ZBrush is indeed expensive for a hobbyist.
But it is becoming the defacto standard in the industry, in terms of modeling, for organic and hard surfaces (even for low-polys thanks to the ZModeler tools which are awesome)
From my recent experiences in production, a good ZBrush modeler vs a good Maya modeler, is 3 to 5 times faster including the handling of topology. The Maya modeler is then stuck to its topology in case of retakes while the ZBrush modeler is totally free on this point. Retakes are faster and easier. With the recent ZBrush versions, you also get quasi-perfect topology from it. The more and more ZBrush modelers are preferred to traditional polygon modelers in production for obvious reasons.
So if you are a serious hobbyist, creating all your assets from scratch or if you are kind of pro selling your content to the Market Place and if you dont know ZBrush or if you stood away from it for some reasons, I invite you to take another look at it, and you will certainly realize how much faster and easier it is to model in ZBrush than in anything else.
And if you think about Mudbox instead, forget it, it does not compare to ZBrush.
ps: This is not an advertisement for ZBrush, just the result of my experience in production I wanted to share.
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guy rabiller | GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS
"N.O.E." (Nations Of Earth) Sci-Fi TV Show, Showrunner.