Blender vs Zbrush sculpting. Which is better? 2023. Pt1

blender is a complete 3d suit, unlike ZBrush where you only get sculpting, modeling, UV and poly painting. this was one difficult comparison for me to put together, and for me to be fair I decided to neglect the complete suit blender is, and only focus on the features it has with Zbrush so I don't talk too much and score blender unnecessary points. i didn't mention a thing about 3d coat though one of the most requested comparisons is 3d coat vs ZBrush. I kept it clean.
blender to zbrush bridge: GOZ
github.com/JoseConseco/GoB/re...
#zbrush #blender #3dcoat #sculpting
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[@blancostudio3d]

I work in ZBrush since released back in 1998 to now, in the other hand after the Blender 2.9x series release I started to tried out, while you can call me an expert in ZBrush sculpting I can be called as a complete newbie in Blender, and that is the more frustrating part, because Blender speeds up my workflow exponentially at a point I barely use ZBrush now, I discover almost a 100% somebody says Blender can't do something is mostly like YOU DON'T KOW HOW TO DO IT, but right now Blender already surpasses by far Maya and I will say by my over 2 decades of experience in the industry the Blender Vs Zbrush war is slowly but surely taking blender as the winner from many factors you already mentioned but others you didn't and I will try to include: 1. WORKFLOW: ZBrush has the worst and more awful to use UI in computers history, is like the developers of ZBrush have their brains backward, the bad UI and almost nonexistent nav system made ZBrush highly unfriendly, while in the other hand Blender has one of the more intuitive and easy to use UI and superb nav system, for an enthusiast that could be irrelevant but for a PRO time is money and Blender thruly speed you up EXPONENTIALLY, and the nav system of Blender works perfect with any pen display, just this factor gives Blender like +3 to +5 points in PRO level. 2. BRUSHES: you are TOTALLY WRONG about alpha brushes being a strength of ZBrush, Blender can use ANY absolutely ANY image as texture brush without need to convert it into an alpha, of course the result will be much better if you use it as alpha, but will take you almost no time just create the high map with blender or materialize, ZBrush can not crate his own alphas while blender can convert into an alpha brush almost anything by himself, the way you organize your brushes in ZBrush isn't exclusive as well, you can append your alphas and organize them in Blender as well without any problem. 3. HIGH RES POLYCOUNT: almost 90% of my sculpts end being retopologized for animation and no game uses models of millions of polygons, summary the only cases my high res poly sculpts don't need retopology is when I am working in the film industry, even in game cinematics they try to take the poly count down and don't want to work with a model of millions vertex, but because normally they do have human actors I will only create visual effects with volumetrics (what ZBrush can't) or I will be creating creatures as monsters, but because ZBush can work with volumetrics and particle systems I will only use it to create the base mesh (what Blender can do properly) taking in account ZBrush isn't great in texturing either. 4. HYPER REALISTIC DETAILS: One thing you didn't mention is the capabilities of blender to work with UV projection and camera projection, you can simply work in high poly counts like ZBrush but your approach is different, you create a pass of details then retopology and uv project in a lower poly mesh, and you can go on and on simply repeating the process, and no retopology in blender can takes only a couple of click and seconds with a cheap add on under US$50, are many blender auto retopology addons in the market and y9u can simply pick the one you like according with your budget but normally blender addons area always under US$100. Plus you can achieve realistic renders without need actual topology because you can simply use NODES in blender, with the new geometry nodes you can actually create a realistic scenario like a city just in minutes. 5. INTEGRATION, INPROVEMENTS AND ADDONS: in this field even ZBrush was mean and design to work in the PRO pipeline Blender is still the winner, Blender has great integration with texture software like substance painter and quixel mixer, also with image editing software like photoshop and Clip Studio Paint (actually you can select and set any graphic editor to work with and Blender will automatically use the exe file fo the software and open for you the texture you are editing in any software you select) then youc an be texturing and jumping between photoshop and blender almost in real time with no issue or need to close or open them again, you keep working in blender and using any ghrapic or texture editor without need to close or import your model in the other software (ZBrush can't work in that way and probably will never be able to do such a thing) plus you do have a 3d assets library that is increasing in content amount and can add high res PBR textures with ONE CLICK, we can see how Blender is constantly updated faster than any other 3d software in the market and always adding new improvements and tools, plus you can find hundreds of free and paid addons to improve your work flow, if you see the whole picture you start understanding Blender is a highspeed super train at full speed and you don't want to be behind, from realism to NPR and anime style renders, compositing, NODES, texturing, rigging, animating, ZBRush only can compete with blender in sculpting and even just in ONE field ZBrush can't beat Blender and in MANY cases you will prefer to use Blender instead of ZBrush fro dozens of reasons and more importantly because TIME, Blendr strength is that saves you time in cooperation with ZBrush, summary ZBrush is the past, was the industry standard simply because from the early 2000s was the only tool we had to do an specific task but right now is not just Blender are over a half of dozen of 3d sculpting software and youc an even sculpt in an Ipad Pro, realistically with the right hardware Blender can do ANYTHING ZBrush does, but ZBrush if far too much far behind to can keep the pace with Blender. FINAL WORDS AND ADVICE: Don't waste your time or your money either with ZBrush, I have over 20 years in the industry and is what I do for living, instead of take a HUGE debt and go to college to just learn Maya and Zbrush (both software were the industry standards LAST decade) simply watch some youtube videos and take the feeling with blender and when you be ready simple spend a couple of hundreds in a PRO course and training in Blender and you will be earning money in less than 6 months with blender without WASTE yout time and money in college and learning almost OBSOLETE software, if you don't want to believe me what about Microsoft, FaceBook, Ubisoft, NVidia, Intel , AMD Unreal Engine, Adobe and many others funding and backing up Blender, and because of it is why you see Blender works PERFECT with NVidia graphic cards, because all those companies are investing in Blender and his integration capabilities not only at software level also at hardware level, that can ensure you Blender will keep growing and improving and you will not waste your time mastering Blender as your main PRO tool, don't let people decide you, what they want is good models that can work well in Unreal Engine, Houdini or Cinema 4D, they will not care wich software or how you created the model, as 3d modeler and sculptor your job is simply get the models done as fast as possible, with good topology for animation, well textured and properly rigged, that's it, WHERE DO YOU SEE IN THE PROCESS YOU MUST TO USE ZBRUSH? nowhere because is NOT NEEDED ANYMORE, just trust me in this one, more if you want to work as freelance, because when you work in animation you are jumping from one project to another, is not like you will remain in one studio for your lifetime, and if you go big Disney, Blizzard and many other big studios have their own animation software, then you go back to the same what you need as 3d modeler? create the model, texture it, and rigged, and Blender can do the whole process properly without the need of ZBrush at all, but more importantly, is not about Blender being Fee, is about how blender helps you get the job done faster and easier and how provides you a variety of tools that can help you in any type of project, then in this case gives you more opportunities to safe time and earn MONEY that is what a PRO want.

[@Willsing7]

Thanks for posting this! You answered all the questions I had about ZBrush vs Blender. I’ve had ZBrush since 2008, but never learned it because the interface is sooooo bad. Now I’m learning Blender and was wondering if I was headed in the right direction. You confirmed what I was thinking. Full speed ahead with Blender!

[@AR-nr2ix]

Thanks for going in all the details

[@Link1309]

Awesome post. I already work on 3d since many years (making items for second life). But my items always have been rather simple. I want to step up my game and also learn sculpting so I wasn't sure if I should use zbrush for that. But your post showed me that I should just stick with blender for everything.

[@DUBSTalExP]

Thanks for the in-depth reply!

[@PirateOnYoutube]

Thanks for sharing ur experience 🍻🥰

[@ajtatosmano2]

Little refinement on some things in the video: Blender for modeling is really lightweight. It crashes a lot-lot less than othen professional softwares (autodesk softwares, C4D, but I don't have experience with zbrush) on a low level laptop. This is not true to sculpting performance, it's drops. However if you want to do stylized sculpting (pixar/disney/anime style) it's perfectly good. For more detailed models it's only good on higher configs and only if you don't want to go into small details like skin pores and such. AMD cpus are fine with blender, you don't need Intel necessarily. For video cards, although blender got support for AMD cards, Nvidia's RTX cards outperform them big time because of the Optix support. GTX cards only have

[@GearSolid]

Love the info. Thank man

[@amrishpatel3501]

Blender also works well with my AMD GPU which is the RX 5700 XT, which is one of the cards in the Blender's recommended system requirements. Currently I'm waiting for the new RDNA 3 cards from AMD in future as my next upgrade. :)

[@bbrother92]

Blender is very laggy. Dont do sculpts here

[@jamesquansah177]

So true man. "You should try giving out an expensive gift to someone and see how they praise you". Love your explanatory videos. Keep it up.

[@aliqaheri2459]

Great video. Thanks!

[@MisterHech]

Perfect rundown, glad I found your insight! I’m ten years into z brush starting with the side chick so GoB is a life saver! thank you!!

[@GearSolid]

Haha, glad you found a free side chick.

[@s3ntry948]

That would be awesome if ZBrush developers switch to Blender and develop a HITECH sculpting environment in blender.

[@TheSunMystic]

Loved this info Man. I had to turn down the volume as your voice vibrates my speakers. Perhaps that could be fixed somehow. Thank you once again for this incredible detailed info. You have a great style and a lot of knowledge that's helps us amateurs and pros as well. Ciao

[@GearSolid]

Thanks man, I would fix the audio.

[@KarelChytilArt]

The best software is Just one you know very well. For me There is nothing which can beat ZBrush in sculpting. But I quite like 3d coat, sculpting in Blender is quite good but it seems so Digital. I am happy i can use ZBrush for many years. Blender is fine sw.

[@octonolite_0]

Great and very useful explanation. If the sound was better, I'd have zero complaints.

[@pablo8625]

Amazing video! Felt a little hard to watch with that mic quality though :(

[@ZaikobonAnimation]

Love the explanation man *subscribe

[@zebcode]

Wow the sound seems to be really bad. It's a shame because the video content is awesome.

[@JaxCavalera]

The biggest difference between ZBrush and Blender is that ZBrush's engine is outdated and still depends heavily on CPU to render. I found Blender performed way better over ZBrush, however the best sculpting experience I've had was with 3DCoat as it uses a GPU powered rendering engine and dedicated focus on sculpting and retopo etc.

[@universalstadia2510]

Blender is zbrush's side chick😁😁. Your comparisons are thick man. Which is the best combo? Zbrush and blender or 3d coat and blender

[@facethefaceandmore44]

Your video and lighting and video looks beuatiful, but the microphone sounds like it's done through a toy recording spy pen from the 1990s.

[@GearSolid]

😁😁😁 dude, It's fixed now.

[@AtomLabX]

By the way, loving the videos but the background mysic is too load, make it -45 or just don’t add music at all. So we can play the video at 1.25 if we want. Thanks 🙏 Been watching your videos for 3 days now, they are really nice

[@GearSolid]

Thanks for the tip man. No music. I like that

[@TTBrothers_]

Cool video, man! Keep going make your videos)

[@1989johno]

need to get a better microphone... when it comes to tools zbrush has a hell of alot more, but all in all... its preference, no company would say no to you for using blender over zbrush , if you can give them the results they want they dont care what you use

[@darkfox2401]

Your video is great but your audio needs some work.

[@hameddesign70]

Sound quality 👍👌👌😑

[@andrewsanders7636]

well zbrush can handle higher amounts of polygon, has vdms(3d alphas basically), better base mesh creation tools and other great tools that blender lacks plus blender scultping development took a big hit after its only dev pablo left blender foundation only now bf has been able Find a new dev for sculpting but he's only working on features that pablo didn't complete

[@GearSolid]

Thanks for the info. I heard pablo was fired. Just rumours but🤷‍♀️

[@rodolflum3444]

blender beats them all as its free.

[@murdocklesban6836]

blender has better programer than pablo no worry man

[@jamqdlaty]

Well turned out they were not in that bad situation since despite absence of Pablo they just managed to introduce VDMS. ;)

[@hameddesign70]

blender becomes Zbrush if you just use multires modifier workflow ...

[@cosmicfxx]

Dude, great video but your sound is very bad ... you need to improve it

[@wespenwald1297]

Plz get a better mic! As charming as your accent is, I can't really enjoy it when it's distorted through your mic!

[@GearSolid]

Thanks for the feedback. Now I got better mic.😁😁