ZBrush 4R2 Beta Testing By Julian K

[Julian_K]

Here's my first complete 4r2 piece. a lot of trial and error with this one, loads of fun and excitement over the new features. I can't even begin to express how happy and proud I was being part of this. Pixologic rocks the house!

Solely done in Zbrush, started from 2 Spheres ( one for the body one for the head),insert and curve brushes, dynameshed, some parts group-split into subtools and finally subdivided for fine detail and polypainting.
of course it is rendered in Zbrush and might I add, there was almost Zero post-processing in Photoshop, other than a little exposure tuning and a very slight background gradient here and there. no separate render passes where needed.

Below the images are a few wip videos and at the very bottom is a quick tutorial about the hair creation.
If there is interest I can post my custom shader and the light setup for this one too.


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wip videos:

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a quick 'how to' on how I created the hair:

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[Julian_K]

that's the first quick test I did with Dynamesh. Just a little fun tribute to Zbrush :)

I started from a shadowboxed version of the Zbrush logo which shape had inspired me for that guy.
I have a timelapse vid of 95% of the process on this one which I'll post soon.


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time lapse :

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[Julian_K]

Here are some tests of the new environment lighting and hdri map background features.

with the Zombie images I wanted to see how I can use it differently and use real world photo-realistic sources to create graphic novel style images. first I treated the background images in photoshop to be more cartoony and then used a new modified version of my toon shader to render the zombies.

I also reduced the lights which were created by the lightcap from the background image to a maximum of 4 and adjusted them to my needs, most of all focusing the aperture to get hard edged light and shadow borders.


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and here I simply tried to get a sculpt somewhat convincingly integrated into a photo, which is quite a lot of fun :)

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[Julian_K]

and here just a quick sketch, testing some of new recent curve brush features and some messing around with shaders.


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[AgentSmith]

Insanely wicked! I...just don't have the words yet, lol. Gonna be literally studying this thread of yours. AWESOME!

[michalis]

So here you're.

Great testing Julian!
Most of all, great sculpting and wonderful images.
Now, I feel better knowing where to ask for help in a few days :lol:

[Bas Mazur]

Nice tests Julian!!

[Santis]

Oh my, Iam in love with that first creature! In fact, I might be in love with you too :o
Thanks for the How To on the hair! Really usefull stuff :) Do you find it laggy to rotate on the screen when all thoose hairs are applied?

[Julian_K]

Thanks a lot guys. albeit unfortunately having very little and certainly not enough time during beta testing, I still had tons of fun and excitement.
I also must say this - without getting into any specifics ( which I won't and can't) the people behind Zbrush are amazing and deserve all our respect. Zbrush is a work of passion for art and artists.


hey michalis, yeah - I sort of vanished, life took over ;)


Santis - I suppose that really depends on your machine. it wasn't laggy on mine ( core i7, 12 gb), but I wouldn't try to cover a whole grizzly with that kind of hair. haven't tried to push the limits yet.
however, with 64 bit support on the way I think that method becomes an even more feasible way of doing hair in Zbrush. I personally like it because you see exactly what you do and what you get in terms of placement, you can alter on the fly between short and long. you can thin it out quickly with the smooth brush and further shape it with the move brushes. it gives you quite a lot of control, while being fast to apply. plus it casts proper shadows. what you probably don't see in the vid is that I make it its own subtool for better memory/polycount management.
if a given model is already very high res, I make a lower subdivision clone of it and place that hair on that.
one tip - you can just grab and move single hair tubes with the topology move brush, without the need to mask anything :)

[Santis]

Thanks for the answer, definitely going to try it out! :tu:

[cherub_rock]

So THAT'S what you've been up to! :) Great stuff!

[Marco Splash]

Man you got a lot of solid stuff there! Thanks for the video on the hair, I'm totally gonna STEAL that! ;)

[chalkman]

Bravo! Amazing work! I have to go back now and watch your tutorials, thanks for sharing. :D

[Rastaman]

Excellent work, simply stunning.
The bunny is amazing.

and yes,


If there is interest I can post my custom shader and the light setup for this one too.


there IS definetely interest.

Great work and great talent, I am impressed.

[Julian_K]

thanks a ton everyone. really very appreciated.

cherub - life has been crazy this year. if you would know what all I have been up to ;) I am actually also waiting for a collaboration of Etcher and me to be released. I can't say much, other than that I did a small contribute to one of his projects that neither of us would have expected ;) hope it's gonna be out soon- Geert - are you listening? ;)

Marco - you are very welcome to "steal" :)

Rastaman - I just wait until I get my final official 4r2 and then test if it all still all works. the I'll post the stuff right away.

[cartoon man]

:tu:The bunny is amazing,cool~~~

[cherub_rock]

Wow! That sounds exciting, please don't let me miss on it guys :)

[Etcher]

great sculpts and renders Julian!! Superb use of Dynamesh and Mesh Insert in those Rabbit videos , love the hair technique too -> thanks for posting :tu:. Love the tribute & tribute vids! ttys - Geert

[Julian_K]

great sculpts and renders Julian!! Superb use of Dynamesh and Mesh Insert in those Rabbit videos , love the hair technique too -> thanks for posting :tu:. Love the tribute & tribute vids! ttys - Geert

Thanks a lot Sir. you should carefully read to a reply I made on the previous page ;)

[Julian_K]

I have attached the render setup for bunny here. material & lights. keep in mind, that if your model is not textured you might either want to turn the base color down in brightness or the lights. otherwise it's all overbright. with texture the material is rather dark and needs a lot of light.

[Etcher]

Thanks a lot Sir. you should carefully read to a reply I made on the previous page ;)

Well, I did! I think sometime next week will be a great moment to post (Busy weekend...) I'll contact you :)

[Julian_K]

awesome :)

[michalis]

@JulianK
A silly question:
Where're the deep cast-shadows of zb4? The density shadow slider seems to affect the casted shadow on the background only. There must be a way. When using the old method for lighting.
What about the lighting material editor. This also cast shadows. Pale shadows though.
Another one, trying to add a rim like lighting in lightshader. I like to add this light, not to make the front lighting darker. How to stop this automatic neutralizer?

Watching carefully all these wonderful works in beta testing forum. I didn't find even one case with this lighting solution, a three spot or something method, with precise hard deep shadows. The easier for any external raytracer. An inconsistency of smooth shadows on sculpture and hard shadows for background only. Very noticeable on hdri backgrounds.
The shaded faces of a mesh look darker than the near cast shadows. Typically wrong for non globalillumination render engines.
Just render the same mesh under a decent renderer and come back in zbrush to fix all these wrong parts, guessing... and guessing what a correct camera will show. Zb camera lenses are for the birds.

BTW. Exporting render passes in Ps didn't help much, as shadows pass is full of wrong information and the shader pass is not antialiased. (what's this for?)

[Julian_K]

Hi Michalis,

You can adjust the density of shadows cast on your model per shader in the shader>environment menu. have a look at the attached image.

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as for render passes, - sounds odd -but I haven't tried them yet.

if you want to add a rim light which doesn't make the front darker, simply turn of shadow for that light. or did I misunderstand?

[michalis]

if you want to add a rim light which doesn't make the front darker, simply turn of shadow for that light. or did I misunderstand?

I know Julian, this metod is physically and esthetically wrong. I won't.
Light is added, now shadow is added. There must be a mode like "screen" for blending a second light pass or map.
This issue is odd and happens in zbrush only. Other render engines may have this feature but you have to ask for it.
I'm asking not to have it then. LOL
Thanks Julian. Please post some more work. Anything, even music. :tu:

[nielot007]

Hi Julian !!
hahaha bust from zbrush logo awesome idea !! hahaha love it :D

[Julian_K]

I know Julian, this metod is physically and esthetically wrong. I won't.
Light is added, now shadow is added. There must be a mode like "screen" for blending a second light pass or map.
This issue is odd and happens in zbrush only. Other render engines may have this feature but you have to ask for it.
I'm asking not to have it then. LOL
Thanks Julian. Please post some more work. Anything, even music. :tu:

actually, in all my tests the shadow cast from the back to the front works a lot better than previously in Zbrush. I always had it on, also in the bunny renders here.
in regard to turning it off being incorrect; -seriously I realyl don't care about correct and if you render in 3dasmax with Mental ray or Vray for example you also have these options of not having every light cast shadows and trust me, that is a trick often used.
I really don't give a rat's tail if that is physically correct, as long as I get the look and mood I want :)

[michalis]

I really don't give a rat's tail if that is physically correct, as long as I get the look and mood I want

Indeed, when I asked for an advise I didn't mean to give your blood. :lol:
Great help though, thank you. I'll find a way to handle this, sooner or later.

[Muddpitt]

Awesome work as usual Julian:D. I have a question, how exactly do you use you toon shader material? Do you fill the object with it then paint?

[Julian_K]

Awesome work as usual Julian:D. I have a question, how exactly do you use you toon shader material? Do you fill the object with it then paint?

Thank you Mudpitt.
Not necessarily. if there is a another different material I also want to apply to one of the subtools, then I might fill it, or fill just the one subtool with the different material.

[Morgaine]

hi Julien,

Awesome Tutorials :tu::tu::tu:, especially the use of Dynamesh and many thanks you for your explanations and downloads , as a newcomer there are indeed enough problems.

christian

[Julian_K]

You are very welcome Christian.

[Sérgio Ricardo]

Julian_K - Great sculp man and great tutorial...If you don`t mind can you a step by step how you creat the brush of fur? I´didn´t undestand how you make the brush...Thanks and Cheers!

[kallesh3d]

Thanks for the tutorials ,,,! i have learned lot of things from you...! thank you..!

[Ronny Penko]

great stuff !!! : )

[jubala]

great work of yours . Im wondering what settings did u set with the curve tubes in zbrush hair growth video to grow the hair with the curve tip?

[rodrigoj]

All works so inspiring.
Thanks for the overview Julian K
Can't see the time to start using the 4R2

[Julian_K]

Hi there,

It's been a long while since I last posted. Sorry for that, but times have been extremely busy recently.
Anyway, here's my first feeble attempt at doing hair with the new Fibers. There was not much tweaking to the many various Fiber settings and I certainly need to explore it more, but it's quite amazing what you can even get without making a scientific study out of it
The render comes straight out of Zbrush. I wanted to make a point out of only using Zbrush Filters for post work and not going to Photoshop at all.

If I get any spare time I'd like to explore that guy and his hair quite a bit more and also texture/polypaint him.

Cheers and thanks To pixologic for yet another amazing release!

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[Julian_K]

Julian_K - Great sculp man and great tutorial...If you don`t mind can you a step by step how you creat the brush of fur? I´didn´t undestand how you make the brush...Thanks and Cheers!


Sorry man, haven't been in here for quite a while. I'll try to manage to post a step by step next week if you still need one, now that Fiber-hair is out :)