Hey there, since I am going to try and learn how to model, I was wondering if Zbrush is a good tool to use to create models for games? I have Maya 2010 to animate, but I will learn that aswell. I was just wondering because I've searched on google if it's good for game development, some say that it creates high poly models with it, some say it's good for creating highly detailed models for games. I just don't know... Please answer ^^ Regards, Somethingman123

What you probably want to do is a basic mock-up in either Z-brush or Maya, then use Z-brush to add in a ton of detail, bake it to some sort of a detail map (like a bump map or displacement map), then stuff it back into Maya for animating.

Don't mind me asking, but how much experience do you have with Maya/Z-brush?

I am aware of a bit of rigging and animating in Maya, but I can't modell with Maya. I have experience with ZBrush, because I've used it before, but it was the demo version. All I need to know is if ZBrush can be used when developing games? I saw a few minutes ago that the developers of "Gears of War", used ZBrush and Maya to make the environment, characters/creatures, basically everything. Well, I think I've got the answer... Zbrush can be used in the making of games :)

Anyway, thank you for replying on this post :)

Regards,

Somethingman123

Zbrush (and Mudbox) are mainly used for sculpting. In other words, it is almost never used alone for game model creation. They are used to create the fine details on a high res game model (skin pores, chin stubble etc). The game modeler will then generate a map, then put the map onto a low res game model in maya to fake the details.

In short, almost nobody uses only Zbrush to create game model. It needs to be pair up with a 3d software (Maya etc).

Yeah as paineyes said, it's only used to create the details in the models for normals and such, the actual in-game models are usually made using more standard programs like MAX or maya.

Gears of war used 3dsMax, Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox and a whole heap of plugins ;)

3dsMax or Maya are used for most of the modelling work, then ZBrush or Mudbox are used for adding details. The high-poly output from ZBrush/Mudbox are then taken back into 3dsMax/Maya and "baked" onto a low-poly mesh.

Actually, you can very well create the entire highpoly model from scratch in zbrush, meaning all the shapes.

but in the end you'll need to create a lowpoly with the same shape and transfer that over to in the baking of a normalmap.