So today I got a first look at Zbrush in action. I had a chance to sit down with it for around 20 minutes and try to make something. I am certainly no artist, but I am hugely impressed with the software. For a programmer to sit down and churn out a 3D head with some pretty decent detail in 20 minutes is a small miracle. The friend who had it on his laptop was able to export part of a mesh he made into 3D Studio Max and export it to a .fbx file so that I could load it up in XNA. We tried doing this with the whole model that he had created (around a million and a half vertices) but 3D Studio Max crapped out (we had to kill the process - it had been going for a good 10 minutes and was using 1.2+ GB of ram). This brings me to my question - is there a way to simplify meshes made in ZBrush without having to import them into Max? That, and is there a way to get ZBrush to generate normal or displacement maps and apply those to a lower resolution mesh? (Please, bear with me - myself and the friend are both pretty new to toying around with these sorts of things. He's had more experience with Max than Zbrush, but Max seems to crap out when we try to generate heightmaps and drop the detail of the mesh). I'll have to post some screenies if/when I get a chance. EDIT: Here's a lower-res version of the model that my friend made, just messing around. Unfortunately he had to import it into Max in parts, and stitch it back together. The stitching didn't go so well, so there is a pretty visible "scar" on the guy's neck. (Ignore the framerate. It's pretty jumpy. It was averaging around 250 fps). I think it was somewhere around 150,000 polys in the model so far. EDIT2: Heh, silly me - I forgot to post the pic! [Edited by - Moe on September 4, 2007 12:59:30 AM]

Hey Moe :)

You can use the Topology tools to create a low poly mesh from your high poly mesh. Here's some goodies:

Gnomology website//topology vide here (this is pretty good, you can buy parts from the DVD below from here)

Meats Meier DVD This is said to be the best DVD out there, instead of buying the whole thing you can buy parts of it on the above link)

Topology on Wiki

Topology tool used here and another video here

An artist at work just got ZBrush yesterday - a few hours ago he sent me a low-poly version (with generated normal/bump map) of a high-poly dog model that he had exported from Z-brush.
So, I know it's possible! (Sorry I can't tell you how tho)

D and Shift+D should move through the subdivision levels of the mesh for you, nice, easy and clean poly-reduced model. :)

what about reading the help of zBrush first?

Zbrush can generate Normalmaps as well as Displacement maps you can even find it yourself quite easily if you look at the interface.(I think it's in the tools-palette)

regards,
m4gnus