No Zbrush demos?!

[pnoland]

The same thing happened when Zbrush2 was released. Zbrush demo's required you to get demo key codes from them so why would they want people trying old versions of their application out when the new version is very much improved. You just need to be patient as they just finished the 3.1 update and are working on getting their registered OSX users taken care of before they worry about a demo.

[CodeVeroby]

I simply recommend you to go and buy it now ,it's EXTREMELY user-friendly and it's easy to learn :)

[gnarlycranium]

I don't have $500 just sitting around. So that's a big no. Not to mention, I tried 1.55 a long while ago and that thing was anything BUT easy to use, with the freaky interface which I very much doubt has improved. I may be able to learn the program at school in a while, but I don't know when that will happen since my schedule is not final.

I really don't understand how they can justify totally removing all access to any demos. So the V2 one would be out of date, big deal-- it would be SOMETHING.

[pnoland]

The interface has changed a lot, I had Zbrush 1.55 and 2.0 before I sold my license (buying again very soon...) and 2.0 was leaps and bounds easier to use and made much more sense interface wise. I would suggest you just be patient and they will have a demo out eventually. It's worth the wait and by then you may have the money to purchase so you can test it out before buying. I understand you want to test it out before dropping 500 bucks, nobody should impulse buy software.

[Signal2Noise]

I agree. There should be a new demo available. This is part of the reason why I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether to buy or not.

[TraceR]

I agree. There should be a new demo available. This is part of the reason why I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether to buy or not.

Same here. v3 really looks amazing. I got the demo for v2 a while back, but it wouldn't let me import models from other 3D apps in the demo version, and I didn't spend much time trying to learn it. But v3 really looks good. Anyone know if there is a student version available? I do not have $500 to spend now either, so it would be nice to get it at a reduced price.

[Bucket]

I simply recommend you to go and buy it now ,it's EXTREMELY user-friendly and it's easy to learn :)

If you have money to throw around an impulse buy may not be a bad thing. But anyways, I definatelly agree that great strides have been made in making it quite a bit more user friendly. Things can only get better from here.

[acmepixel]

Well, I'll be damned. There used to be a demo of version 2 on their previous site. But the newly redesigned site for v.3 indeed, has no download link. With v1.5 and v.2 you could download the full version which would work for 30 days. It appears that they are gearing up for the new sales plan in September. Maybe that's why there's no demo. I'm just guessing, but I would think that there will be a demo, again, after the September sales effort is well under-weigh.

edit

I'll have to agree with the sentiment to buy now. You'll save quite a bit of cash.
ZBrush 3 on CD (win) $439.99
http://sharbor.com/products/PLON0310006.html
ZBrush 2 w/ FREE Upgrade to ZBrush 3 (mac) $449.99
http://sharbor.com/products/PLON0310005.html
(Mac users with ''Intel Inside" and a licensed copy of v2 can download v3 for free, now.)

Or wait and pay $600 later.

Your best bet is to first check out as many of the free tutorial and demo videos as possible;
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/forumdisplay.php?f=19
CannedMushrooms has a lot of nice vid tuts for his 3d lab students. He generously makes them available to the zb community. check it out.

[cresshead]

I don't have $500 just sitting around. So that's a big no. Not to mention, I tried 1.55 a long while ago and that thing was anything BUT easy to use, with the freaky interface which I very much doubt has improved. I may be able to learn the program at school in a while, but I don't know when that will happen since my schedule is not final.

I really don't understand how they can justify totally removing all access to any demos. So the V2 one would be out of date, big deal-- it would be SOMETHING.

well if you don't have the cash to buy it there's no major rush in trying it out is there!?:)

i'll tell you this though it's a stunning app...and i'd reccomend you start delivering pizzas
to save up to buy it!

and it's only in recent years that downloadable demo's have become the 'norm' when i was looking at 3dsmax all i ahd to go on was a visit to a studio 100miles away for a demonstration for me along with a room full of people...some stills and a couple of videos
and a printed leaflet...from that i had to make a choice weather to spend £2695 inc vat or not....and i did!...so £300 thesedays on something that everyone is raving about is really a no brainer! and there's loads of people makig 'how to vids' o youtube so you can get a good feel for the app with no outlay at all...all from the comfort of sat in front of your pc.

also the maker of zbrush can do what they want..maybe they found that alot of people were cracking/patching version 2 demos into full versions...by only offering the full paid for app they can reduce scummy people hacking their application they worked so hard on to create...

[gnarlycranium]

well if you don't have the cash to buy it there's no major rush in trying it out is there!?

i'll tell you this though it's a stunning app...and i'd reccomend you start delivering pizzas
to save up to buy it!

and it's only in recent years that downloadable demo's have become the 'norm' when i was looking at 3dsmax all i ahd to go on was a visit to a studio 100miles away for a demonstration for me along with a room full of people...some stills and a couple of videos
and a printed leaflet...from that i had to make a choice weather to spend £2695 inc vat or not....and i did!...so £300 thesedays on something that everyone is raving about is really a no brainer! and there's loads of people makig 'how to vids' o youtube so you can get a good feel for the app with no outlay at all...all from the comfort of sat in front of your pc.

also the maker of zbrush can do what they want..maybe they found that alot of people were cracking/patching version 2 demos into full versions...by only offering the full paid for app they can reduce scummy people hacking their application they worked so hard on to create...I'm a student, dood. I'm already looking at $15,000+ of debt for this year alone. Delivering pizzas ain't going to give me $500 to throw around on an app I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN ABLE TO TRY. I've seen plenty of demonstrations-- but demonstrations are NOT going to be able to tell me whether I will like the feel of the workflow.

Whether or not people have had to shell out huge amounts of money for untried software in the past is beside the point. It's a stupid idea. I don't care how many people are raving about the thing, $500 is a lot of money and even if I did have it on hand, I'm not spending a dime till I get to try the thing out. Believe me, I've been burned before by software that didn't turn out to be the right tool-- and it's not going to happen again.

Zbrush can do what they want, but denying potential customers the chance to try out their software is going to lose them some business. Period.

Demos do not have to be easily manipulated into the full version. Eliminating demos will not prevent piracy, and I daresay any benefit there would be offset by a loss of customers anyway. There are plenty of more expensive programs that offer demos and aren't going to stop anytime soon due to that sort of paranoia.

Why are people making it sound like I'm some kind of weirdo for not wanting to throw money around sight unseen, just because a lot of noisy people on the internet told me to?

[cresshead]

i realise it must be frustrating...but pixologic have there hands full trying to create the mac version currently and then getting all of the addons from versions 2.0 back over to version 3...after ALL that they'll probably get around to a demo limited version...but currently they rule the roost and sales are doing really well by the looks of it.

even if it was the ideal app for you and there was a demo your currently not in a position to buy anyhow.

have a look at mudbox or modo 301 or hexagon or silo2 all of these can do similar things to that of zbrush and most have demo's to try out....that way in the mean time you can spend
3-4 months trying out the 'opposition'.

[gnarlycranium]

Yeah, I just wish they'd left the 2 demo up until they got the one for 3 working. And I'm sulking over it. Even if I can't buy, I'd like to get sortof a jumpstart on learning, I had a hankering.

So, thanks for the other recommendations! (heh and the guestbook comment)

[cresshead]

that's marketing for you!

i have tried hexagon...i bought version 2.0 when it was really cheap on discount over on daz3d...it actually convinced me to buy zbrush!...hexagon is okay but a little clunky,
but it did give me a chance to see what all the fuss was about with this style of modeling...
i also was trying out the beta for silo which was at the time also adding displacement modeling into their beta....both hexagon and silo showed me that i'd like to add some displacement style modeling capability into my tools i use...

in addition i took a look at mudbox but it was more expensive than zbrush, offered less tools and the support was an additional cost...all of which put me off a purchase...so silo and hexagon were a good proving ground that getting zbrush was a good idea...

before i bought ZB2 [with free update to 3.0] i heard nightmare stories of the user interface being just awful...i'm happy to say thay were unfounded in version 2.0 or version 3.0...it actually makes sense...

note i DID buy some training videos from digital tutors and gnomon for zbrush which has really helped ease me into using zbrush even thoughi've not done a huge amount with it as yet in production...also there's quite a few videos over on youtube etc to help people get up n running.

my advice is to go and have a play with the demo's of the above apps to see if you like the ''idea'' of modeling with these type of tools.

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