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ub52
07-14-02, 11:29 PM
Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting to this forum. I've been lurking for some time as I've had really nothing to contribute. I've had Zbrush for a about a year, used it once in a while but never really took the time to investigate even a tenth of its power. That is until I read the article by Ken Brilliant in the final issue of 3D Artist.

In his article he gave examples of using Zbrush in conjunction with Lightwave, a program I have used for many years. Suddenly I had a reason to dig into ZBrush. I decided to start with modeling a head. Coming from a fully 3D app backgroung it seemed like the logical choice. Once I got started I was hooked. This is the first app I've used which has embodied the ability to truly scuplt 3D in a 2D environment. Lightwave has similar tools, but they don't give the same control and feedback speed that Zbrush does, and I think its precisely this combination that makes modeling in ZBrush so much fun. Not to mention giving you the freedom to explore shapes without worrying about the mesh to much. Anyway, this image shows clockwise from the upper left corner, my high res(poly) ZBrush Tool then a DOTS display of the poly-reduced optimized mesh which I exported as an OBJ file. I then imported this Object file into Lightwaves Modeller and built the low-res poly cage in the lower right corner. The image in the lower left corner shows this low-res poly cage with sub-division surfaces turned on, and in the center is the fully textured model rendered in Lightwave.

In closing I'd just like to say how thankful I am for having come across Ken's article in 3D Artist. It has inspired me into a new world of discovery with my new favorite program, ZBrush!!!

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1026714495wga.jpg

MrBraun
07-14-02, 11:59 PM
Welcome to zbrush forum ub52!! Good modeling!! U can explain in more details this tecnique??? TNX for sharing!!!

Nemo
07-15-02, 12:14 AM
Welcome a'board !

Coming from apps like lightwave etc. maybe you have some infos for us on how to animate our models ? ;)

Anyways i wish you a great time learning ZB !

ub52
07-15-02, 12:41 AM
Thanks for the welcome. Tomorrow I'll post a little more in depth on the process I used. Right now I'm going beddy-by as it's 12:40AM San Diego time, and I've gotta go to work in the morning. Huh, I guess it is the morning isn't it. Well, in a few hours then.

Nova
07-15-02, 01:49 AM
Very nice render ... good to see ZBrush used in this manner.

:tu: :tu:

Grub
07-15-02, 04:57 AM
Welcome Ub52, great first post!
I'm very interested to see how you created the low poly mesh from the hi-poly Ztool. :tu: :tu: :tu:

Kruzr
07-15-02, 07:10 AM
'Morning ub52 :)

Great looking final rendered image. One question = The texturing on the rendered model looks wonderful, I'm curious which program you used to do the texturing??? Thanks in advance & you have a good one . . . :cool: Mark.

ub52
07-15-02, 10:56 PM
Thanks everyone for the welcome and comments. I've put together a tutorial showing the process I went through. The only problem is that it's a PDF file about 1.3meg and the forum doesn't allow files larger than 500K. Any ideas?


Regards,
- Bob

Grub
07-16-02, 03:42 AM
The tutorial sounds good, here's a suggesetion, if it's not too much trouble, why not spread the tutorial over a few posts instead? :)

iekoman
07-16-02, 04:26 AM
I really want to know how you did that optimization in Lightwave. Is Lightwave so good mesh optimizer, or did you use somekind of plugin, or did you spend many hours by doing it with hard work?

MrBraun
07-16-02, 05:39 AM
Hi BOb!! You can send it by e-mail only if requested!!! (sorry for my english!! hehehe) :D

ub52
07-16-02, 10:07 AM
Hello eveyone,

I've split the zip file for the PDF tut into 3 files and will upload it with 3 post's.

iekoman, there is no plugin, function, or tool in Lightwave for good mesh optimization. The process is a manual one. However it only took me a couple of hours to build the lower resolution mesh. That is because you have the ZBrush model to rob points from to build the new mesh with, so it limits the amount of guess work.

Regards,
- Bob

Here is part 1.
Zbrush2LightwaveTut.zip (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1026839231chp.zip)

ub52
07-16-02, 10:09 AM
Part 2.
Zbrush2LightwaveTut2.zip (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1026839345dxw.zip)

ub52
07-16-02, 10:09 AM
Part 3.
Zbrush2LightwaveTut3.zip (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1026839390uii.zip)

ub52
07-16-02, 10:14 AM
A note on the last 2 zip files. Because the message board only allows file with a ".zip" I had to rename the last 2 files. After you download them you should rename them to be:

Zbrush2LightwaveTut.z01
Zbrush2LightwaveTut.z02

respectively.

Let me know what you think. Hope this helps.

BTW, from some of the post I've seen for work done in ZBrush 1.5, this process may be obsolete. One can hope.

Have fun,
- Bob

Nikko
07-16-02, 11:10 AM
ub52, welcome to our family. I'm positive you'll find ANY help and/or encouragement you need right here.

Your final render looks beautious! You've obviously grasped a lot of Zbrush's functionality already!

I couldn't get the files to work correctly. Maybe try WinAce or WinRar? Thanks!

ub52
07-16-02, 11:46 AM
I just downloaded the files to test them and everything worked fine.

I used Winzip V8.1 to create the files. So you might check that your archive utility can access files created with that version. Also, I've noticed that the file names get mangled when downloading from the forum, at least from IE6, which is what I'm using. When you get the files on your system you'll need to rename them before you can extract the PDF. All the files should have the same name but the extensions should be different. The first file should have the extension ".zip", the second file ".z01" thats a zero not an "oh", and the third file should have the extension ".z02"

Hope that helps.
- Bob

Nikko
07-16-02, 01:03 PM
My bad... :rolleyes:

Everything worked just fine! Thanks!

Nikko
08-20-02, 11:46 AM
Anyone still having trouble decompressing this, let me know and I'll email it to you. It's 1.2 Mb and will attach nicely to an email.

Thanks Bob! WAY cool tutorial! :tu: :cool: :tu:

Mentat7
08-20-02, 11:51 AM
I am having problems Nikko. Can you email it to me?