I’m pretty new to Zbrush and wanted to know what techniques are used for hard surface modeling? I want to add details such as armor seams, etc. to my character and I need crisp lines. What’s the best method to doing this? Are there any tutorials on the web that cover this technique? Thank you in advance!
You know I’m sure that there are many other people that have far better ideas but…I just saw the Meats video and it mentioned this very thing. You can use the flat brush, you can use retopology to create a harder edge and append it as a subtool, you can use masking to subdivide organic areas more than hard surface areas etc. From what I understand the simpler the topology the easier it is to create hard edge effects.
the real question I have to ask about your question is…do you want to know how to do hard surface modeling, or sculpting?
It has been my experience thus far that you want to establish those crisp lines in your 3D app of choice before importing your model into Zbrush for detailing. For example, add creases to your basemesh in Max ( or whatever) package you use) and then import to Zbrush for finer details (bolts, panels, etc etc).
Once in Zbrush, here are some tips:
Make sure your Zbrush detailing does not overlap your corner edge loops - details tend to get stretched when you make your normal maps if they are too close to the edge.
While your adding detail, use the “Frame” option to keep track of your poly flow and make sure that details you add make sense given your base geometry. If you keep within groups of poly edges, you will get better results.
If you want really fine details, pre-plan and break your model up into pieces. If you try and add your hard surface details to one piece, you probably won’t have enough poly’s to work with.
Get to know Projection Master, it is awesome for hard surface detailing. See Sebastien Legraine’s (spelling??) tutorial on architecture on the Pixologic homepage, he is a master.
Make sure your alpha’s have crisp edges.
Hope some of these help.
Maybe Zbrush 3.5 will have some new gadgets for hard surface modeling.
Cheers,
Matt
There’s a few ideas on mechanical modeling on my blog with 100% Zbrush.
Put “Zbrush Mech” into the search box to get most of them. Link is in my sig.
-K