Adobe Substance 3D Collection vs. ZBrush

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Substance 3D Collection
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Substance 3D is a suite of apps that support 3D design, including texture assets and rendering tools. Workflows can connect to Adobe Creative Cloud apps.N/A
ZBrush
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Pixologic in Los Angeles offers ZBrush, a digital sculpting and painting program for the 3D industry. Built within its interface, ZBrush offers tools for digital artists with an arsenal of features that have been developed with usability in mind, to create a user experience designed to feel natural while simultaneously inspiring the artist. With the ability to sculpt up to a billion polygons, ZBrush allows users to create almost limitless models.
$39.95
per month
Pricing
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionZBrush
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Individual
$39.95
per month
Individual
$179.95
per 6 months
Individual
$895.00
perpetual license
Companies & Students
price varies
floating perpetual license
Companies & Students
price varies
academic perpetual license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionZBrush
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionZBrush
Best Alternatives
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionZBrush
Small Businesses
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.9 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.9 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Navisworks
Navisworks
Score 9.4 out of 10
Navisworks
Navisworks
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionZBrush
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionZBrush
Likelihood to Recommend
It's great if you don't want to mess around trying fixes or subpar software. Adobe Substance 3D is the default, and it just works when you need it. From textures to complex materials, it gets the job done with no worries. It's really good for new users, because the new UI features they implemented simplify the software a lot, and the learning curve is gentle. It is well suited for game development, renders, and top-notch material creation. One of the main features we use is the creation of dynamic materials that have different colors on the edges. This is useful because it adds a lot of realism, for example, in metals.
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The comprehensive toolkit enables us to take advantage of its wide range of tools, such as customizable brushes, particles and materials, custom deformers, mesh manipulation tools, and more, to bring art creations to life with high levels of detail and realism. On the flip side, if an artist needs very specific tools tailored towards animation-type projects rather than 3D model design, then they would likely find programs like Maya or Blender more beneficial.
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Pros
  • Great performance
  • Excellent Adobe support
  • Fast and easy
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  • Best for sculpting characters even down to the smallest pore.
  • Great for points of light on a character.
  • So fast sculpting and crafting for product design.
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Cons
  • The substance painter is easy to use but its interface could be improved to be a bit more user friendly.
  • More assets can be added to stager, so visualize products better. Also AI workflow can be added for backplates.
  • Substance designer learning curve is very tough. Many people not able to grab it. It could be simplified.
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  • Slowdowns when using certain tools or features.
  • Difficulty to access certain shortcuts or commands.
  • Lack of a dedicated animation timeline system.
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Usability
The overall usability of substance stager and painter is quite easy. Many people will be able to use it without much prior experience. But designer is very complicated to learn and not many resources available for that. I think if they integrate the AI and provide better resources in the general interface, it could be a 10 on 10 in usability.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I am not able to enter in the list the most close to substance we used like instamat and pixplant. We used them as cheaper alternatives to substance, they have limited tools and dont provide full control and accessibility for what we need. Blender is good for creating materials using nodes and stuff but not upto the mark. There is always something missing. For the photoshop, there is no option to create textures on 3d, which makes it tedious. For the KeyShot its good and sometimes better than stager but the overall value in substance collection and the seamless integration with other apps is very good
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Even though it's 4x as old, ZBrush is still better in my opinion. Plus, I'm just so used to it by now after 20 years. Blender will indeed become better over time and the leading industry standard soon, but for now, ZBrush is still better for me for sure. Love it!
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Return on Investment
  • The library we create in the substance painter really helps us to save a lot of time for future projects. Drag and drop the materials and boom product is ready.
  • Stager cuts us the costs by saving us time on the feedbacks because of the better visualization we were able to provide at initial stages.
  • Designer didnt helped us much directly but somewhat useful as it comes with the package and it has great tools which might be costlier to buy separately.
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  • Expensive
  • Will create a 3D mesh exactly as you had designed
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ScreenShots