ZBrushCentral

Clay Monkey vs. Alien Gorilla

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hey, look. I finally made something I feel comfortable posting here! :smiley:

<center><img src=http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200306/user_image-1055217702roi.jpg></center>

Heads modeled and textured in ZBrush.

Eyes and teeth thrown hastily together in 3D Studio Max before rendering.

“Frame” done in Photoshop Elements, primarily to mask the fact that neither character actually has a body. I like the effect of it, though it does mess with your ability to perceive relative depths.

I’ve rigged the big guy in Max for some very simple animation. One bone rotates the lower teeth into place, while also driving morph targets to make his lips follow. That’s about all he does right now.

That may be as far as I take this image. I lost the most recent version, and will have to redo some work to proceed - at this moment, I’d rather move forward with something new.

Next up? I need to learn ZSpheres. I’m quite pleased with my ability to make disembodied heads, but animating a full body would be far more exciting.

Unrelated discovery:
Hosting images on an outside server will exclude them from showing up in user galleries and the forum menu. So, now I’m at a delimma! I want a user gallery. But I don’t want to take up storage space here. What to do?

edit:
It appears that uploading images here is the only practical answer. I’ve now done so.

#2

Hi Ctrl Z
Nice little creatures :cool:
For your user gallery you can try this :slight_smile:
It’s rustic but efficient if you don’t want something very elaborated :slight_smile:
I don’t know the limit of storage (seems illimited, the only limit is 3 images by day :slight_smile:
Hope this help !
Pilou
Here storage of Zbrush images seems illimited too and you have an “Orange Gallery Button”
:rolleyes:

#3

COOL!
love the expression on the little dude’s face.

#4

Frenchy:
I don’t think there’s any threat of me being prolific enough to exceed that limit.

But I was more talking about the bright orange “Gallery” button that shows up on all our posts. Clicking on yours shows me many pictures, because you use the “upload image” button in your posts. Clicking on mine shows no pictures, because I linked to the file on another host to save space.

I could upload the image here and edit the post to reflect that, but I thought it would be nice to conserve resources. :frowning:

s borg:
Thanks! Since I can only make heads so far, I was trying to focus on giving him some personality.

#5

Hi Ctrl Z
Of course it’s better to conserve some resourse :smiley:
One on your computer, one on your host, one in Zbc, one on CD, one on paper, etc
 :slight_smile:
On Zbc you can Upload any images by day I think :slight_smile:
The only limit is the time for re-edit a post (30 second) :wink:
Pilou

#6

Social experiment!
I let some hours pass to see how many replies come in, and uploaded the image here only after interest died down to nothing.

Having only the subject line (text) to go by I think attracted very few people. But a picture in the menu bar above is probably more powerful advertisement.

On a side note, I remember another user getting very upset some weeks ago because their religious-themed works weren’t making it to the picture bar up top. I think this experiment proves it was not censorship or favoritism.

Observation:
Uploading the image here put it immediately in the top bar, but my bright orange “Gallery” button still has no images. I think because I posted it in an edited message, rather than a new post. The server must treat those differently


#7

Cool characters CTRL-z !! Well done !! :smiley: :+1: :+1:

#8

Very nice! How’d you get that nice falloff/fresnel effect on the right character, if you don’t mind me asking? Kinda like moray eel skin


Cheers,

-matt

#9

Very good charachters :slight_smile:

#10

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> How’d you get that nice falloff/fresnel effect on the right character, if you don’t mind me asking? Kinda like moray eel skin
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Wow. I didn’t expect anyone to examine him that closely. :slight_smile:

There were a number of maps involved, and while I’m sure something similar can be accomplished directly in ZBrush, I’m not familiar enough with the materials to explain it in those terms. Perhaps someone can translate?

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Export two textures for your object (painting over one to produce the second if necessary). One is basic skintones, the other should be black with a pattern of white dots, preferably blurry.

<LI>In 3D Studio Max, the Diffuse map is assigned “Mix”. This allows you to blend two maps together in a linear fashion, or in patterns controlled by another map.

<LI>“Mix Amount” is assigned a bitmap. Select your pattern of dots. (my first draft used procedural noise here. Looked great, but not in motion. You need this to follow the skin when he animates)

<LI>At this moment, your preview should look like a black sphere with white dots all over it.

<LI>Jumping back a branch, assign the first of those two maps to be mixed “falloff”. By default, this means any polygons whose normals face the camera are painted black, while polygons whose normals face away from the camera are white. But you can assign additional maps to replace those colors.

<LI>At this moment, your preview should look like a black sphere with white dots only around the edges.

<LI>Facing the camera, you’d like your basic skin tones to be evident, so assign a bitmap and choose that exported texture.

<LI>Facing away from the camera, a simple color will do.

<LI>I can’t even describe what your preview should look like at this point.

<LI>Jump back to the “Mix” controls, and assign the bitmap of your exported skintones to the second map.

<LI>With any luck, your preview is now basic skin tones with dots of your chosen color around the edges.

<LI>Jump back to the basic material controls, and find “self-illumination”. Assign that another falloff map.

<LI>The polygons facing the camera, leave black here. The polygons facing away, assign a bitmap and select that same pattern of dots.

<LI>Your material should now reflect basic skin tones, with glowing dots evident wherever surface normals face away from the camera.

<LI>Odd side-effect: Were you to move the camera around him, it will feel like there are additional lights in the scene, pulsing.[/list]That’s the basic idea, anyway. Typing this from memory, I can only hope that it actually works. :rolleyes:

#11

Hi mestela
Welcome aboard !
After the advice of Ctrl you will be a champion of 3Dmax fresnel effect :smiley:
Have happy Zbrushing :cool:
Pilou

#12

Ah, I assumed you’d created the effect in zbrush. Great walkthrough of the max mat.editor though; I’m a maya op primarily, I’m alwasy getting lost when I edit materials in max
 =)

Judging from the contruction of the normal map generator thread, it should be possible to do this in zbrush
 hmm
 time to maximize the material editor off the shelf!

Cheers,

-matt

#13

Exactly. We’ve seen the building blocks for this in other ZBrush materials, and this forum is just teeming with innovation. The method would be different, but probably easier.

In fact
 If you can use a bitmap to mask selection, it becomes VERY easy. Heck, even without that if you’re careful.

Position your object. Place a marker. Spray color on your object in Texturemaster, but only from that angle where it’s to be viewed. And you’re set. Rotate the object 90 degrees and choose another color. Everything you painted in that first pass, leave alone. The rest, make another color or pattern. Repeat for other angles. Then delete the object and use the marker to bring it back in place.

It’s less flexible than linking this to the normals - that’s for the resident scripting gods to figure out how to do. But if you’re just finishing up an illustration, it should get the job done with no hassle at all.

And you may find that you like the finished effect at other angles, at which point it’s exportable. Worth exploring