reinhardt, where he takes you through the process of creating a Hydra in blender, this video is full of really useful information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q2Ied337zk