NEWS •MARCH 7, 2001
ZBrush 1.2 Coming This Month
New version adds scripting, reflect/refract brushes

by David Nagel
Executive Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com

Pixologic has announced it will ship ZBrush 1.2 March 22 at the Game Developers Conference. ZBrush is a painting application that offers 2D, 2.5D and limited 3D capabilities. It's been around for less than a year, and the Macintosh version was launched just back in January at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Version 1.2 of ZBrush adds a number of features, including scripting capabilities, new brushes and orientation-sensitive intensity. The new scripting capability, called ZScript, enables users to automate all ZBrush actions. ZScripts can also combine complex actions into one button click and can be loaded and executed on demand within the ZBrush environment. New ZScripts will be created and made available for download, free of charge, to all ZBrush users from Pixologic's Web site.

New brushes include reflect and refract brushes, which allow the user to paint reflections and refractions in real time. New orientation-sensitive intensity allows automatic variance of color and depth intensity based on the orientation of "pixols" in a 2.5D ZBrush image. ("Pixol" is Pixologic's term for pixels that contain 3D information.) It also includes an instant replay feature to allow the user to replay a stroke with additional information, such as transformations.

ZBrush 1.2 will be available online at an introductory price of U.S. $292.50. Version 1.2 is a free upgrade to current registered users. Following the introductory offer, ZBrush will be available at a suggested online price of $585.00. A free downloadable demo version is available at Pixologic's site. It requires a 200 MHz G3 Macintosh or Pentium II Windows machine. For more information, visit http://www.pixologic.com.

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