ZBrushCentral

Seeking suggestions how to achieve a ruffle pattern extruded into a organic base?

ZBrush Usage Questions
,
#1

Hi,
I’ve been struggling with getting this concept made how I’d like in ZB. Long ago, I made this in Rhino, however, I’m now dying to get it evolved into something more organically shaped although still preserving the extruded ruff(le) pattern.

My goal is to make almost any base shape that could be tapered, convex, concave, flat, arched, skewed, etc… Then the ruffle pattern could be applied to any of those base shapes and extruded to a center-point with hard edges, creases and clean convex/concave surfaces.

I came across this tut that could be helpful, but I found it still restricting me to a symmetrical geometric shape (circular) still as I was already at that point in Rhino.

Would you have any additional tips/tricks/ideas on how to approach this concept (and any similar pattern?

ruffle extrusion
ruffle extrusion1920×997 330 KB

If you are willing to take the time to help me, I would be greatly appreciative of a step by step. I’m inexperienced with hard surface sculpting.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

#2

You have to think a bit more laterally with Zbrush, than you would with a traditional modeling application. Its greatest strengths are in its sculpting toolset, so you want to be able to use these whenever possible.

For instance, in this case, rather than trying to model it from low poly, sculpt the shape of the “ruffle” that you want like a mold (for which there are many tools available to help you), then perform a mesh extract with the desired thickness to create the ruffle. From there with a bit of effort, you can convert it to low poly if desired.

Otherwise the method that would give you the most control is a low poly approach with ZModeler. It could also be extruded from a higher poly mesh with a transpose extrusion..

These are both skillsets too broad to cover here, but in either case, the ability to extrude what you want is going to come down your ability to mask or polygroup the topology in the configuration you wish. There are a dizzying amount of ways to establish masking or polygroups in Zbrush. You could even UV the mesh, and apply a texture in the pattern you want, and convert that to a polygroup or masking a variety of ways.

However, everything you try to do in the program will be more difficult and take longer if you have not learned the basics on a funadamental level. I would suggest starting in the Getting Started section of the documentation and the Pixologic Classroom.

Good luck!