Zbrush 4 on a Convertible Tablet PC Demo/Review (Part 1 of 2)

[willpreston]

this very informative video of yours is nearly 1 and a half years old now, do you have any new advise for someone looking to do Zbrush on the train, sofa etc?

has much changed?

also I'm in England and am having trouble finding a stockist for the lenovo x60

[drkdve]

@willpreston Honestly I haven't been searching for new tablets much since then, since even with all the recent updates, zbrush still works incredibly well on the regular old x60. And I still use it every day. I'm sure some things have changed in the tablet market, but I haven't heard of anything amazing enough to recommend a switch, especially since the x60 is even cheaper now! You should be able to find it on the USA ebay site for under $200 and many sellers will ship overseas.

[tokillafly]

hi i m insterested in a tablet pc. what table pc do u have and which tablet pc would u reccomend for using on zbrush and can u use maya mudbox zbrush and photoshop on a tablet pc thanks.

[drkdve]

@tokillafly You should read the Zbrush central thread. There are multiple different tablets that can run different programs. I use the Lenovo x60, but most seem to be able to run zbrush and photoshop fine.

[willpreston]

@drkdve - yeah, you're right,

but i kind of like sculptris a bit more than Zbrush now and i thought you said there were problems?

[drkdve]

@willpreston The newest version of Sculptris seems to work reasonably well. With the advent of dynamesh in zbrush, I don't use it at all though. It seems to be a little bit less responsive than Zbrush, probably because of the real-time tesselation calculations, but it's definitely still usable.

[DoggieDoubles]

Hi, I am very new to the concept of using a digital tablet for ZBrush (I just read about it in my book, actually), and I don't know much about it. Can you tell me what the different options are and what you would recommend I use? I'm not sure if I want a PC tablet or just a pad that plugs into the computer (I'm not sure which is better). What are their pros and cons? I spoke with a guy at the store about it, but he doesn't use ZBrush so he unfortunately couldn't help me much.

Thanks.

[drkdve]

@DoggieDoubles Most zbrush artists use a tablet of some kind. Most commonly the Intuos line from Wacom. High-end artists often use the Cintiq, which is a tablet with a built-in screen that basically acts like a monitor for your computer which you can draw on. It's mostly a preference/price thing.

If you have a 8" tablet and a 24" monitor, moving a small distance on the tablet equates to a large distance on the screen, but on any tablet with a screen you draw exactly where the pen touches.

[drkdve]

@DoggieDoubles Mainly it depends on how you like to work. If you are used to drawing on paper, I would recommend a tablet PC (reasonably priced) or Cintiq (expensive!). But if you aren't, you may be put off that your hand occludes the workspace. A tablet PC is ideal for me since it's not expensive, and I like drawing exactly where the pen touches. It works with various drawing styles (e.g. drawing from either elbow or wrist), and it's very portable.

[DoggieDoubles]

@drkdve Thanks so much for the info! I'll see what works for me...

[drkdve]

@DoggieDoubles No problem. If you aren't sure, I would recommend getting a cheap Wacom Bamboo tablet or a used Intuos, something for around $100.00 just to see if you like that style, since those can retain value fairly well, and you can always use them for something if you decide to upgrade.

[niksecrets]

Thanks a lot for you help.........

[drkdve]

@niksecrets No problem.

[niksecrets]

Hey thanks for clearing my doubt......

1 more advice require......

I have imac with 3.06 Ghz processor & 4 gb RAM, Graphics of 256 mb

So I cant increase Graphics card,

Is it possible to increase performance by increasing RAM......

[drkdve]

@niksecrets 4 gigs is about as much as zbrush can use, if you are on a 32bit OS it's all any program can use. Zbrush works fine with 4gb. You can probably use up to 12million polygons or so on a single subtool with that. But definitely 5-8 million is no problem.

[niksecrets]

Thanks a lot for ur help........

so I think bamboo pen & touch with 1024 sensitivity will be ok.........

[drkdve]

@niksecrets Yes, absolutely.

[niksecrets]

Hi,

I want help on wacom bamboo tablet.....

As i am character artist & work with zbrush & need to deal with 2 to 3 mil polygons to get fine details....

So which pressure sensivity is best for it

512 or 1024 Or any other

[drkdve]

@niksecrets In my opinion 512 is more than enough. Especially for beginners. The tablet has even less, and I think it's totally fine.

[The4thaggie]

Would like to see this video or similar in a non-vertical video.

[drkdve]

@The4thaggie Yeah, sorry. It's annoying. On the other hand, you could just imagine you are seeing big squares of my carpet on either side....

[MateoConnelly]

I was hoping to hear Sculptris ran better, oh well the search for the perfect artist tablet continues. Problem is they are hard to find in stores to test drive. Thanks for the reply.

[drkdve]

@MateoConnelly Yes, it's unfortunate, as you would think it's a lighter-weight program, but I think it does more constant CPU-intensive stuff than zbrush. For finding a tablet, I would recommend looking for a used one, maybe on craigslist and asking the seller if you can bring some programs on a thumbdrive to install and test out before you buy, since yeah, it's hard to find some of the cooler tablets in stores period.

[MateoConnelly]

Thanks for the review, I'm on the fence between the X60 and Fujitsu T5010. DDo you know if the x60 will run Sculptris efficiently?

Thanks

[drkdve]

@MateoConnelly Sculptris runs somewhat decently, not when you get into making big changes with your strokes and it has to tesselate a large area. In general it's much laggier feeling than zbrush for some reason.

[sean1ers]

are these better then ipads?

[drkdve]

@sean1ers It depends on what you want it for. If you just want to surf the web (albeit without flash) and check email and play games and read books, then I would say the iPad is better, since it's lighter, more convenient, and has longer battery life.

But, if you want to be able to run almost all windows programs, & more powerful applications, and/or you are a serious digital artist who wants to take advantage of a pressure-sensitive tablet, then right now I don't think these can be beat.

[ChimeraProd]

I guess I could settle n just not use 3d coat, I mean zbrush 4 is amazing, but I do like to dabble with voxels, it is pretty fun. Maybe i'll just use 3DC with the intuos at home, zbrush on the go,

Pray for the day I will be able to even pull up Maya on one of these, but hey

500 bux to get me through the next year or 2 is pretty good right?

[drkdve]

@ChimeraProd $500 is very good to be able to use Zbrush at least. The x60 will actually run Maya pretty well. It only seems to have trouble with stuff that uses lots of DX like 3d Coat or GL like Modo.

[SupaPoopaScoopa]

@ChimeraProd hp tm2 would easily run everything out there.

[ChimeraProd]

Heyy man is there a new tablet notebook out now that could run zbrush as well as this for less than 1 thousand ? Forget 3d coat, I mean just zbrush would be awesome, I see a bunch of asus netbooks n stuff but Idk I mean do you have to pay like 2 grand to achieve this or are my goals realistic ?

[drkdve]

@ChimeraProd I'm sure there are, but I haven't been keeping track of them. I don't think it would work well on a netbook, and a 12" screen is basically the minimum usable screen size in my opinion. I would prefer it to be 17". Basically anything that's Wacom Penabled with a dual core processor and 3 gigs of ram should theoretically be fine. But why not buy a used x60 or something? They are pretty cheap ($400-$500) and the build quality is excellent.

[SupaPoopaScoopa]

@ChimeraProd You want the fujitsu 900/901 with a 13.3 screen, monster power but no dedicated graphics.

Or the hp tm2 12.1 screen, allround performer and has the option of a dedicated graphic card. not as powerful asthe fujitsu but alot more portable.

[drkdve]

@ChimeraProd Yeah it's definitely good, but aside from being more expensive it also has a wider screen, so not quite as good for sculpting probably. They also got rid of the great directional toggle pad which is unfortunate, so you don't have the built in flexibility of using a lot of programmable buttons in tablet mode like on the x60. Check the Zbrush central thread in the description to get some good alternate ideas though, like programming a Wiimote, etc.

[ChimeraProd]

Would this run 3d coat pretty good too? Like voxel sculpting or does it need a DX card for that?

[drkdve]

@ChimeraProd I do have a 3d coat license, but unfortunately it doesn't really run it. All you see in the viewport when you try to do anything is a crazy red starburst explosion, so I suspect it does need a better video card for that.

[bignewf]

I love the review but why are we only seeing a slim strip of video.

[drkdve]

@bignewf Yeah sorry about that. I recorded the video on an iPhone 4, so it's 720p in "tallscreen" since I couldn't really seem to get the whole tablet screen reliably in frame with the camera on it's side. It's a little ridiculous to have such a small sliver of video, but at least it's high enough resolution that you can watch hd in full screen and read the text on the buttons and stuff.

[rasdasa]

Thanks so much for this review, very useful for me!

[drkdve]

@rasdasa No problem! I'm glad it's useful.