My first steps in Zbrush (WIP)

[lord_rugal2000]

Armure-qui-tue-high-res.jpg


This is my firt post on this forum. I discovered zbrush a few days ago and like most of you I started to learn using this software by reading the tutorials. Thus I am making an armour but, since it's not over yet, decided to post my first renders in zbrush to know your impressions. If you have any tips or recommendations to imrpove it, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Many thanx

PS: please forget my bad English coz' I am not a native English speaker.

[lord_rugal2000]

I added a few effects in Photoshop LE to the second render:


Armure-final-render2.jpg

[lord_rugal2000]

190 people have seen this post and still no answers?:rolleyes:

[Logick]

looks good so far, probably nobody responds unless they seen something they don't know how to do already, no offense im a beginner too keep it up:lol:

[lord_rugal2000]

:D ha ha You are making a good point here! Anyway many thanks for giving your opinion!:p

[Cassandra Helm]

You followed the tutorial well! I am anxiously awaiting Z2 for the mac due to be released today. Soon I will get the chance to try out the new sculpture tools and interface! I don't feel comfortable commenting while still on 1.55b, otherwise I would have written yesterdy.

Have fun and keep posting!

Cheers!

P.S.
Your Photoshop work is very good.

[lord_rugal2000]

Cheers Cassandra Helm (I like your name, it remembers me a character from heroic fantasy;) )

Well I am also quite new to photoshop LE too:lol: . Actually I got this appz for free when I have bought ma Wacom Graphire 2 two weeks ago. I haven't used my tablet for painting in zbrush yet because I feel more confortable in photoshop due to the select tools. I have played only with a few filters (sharpen, sharpen more, noise and obviously the lens flares). I am afraid I am not very skilled for using photoshop, especcially in comparaison with some other members of this forum!:D

BTW, does the mac version of Zbrush offer some new features?:qu:

[Cassandra Helm]

I believe Z2 for mac is the same program as for the PC. Mac is harder to program for, but anyone who has one prefers it to the pc. The machines and interface are simple, fun and beautiful! ZBrush is the same. Beautiful, fun - a plesure to use. I personally feel that they easier a program is to master the better it has been designed. You don't have to think about how you do things, just what you are doing! ZBrush is mathematically brilliant, but you never know about it because it is all in the background.

In photoshop you can get some nice effects if you play with the color balance changing the values in the shadows midtones and highlights. You may have to lower the saturtion when you are done, and tweak the hue and adjust the contrst, but if you are starting out becoming familiar with those settings is as useful and as much fun as the filters. The key is to be subtle so that people don't notice the work, but the image. You have an eye and am sure you will do well.

My mother who is about to turn 75 bought her first mac two years ago and within six weeks was as good (if not better) than me with photoshop! Also she and my father have just started a new business! I figure if they can do it we have no excuses!

[lord_rugal2000]

You must really be British to start business at 75!;) No offense intended Cassandra!:D However, we will have no excuse for not improving our skills over time! Especcially if one take into account zbrush learning curve, which is not too steep.

I will remember your advice next time I will use Photoshop. I have never tried to mess with the color balance and such stuff.:tu:

[Cassandra Helm]

HA! HA! http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=174549# I've been here almost three years now and have some idea of what you mean! Actually my parents are from the States. I think its great, who wants to feel that when we grow older all we have to look forward to is shuffleboard and being bullied in rest homes?

[lord_rugal2000]

I totally agree with you! BTW I have been on your website... So you are a real sculptor ! Do you plan to use zbrush to make some kind of 3Ds sketches before sculpting?:)

Basically it would mean that zbrush could become a professional tool out of the CG community?!

[Cassandra Helm]

Actually I love 3D. There are sculptors who who do use 3D to give their clients an idea of what they will be getting, but I have not (or not yet). That site hasn't been updated in a while I really should do something about that!

Do you use anyother programs or are you getting your feet wet with ZBrush?

Since this is a chance to show off I am uploading a couple of jpegs of my real world sculptures! HaveaCigarfrnt.jpeg Fresnel.jpeg

[lord_rugal2000]

No zbrush is the first 3Ds appz I seriously try to get into! I used to toy a bit with the 3ds Max Studio but it's far too complicated for me. Despite the fact I used to be an art student nearly a decade ago, CG is a total new world for me to discover.

[lord_rugal2000]

The funny thing is I used to sculpt too many years ago!:D But the creation process was really frustrating! You are not allowed to make any mistake from the start to finish. I guess I am not patient enough unlike you!;) Are you specialised in wood sculpting? Which other materials do you use? Stone? Marble?

[Cassandra Helm]

No, just clay cast into bronze. With clay you can make mistakes. The only problem is that you do not have multiple undo so if you make a mistake you have to fix it the long way. Once I was working on a piece in clay while at the same time working on a project on the computer. When you do the eyes in clay you have to be pretty careful, my hands kept making the automatic motions for command Z everytime I wanted to 'undo', but there was no keyboard!

[lord_rugal2000]

I understand too well what you say! Basically, this is the very reason I have stopped sculpting because it become very frustrating... especcially for so talentless a person such as me!:lol:

[Cassandra Helm]

3D yeilds more instant results. Once you become used to Zbrush you will find that you are much better than you ever dreamed. The trick is to keep at it! Inspiration is only the beginning the rest is craftmanship. The standard for quality that you find in special effects and computer generated images is flawless! I can do good basic work on the computer, but I'm not that good yet. I also don't get to practise as much as I would like. Just from what I've seen, you recreated that armour very well. For you it is just a matter of time; probably not that long.

[frogspasm]

Yeah, one of the coolest things about Zbrush is being able to alter large masses without killing all your detail. It's nice to play around with different looks that would destroy a lot of your work if you were doing it in clay.

~Mike D.

[Cassandra Helm]

True, the only drawnback is that you cannot touch or walk around what you have made! Who knows, maybe before we leave this planet they will find a way to do even that. This is truly an age of magic we live in. Imagine what our ancestors would have made of all of this! and its so much FUN! :cool:

[frogspasm]

Well, there's always stereolithography!
It's still a little expensive, but the prices are a lot better than they used to be.

http://www.3darttopart.com/gallery3.php#monster

[Cassandra Helm]

Thats GREAT! :D It's not that expensive believe me. Its costs a hell of a lot more to cast clay into bronze! Can you tell I've been living in a cave? :rolleyes:

[lord_rugal2000]

What is stereolithography?

[Cassandra Helm]

Don't know. :o They have a link on thier website which explains how it works. It looks a little rough but good. I remember seeing something years ago when they took a man and scanned his head into a computer and then lasers cut a model of him out of styrofoam. It was an insanely expensive process for a pretty poor result. I had no idea that anything like stereolithography existed, but I thinks it great. Lord Rugal, your english is pretty good!

[lord_rugal2000]

Really? Well... I still can't match yours!;) Actually I am not very confident when I have to communicate in English! It's probably because I am French and we are definitively not good at all at learning foreign languages!:cry: But it's still enough to express my arguments on an English speaking forum!;)

[Cassandra Helm]

Well if you keep posting this often you will soon be absolutely fluent. To be honest, I would not have questioned your english. It is very good. :p

[lord_rugal2000]

As a matter of fact, stereolithography could replace traditionnal sculpting in the next few years! Take for instance the improvements realised in CG over the last 5 years; it's almost unbelievable! We are just at the beginning of an era in which CG will become ever more widespread... I would have never thought I would have been able to realise such a thing as a 3Ds armour a few days ago. :rolleyes:

[Cassandra Helm]

It is amazing! We really are very lucky to be alive today!

[lord_rugal2000]

I wish I would be already fluent! It would be a tremendous help for my career!:lol:

[lord_rugal2000]

Damn right! But the best exemple is internet! We can communicate in real time from different countries! :p

[Cassandra Helm]

Well, if you don't defect to the French forum you'll have plenty of chances to practice! Just do not look to me for spelling - my typing and spelling are both terrible! :eek:

I will reluctantly sign off for a while! :( Hopefully us mac users will get lucky before tomorrow!

I've never really chatted in a forum before. I have enjoyed it. Thanks! :p

[lord_rugal2000]

BTW, do you know lightwave? Wings 3d? Silo? Are they worth it as a complement for zbrush?

[lord_rugal2000]

It was really fun to chat with you!

Good zbrushing!:D

[Cassandra Helm]

I use lightwave. People say some of the others are better, but I saw some examples of displacement rendering in Lightwave that looked very good. Maya looks friendlier at first, but I have found lightwave easier to use. People have been saying very good things about Carrera and 3D Studio Max. One of the older hands could probably give very good advice.

Good Luck, and have FUN!

Cheers!

[lord_rugal2000]

have fun too!

Good zbrushing!:lol:

[lord_rugal2000]

Here comes the next step!

Enjoy!


tronc-low-fi.jpg

[bicc39]

Great friendly thread.
Beautiful job on armor!!!

[pmdesign]

Looks Good, I am new to - I think this would look cool if painted like the rusted idol project - make look old and warn - I have to start the mid section next myself

[3DP]

BTW, do you know lightwave? Wings 3d? Silo? Are they worth it as a complement for zbrush?
Lots of people are finding both Wings3D and Silo excellent modelling companions to Zbrush. They are ideal for box modelling characters and tweaking edge loops more easily than zbrush's daft hide the polys method. The two are quite different in some ways but both are generally considered pretty easy to learn and use by people who are arty rather than techy.

Wings is free so why not give it a whirl? http://www.wings3d.com/

Silo has a free version and a demo version. The full version is cheap to buy compared to other 3d software. http://www.nevercenter.com

Hope this helps. Nice modelling on the arms BTW!!

[SolidSnakexxx]

Wow, this is really cool. Very beautifully modeled and rendered.

[lord_rugal2000]

It's not that hard to do something interesting with Zbrush...

1) I made the armour from the tutorials... Thanks a lot Strike!
2) To help myself with the arms, I have been using a drawing book ("Dynamic Anatomy" written by Hogarth (ever heard of the comix "tarzan"?) as a reference. I can highly recommend his books (especcially Dynamic Figure Drawing and Drawing Dynamic Hands), which are very inspiring! You will find a lot of drawings about the human body that can help a lot for modelling;) .
3) The material used for the skin was found in a thread of this forum:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=5393&page=1

4) The armour material is basically a reflected map with some tweakings. If you look at the picture with great attention you will recognize the textr 01:D !

5) The color balance was done in Photoshop LE :lol: (you can buy it for 50 bucks / Euros with a nice Wacom Volito/Graphire 2). Pour les français je l'ai acheté sur Cdiscount.fr

Anyway I quite pleased with the results... Not too bad for a noob...

Have fun... and many thanx for your comments!