Curvy 3D vs ZBrush

Curvy 3D is a Windows sketch-based sculpting program aimed at first-time 3D artists. Users draw profiles and curves to make rounded or organic forms, then refine surfaces with Inflate, Deflate, Pinch, Smooth and Flatten warp brushes. Adaptive subdivision adds mesh detail where needed while controlling triangle counts. The program supports manual retopology, multiresolution sculpting and voxel sculpting. Texture tools paint color, specular and bump maps in 3D views or on 2D textures. Image Inflate converts silhouettes or greyscale images into 3D models using heightmap, bubble, bevel or extrude styles. Models export as OBJ for rendering or animation in software such as Blender. The maker also describes use with Blender or Bryce and importing characters from Poser or Daz. Curvy 3D 5 is listed for Microsoft Windows and requires a DirectX 8.0-compatible 3D graphics card. Aartform offers a free 30-day demo; the Curvy 3D 5 plan is a one-time purchase with price varying by location. Aartform describes itself as an independent London game development studio founded in 2003, and directs questions to its forum.

ZBrush is a 3D sculpting and modeling application with desktop and iPad offerings. Its listed tools include sculpting, parametric modeling, animation, rendering and 3D print export. Desktop is listed for Windows and macOS, while a separate supported-platform list also includes Linux. The desktop plan includes ZBrush for iPad and advanced sculpting, modeling, rendering and export tools. Rendering is described as hybrid, with GPU and animation rendering and denoising. Listed workload areas include CPU and GPU rendering, ray tracing, shader execution and geometry processing. Other listed capabilities include rotoscoping, 3D camera tracking, custom test profiles and CLI or automation support. The listed result export formats are none documented, and results are not saved as a file. Headquarters are listed as both Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and Friedrichsdorf, Germany; the maker is listed as founded in 1986.