Choosing between Coat & ZBrush ?

[CinnamonMetal]

I'm considering purchasing one of the two, either 3D Coat or zBrush, and I thought of asking to get others input on the two sculpting programs, maybe someone will tell me something unique ? I know zBrush is the standard in most pipelines, putting that aside, what is your point of view ? 

[Spyrogif]

Really hard to tell.  Both are 2 great polished software now.

If anybody ask me the same question i will say try both.

But if an Houdini User ask me the same thing i will say 3d coat.

Because i a very versatile tool for many other tasks who can be hard on houdini. I use it a lot for fast organic uving, PBR texturing, scan cleaning, retopology, texture baking....  

If you concern is more about finding a shit load of brush and others ressources on the net to concentrate yourself on pure sculpting and the artistic aspect go for zbrush : only because the community is way bigger than 3dcoat.

 

 

 

 

 

[CinnamonMetal]

Both are very identical, if not identical sound as if what you're saying which is the conclusion I came too as well. 

[kleer001]

They may have apparently similar tool sets, but I'd insist that Zbrush is a more mature product. It's not necessarily a great factor though. There's trade offs. It will have a larger library of tutorials and plug-ins and forum posts to answer inevitable questions. But it will have a more entrenched interface. And for me some of the interface decisions in Zbrush are maddening. That said I've already bought myself a license and have sunk dozens of hours into learning it's bizarre ways.

If I were you I'd check out 3D coat forums and look for major frustrations and watch a few tutorials to see how intuitive the tools seem to you personally.

[CinnamonMetal]

You really emphasize the maddening word, therefore I'm going to take this as a yellow flag  And as you suggest look into the 3D coat forums, as I'm leaning more towards 3D coat  

[StepbyStepVFX]

Hi guys,

I would say that in any case, there is always a learning curve to every complex software. Indeed, ZBrush is not always intuitive, but having spent some time looking at great tuts (game art institute, and other ryan kingslien stuffs), I have discovered the any possibilities you can sculpt things, and I believe that it is what’s count : the ressources to help you learn whatever the software is.

I would really go to zbrush, having tested other packages (3D COat and Mudbox). But, it’s because I have invested in it, and now it gives me results :-) 

So I would say, choose the one where you find learning matrials easily.

That being said, depending on what your final goal is, this may also influence you : shall chose one to make a sculpting / modeling portfolio in order to find job, go for the most used soft in the industry, that would give confidence to your future employer; if you are just a hobbyist, price and what gives you more pleasure to use is what should drive you... on top of how easily you can find help (tutorials, forums etc.). In both cases, ZBrush is quite a good choice ;-)

Edited September 25, 2018 by StepbyStepVFX

[willow wafflebeard]

if your interested in texturing. 3D coat, otherwise ZB+mari, really popular combo