Would this be easier to do in ZBrush instead of Photoshop?
TL;DRIt depends: Photoshop is faster for quick early variations, while ZBrush suits refining a concept already approved, and CIG lets artists use whichever tools work best.
It depends. For me, when I'm doing a bunch of blue sky stuff where I have no idea what it is, Photoshop is the fastest and most efficient tool to do these things just because of how quickly I can change things. For ZBrush, as much as I love the program, and I do, you're a lot slower in making variations. Because sculpting something like this could potentially take maybe five minutes when I can just do it in three seconds in Photoshop. Photoshop is just about getting the initial feel and the idea of said asset. It depends. If I know for sure that Chance will like something, and maybe Chance has seen a napkin sketch of something, then yeah, I might jump into ZBrush and just refine the heck out of it.
One of the things I've discovered through the six years here at CIG now is that we're very accommodating as far as letting the artists work in the tools that work best for them. We have an entire tools team that's separated across several studios dedicated to building all the different converters and importers and stuff necessary to let artists work in the things that allow them to be most effective and then bring that in.
Also, for a concept artist, there's never one method to solve a problem. I think I've said that multiple times, concept artists are problem solvers. I have the most respect for concept artists, and a lot of the guys in the studio will ask me how long they have and they'll try to solve the problem, and they'll pick whichever program or workflow is the most efficient to get the job done. Because if you're like, hey, I only do ZBrush, and I'm going to be like, hey, I need 10 of these sketches by 6 p.m., they're going to struggle a little bit because they might not have enough time. Or I might be like, hey, I need you to figure out the anatomy of this thing, but I need you to be very specific. Or maybe a character modeler needs more context of what something is. Maybe you do it in Photoshop, maybe you do it in ZBrush, maybe you actually sculpt on top of their mesh just to help them out. It really depends. There never is one method of doing concept, because it's just ideas at the end of the day.