Developers of professional software solutions for editors, filmmakers, motion designers, visual effects artists and creators of all types, Maxon, announced comprehensive updates to several products included in the Maxon One subscription offering, including improvements for ZBrush, Cineware and a batch of new Capsules.
The industry standard for digital painting and sculpting, ZBrush, is better than ever – with improvements to the Anchors Brush that was introduced in July, giving users new ways to manipulate meshes. Additional enhancements offer more control when using the Knife Brush and make it easier to repeat changes on a mesh. Cineware offers an improved import of Cinema 4D files into Unreal Engine and extends support for Redshift materials.
ZBrush 2024 comes with a number of improvements that make the industry standard for digital sculpting even better:
- The innovative Anchors Brush receives an update enabling use of the brush without the need for masking the surface.
- Split to Parts extends Knife Brush capabilities by allowing assets to be divided into pieces while keeping sliced parts as separate or unified parts within the sub tool menu.
- The Gizmo and Transpose tools now feature topology masking along with capacity to snap to the centre of the masking region. The Gizmo and Transpose Lines can snap along the masked area, making the artist’s masking workflow easier.
- Cinema 4D noises are now available in the ZBrush surface noise gallery.
- With the new Repeat to Similar feature, artists can easily repeat changes from a source mesh they are editing and have changes populate target meshes with the same polygon count. Repeat to Similar supports Sculpting changes, Full mesh replacement, Masking and Polygrouping.
- Grow and Shrink mask capabilities are expanded to include more dynamic control and increased design potential.
- A new stroke option called DragStamp is included. Allows for control of the intensity associated with an alpha being dragged onto the surface by moving the cursor back and forth.
- Two new buttons were added for creases promoting more control over areas of an asset where creases and edges occur. Crease Unmasked and Uncrease Unmasked.
- Insert Mesh Brushes are now compatible with Stroke menu options.
Cineware
Cineware for Unreal now features an improved import of Cinema 4D files into Unreal Engine. Additionally, Redshift materials with subsurface scattering are now supported. The texture size can be adjusted before every import, allowing for more flexibility in managing your texture quality.
This month’s Capsules drop is the biggest ever – giving artists a wide assortment of resources to make their renders shine. A collection of Studio Lighting HDRs created with HDR Light Studio by Lightmap will help you kickstart your product shots and title designs. Several trees, grasses and flowering plants have been added to the collection of plants from Laubwerk.
Finally, Maxon continues to update its library of classic assets for Redshift compatibility – reducing poly counts, modernising designs, and creating beautiful Redshift materials for all assets. This month features several generic household products that can be used to fill out a kitchen or set dress at a grocery store.