ZBrushCentral

Ideas on high resolution vein sculpts?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all,

Anyone have any suggestion on how would be the best way to go about creating poly veins (not just a transparent texture) without using curve tubes or z-spheres? What I would like to create is something like this that would wrap around a model (for example a face or a hand) and then light it from the inside and outside (this is why I would like it to be a poly not a texture).

I’ve tried playing around with fiber mesh and then adding new fiber mesh on to the original segments but it is difficult to have the fiber take the contour of to the model’s surface.

I’ve also tried playing around with alphas (taking the alpha as a texture, masking by intensity, and extracting) but unless the mesh is extremely high poly count (and even then) it does not give the desired effect and is not as detailed.

#2

did something similar recently to your reference.
Best way I could figure out was using the CurveTube / CurveTubeSnap Brush. Adjust the Curve settings and Modifier settings to best achieve what you want. Very time consuming process tho… I had to sculpt this full environment with these vein like / tree branch things covering and wrapping around objects in the scene.
In terms of having it lit up from inside, I just simply do a negative inflate on a duplicate subtool, so theres a thin version of the subtool to use as a mesh light in keyshot