Zbrush Computer time!!!

#1

Alright everyone I’m looking into building a computer on a budget of about $1,000. I don’t know a thing about computers so I’m at a bit of a loss so I really could use your guys’ insight. As well as hardware I’m looking for a larger sized monitor suggestion! My 2011 IMAC is struggling and I’m afraid it’s going to die if I keep pushing it. Regardless if it’s Mac or Windows (likely windows for my budget) I’ll need something that can sculpt, model and render/texture finalized movie/game concept art quality projects. Looking forward to finally buying a license to 4R7 and get out of the stone age!

All the best!

#2

I am sorry to say, but you simply can not do what you are wanting on that limited of budget. If you are a serious artist and want to get into all of that, the type of software and hardware you are talking about costs thousands, if not well over $10-15K.

Programs such as Maya alone cost several thousands of dollars and you are going to need a “professional” grade color monitor as well for your work. About the only thing you can do on such a small budget is something like Poser, which is not what your post indicated you wanted.

Hope things work out for you, but that’s an honest answer if you are serious about it. Also, it takes years of training to get good at and you are going to need to invest in some Anatomy classes and becoming certified in those programs too.

Best of luck.

#3

This is a bit of a dramatic ‘ball-park figure’. OP said he had a budget of $1000 just for the workstation alone.

Granted, he will only be able to build a low-end system but hardware is pretty cheap these days and he still will be able to build a starter-system capable of working in ZB to get going and upgrade components later on. Zbrush is highly optimised to work on low-end systems unlike power-hogs like Mudbox. Only within the last few weeks are we in ZB 64bit beta mode, so people have been running ZB on 32bit memory limits all this time.

Plus, he’s just looking to create concept art so he won’t need a package like Maya. I presume he already owns a program like Photoshop, so software-wise Zbrush alone would do with maybe the addition of Keyshot/ZB edition which is quite cheap.

#4

I have a background in 2D illustration and painting so my work in 3D for the past 2-3 years has been comprised of 5-8 million poly models in Mudbox. With that being said I am strictly a hobbyist when it comes to 3D, however, I enjoy putting out higher quality work. I’d be happy with a bit more power and mostly important speed so I don’t think it’s too far off to achieve? I’m not looking to work at a game’s studio but I’m looking to have the ability to do work on my own projects.

#5

For a hobbyist using ZBrush,. a $1,000 workstation will be plenty for now. A good gaming spec computer at that price with decent graphics card is more than up to the job. I have a Packard Bell “Extreme” model (cost €900 or about $1100 a couple of years ago) with NVidea GT750ti graphics and only 8 gigs of RAM. I often run either ZBrush (or Max or Maya educational versions) with Photoshop and Keyshot at the same time and it copes very well.
As an example, I made this tutorial video live with ZBrush 4r7, Keyshot for ZBrush and a screen recorder all running at the same time and had no issues other than the screen recorder making the render take a little bit longer than usual:

//youtu.be/2PG6qi-13DE