Building Techniques (Steeplechase)

[Bruce Gregory]

Here is a short tutorial as requested by Jaycephus on simple 2.5D/3D building construction. Good for medium to long range shots.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032241699qyw.jpg

Thanks for watching,

Bruce Gregory

[Bruce Gregory]

An additional note about the "3D" brush:
If you set the draw depth to a very low number (let's say .03), set the tool to "ZCut and you use a material which responds differently to different depths (some of the new materials in the material pack do this), you can literally carve through the layers a little at a time - great for stone textures and rotten things, bark, etc.

Bruce Gregory

[Jaycephus]

Cool! :tu: I understand more now that I have just learned to make leaves out of 3D planes. This is just applying that technique to architechture.

What about Make 3D in the Alpha panel? I am wondering if that wouldn't automatically produce the 'inflation' of the details?

[Bruce Gregory]

Jaycephus:

I tried that technique as soon as I downloaded 1.5.1. To get the crispness on the edges that a high-res plane gives on a "Make 3D" unified skin (I'm pretty sure that is what you are making when you press "Make 3D), the resolution has to be enormous. Not only that, I could not get Texturemaster to properly create a recognisable texture on the object. Now, theoretically, the "Make 3D" unified skin route would be the best choice because you could ceate an entire building by multimarking the pieces and then making an entire "unified skin" from that, but, (and I did try this myself), the resulting model was horrendously large - because of the detail problem mentioned above. I finally resorted to this "old" technique, and it proved much more reliable and predictable, and in the end, an easier way to produce an acceptable result (the building is seen as if from 1000 feet or more distance. I think most of the best features were already present in version 1.23b - we just need to learn how to master these tools before adding new ones to our arsenal. I sympathize with Pixolator and his staff - continually having to supply our lust for new widgets, (when really the old ones will do). I make an exception here for the new ZSphere set of tools: these are incredible innovations and can be refined as well as improved with new functions in an ongoing fashion. I also think the interface is greatly improved and more intuitive. For me, at this point, I will strive for mastery of the tools given so far and hope for more enlightenment from the inventor himself, when he gets time to breath.

Thank you for your interest,

Bruce Gregory

[Jaycephus]

Thanks for the answer :tu:

[Stonecutter]

Thanks for the greatly informative tutorial Bruce, and this is a definite bookmark!

:) :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :)

[juandel]

i doubt i got it by just reading it, but i bet i will upon trying it - which just moved to my schedule’s top-ranks. mucho appreciated, Bruce! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

- juandel