6/22/2013 7:27:00 PM by
Erogenesis
(Edited: 4/4/2016 7:33:58 AM)
Views: 617
Can I just bitch and moan for a sec? Can I? Thanks!
Ok, is it me or is zBrush just a rediculous application? There you go I said it, for the love of god, Erogenesis hates zBrush. I detest it! AAAH may the developers burn in hell!!
I bought it a while back and I'm still in two worlds about whether or not I should be regretting it. I have used it a LOT, as in: I spent a full year working with it, non-stop... so you'd think I'd be used to it by now? Not! The problem is that I don't know of any other app that can do what zBrush does, as in its mesh editing capabilities and UV control. That part is brilliant. For the rest it is a fucking nightmare, it is a GUI disaster! I now know what to do where, and in which order, but it still feels tedious, unintuitive, and cumbersome. Once I'm editing the mesh, then its ok, but if I wanna do something else, I grow tired just thinking about what I'll need to undergo. Even after years of zBrush you'll still need to remember procedures and routines to get to where to wanna go. All apps have that, off course, but with zBrush it is anything but logical.
Why Pixelillogic? Why? Why must you be the necessary evil? Never before with any application have I had to consult help and tutorials SO MANY TIMES to get something simple done in it. "Ok, load this, press that button hidden in that unrelated menu, and then that button on the other side of the screen, then go to that menu and select some tool, press this hotkey, then you can do what you want". I spend so much time on zBrush Central, it might as well be built into the application... I find that rediculous! (that is btw my indicator for a good app, the less you need to consult the manual, the better it has been designed... hm what does that say about Lali's Bits? ;) )
Get this, in that application alone there are well over 4 buttons called 'Texture', but all do entirely different things. There is no logic in the UI design, it is entirely random almost. Most of the time I have no idea what I'm doing and the 'Undo' button doesn't guarantee any safety from experimentation. If you press the wrong button, by god you're in for a rough time to unfuck whatever you fucked up, because nothing in zBrush makes any sense. Even monster apps Autodesk 3D Max and AutoCAD are EASY compared. I have been using 3D Max since 2001 and before that I played around with my father's AutoCAD. Not once did I consult the manual. It was just a few months ago that I checked on the internet about Max's UV mapping functions, but that's seriously the first time. Same with Poser, the only time I checked the manual was when I was making the INJ for Lali's Bits, and once when I wanted to know what certain dials for Scatter nodes did. But zBrush has taught me the meaning of the concept tutorial, and being entirely dependent on their need to be interesting or something. Its inexcusable actually. Of all the apps I use, 3D Max, Poser, Photoshop, UV Mapper, Wordpad even... zBrush is the only one that will stop me dead in my tracks. And that is bloody frustrating when you're on the go! (much like Microsoft's ribbon, another workflow killer).
It also seems like there's this generation of artists that are fine with being forced to learn a new UI system (if that is what you can call it). Whatever is wrong with logic? has it become boring? Why reinvent the wheel? In these times of faster processing power and quantum leaps in computing efficiency, what sense does inventing a square wheel make? Is it the trend to stoop oneself into UI puzzles and return from it all glorified with an 'I survived zBrush UI' Tshirt? Pff. Whatever they fancy, but for me, I have enough work to do and I really don't feel like having to bend to some company's desire to be 'different' to get my work done. In the time that I spend on learning some hideous hop-skip and jump routine in zBrush, I could've set of a bunch of renders, drink wine and have sex with my girlfriend! I do have priorities!
Ok so in conclusion, if ever there's an alternative to the god-damn bitch of a motherfucking piece of crap zBrush that uses regular Windows menu convention, with a logical UI buildup and workflow, I'll be the first in line!!!! In fact, I'm thinking of buying Mudbox when I get my next paycheck.
Pff ok that's out there. Bloody hell.