ZBrushCentral

Christmas Tree Mesh and Material

ZBrush Artworks
#1

[attach=78418]Xmastree_Render_01_V1.jpg[/attach] Hi,

The Christmas tree above was made in ZBrush 3 (image of mesh attached) and rendered against the snow-filled background photo. I would like to make the tree cast a shadow on the snow. Could someone tell me how to make that happen? I’ve combed the manual and still can’t figure it out.

Oh, if someone knows some better fiber settings for a Christmas tree, I’d sure appreciate a few pointers! :slight_smile:

Thanks,

Jan

P.S. Sorry! I forgot to credit the photographer! Credit for the background photo goes to Tom Tilney of Belgian Diamond.

P.P.S. Mesh and material available for download, a few posts down. :smiley:

Attachments

Xmastree_Render_01_V1.jpg

#2

Here’s the mesh…Treemesh_final.jpg

#3

A couple thoughts until an expert comes by -

It would be nice to have a shadow catcher material that would allow one to catch an image of the shadow, along with a mask of the area not covered by the shadow. Then you could composite the shadow into the image, but I don’t know if zbrush is capable of that. I think you could get pretty close to this result with a flat white image plane under the tree, and then creating an inverse mask of the areas not white.

You could create a model of the snow by the tree so that it can receive the shadow. You could use the background picture of the snow as a texture map for your new model of snow. You should then be able to blend the model of the tree and the snow with background image without too much trouble.

An easier fix would be to make a flat white plane under the tree to receive the shadow and once you see how it looks, draw it into your picture, or even sample it.

Nice tree, by the way.

#4

The above comments should help you get that shadow.

You can also simply create a new document, load up your background as a texture then choose a fast shader and simply fill the layer to make it your background in zbrush.

Then, take the Plane 3d tool, choose a white color and flat material with maybe a little gloss and draw it in to your scene and extend it towards the camera.

Then place your tree, set up your lights to match where you want your shadow to fall and use Best Render.

More ways I can think of…
Take a Plane 3d and subdivide it then place your bg texture on it. Then use a natural organic alpha and the blobs brush at a high setting and sculpt the snow drifts into the plane, rotating around the plane and using the move tool to bring it out to the forefront. Then place the plane down in your image and draw in your tree ztool over that and set up your lighting and do a best render.

#5

Thanks very much, you two! :slight_smile:

It’ll take me a few minutes to think your suggestions through and see which one I can execute, but I do appreciate them all, very very much!

Jan

#6

Hi reverie, if I were doing this, I’d do it all postwork in a graphics program as I don’t think, (correct me if I’m wrong), the fiber material will cast a shadow on another object, as it’s not actual polygons. I think you’d just get the shape of your mesh casting the shadow. I’d render the tree against a solid background, then in the 2D program, load the snow BG ,load the tree and pull it onto it’s own layer, then duplicate that tree placing it under the top tree and darken it or paint it black, then adjust the transparency for the shadow, then you can deform it, clone and erase areas as needed. If that’s a little confusing, you’d have 3 layers,…the bg, tree shadow, and rendered tree. Just another approach. 50.

#7

I don’t think, (correct me if I’m wrong), the fiber material will cast a shadow on another object,

Thank you, you have saved me much work and probably the loss of some hair, too! :lol: I just finished slapping a plane under the tree, but it would not catch a shadow. Now I see why!

I’ll probably take your advice and create the shadow in Photoshop. Either that or see if I can talk one of my challenge compadres into doing it. :wink:

But I do appreciate all the other suggestions! They opened doors…

#8

:slight_smile: :+1: , 50.

#9

Merry Christmas, Zbrushers! :smiley:

I got a lot of help here, in this and another thread, when I was modeling the xmas tree above, so I decided to give something back. (Actually, I’m just hoping for some good karma.) :wink:

So, here’s the Christmas tree mesh and the material settings. Just unzip 'em and load 'em into ZB3/Ztools and Zmaterials. Use the Fiber material as a base for the Treefibers material. Load Treefibers into Shader 1.

If anybody makes a tree, I’d love to see what it looks like. When we were in the midst of our Xmas tree challenge at IDA, I rendered out a pink one. :laughing:

You may want to adjust the limbs to suit your render angle.

Edit: I’m very sorry. I realized, last night, that one of these files (the Xmas tree file) won’t load into Zbrush after extracted. I renamed the file inside Zbrush before I zipped it, assuming Zbrush would add the .ztl extension. It didn’t. However, all you have to do is – after extracting the file, rename it and add the .ztl extension. Zbrush will recognize it as a tool then. Once again, very sorry for any inconvenience. What can I say? I’m a klutz. :o

I hope the material file is okay. I haven’t checked it. Maybe I better do that.

2nd Edit: The material file seems to work properly after extraction. :slight_smile:

#10

I’m sorry to necro this thread but does anyone know how the OP (If the OP is still around) went from this base mesh to the fully finished tree? I tried downloading the sample to take a look but it appears that the file format they are in is no longer accepted by ZBrush. (My ZBrush won’t open them at least).