The Puffing Dome On A Clear Day.

[DeeVee]

This experiment is a combination of two methods. The new Spraybrush technique that I have been using recently, and the old DragRectangle method. There are still a few things bothering me, so I am not 100% pleased with it.
However, I thought I liked enough of it to share.
DeeVee,
Joe http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032644874khq.jpg

[Northstarr]

Hey DeeVee, this is excellent!!!! Great colours & textures on the vegitation! Just an overall great painting!!!

:tu: :tu: :tu:

[Mahlikus The Black]

This is kickbut! :tu: Your getting better and better everyday!
Love the leaves..They look awesome! :eek:

[Ron Harris]

Joe that spray brush is really giving a natural blur that is giving yer pieces a nice sense of depth to me.....I like this one alot...if or as you work on it further I would love to see the results....

[DeeVee]

Thanks for the replies so far. Ron, One of what I think are many things that I have not yet found out about the spray brushes, is how to get a sharp stroke while using a large sized brush. I can get it fairly sharp when the brush is small but as soon as you increase the size it goes blurry. I have played with the intensity and that helps, but not as much as I thought it would. I have tried the sharpen brush, but that did not help much either. I will keep on experimenting, as I have a lot of use for those brushes.
DeeVee,
Joe.
This is a little update. Trying to clean up a few loose ends and adding a small farmers cottage. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032658294lrd.jpg

[Grub]

Nice scene DeeVee, I agree with comments on the sense of depth you have achieved here. Must be a brave farmer living in the cottage so close to the active volcano. :eek: :) :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Stonecutter]

This is one of the best senses of depth you've gotten in any image, Joe!

:cool: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :cool:

[DeeVee]

Thanks folks. Some of these old farmers refuse to move, and have to be moved physically. Because of this, about 25 got burnt to death, as they were working in the fields. A Pyroclastic flow just roared down the Mountain side, and that was it. The thing is the heat is so intense it pops windows out like matchsticks.
These farmers are a brave stubborn sort. The government has been very strict after the loss of life. It is ironic that the individuals who got killed were on the same estate where I had my small farm.

Edit:MTB, the information on making leaves like these are in the QuickLinks, check them out.

[wenna]

wow! I agree with everyone! Fantastic! Love the depth and the foliage is awesome as well as the sky! Beautiful all the way around!

[Flycatcher]

Well, I'm not sure which 1% you're not happy with (can't be higher than that), but I think this is right up there among your best, Joe. Excellent work. I don't think I'll be putting in an offer on the farm house in #2 though... :tu: :D :tu:

[DeeVee]

Thanks for your kind comments. This image brought back a lot of happy and sad memories.
FC, I still cannot find out how to get a sharp stroke with the SprayBrush when used at a large brush size! so that is the bee in my noggin at the moment. If you find away, please share.
DeeVee,
Joe

[Flycatcher]

Hi, Joe. I'm not absolutely sure what you mean by a sharp stroke. If you mean one whose breadth of spray stroke is sharply dilineated, then I think you will have to use the stencil or a mask, though that will inevitably chop some of your individual "dots" in two, which I think will be unappealing.

However I suspect what you mean is a spray stroke where the individual "dots" are sharply bounded like this:

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032714030ivb.jpg

This image was made using a single stroke using the paint brush and the spray stroke at intensity 100% (NOT essential, depends what effect you want) and a draw size around 64-70 (I forget precisely). The key to the sharp edges is the alpha you use with it. This used one of the sharp-edged alphas (brush 14).

Incidentally, if you haven't tried it with different alphas to the default before, you can get some interesting effects by choosing one with "ragged" or geometric edges.

Hope this helps. :)

[DeeVee]

Thanks FC, I have tried it with most of the alphas I have. I think I am explaining myself badly. When you paint with the spraybrush I would like to have a sharp edge.
Speaking of trying the spraybrush with different things, I gave doing a sky with the Spraybrush only and the following is the result. I did change the shape of the brush to oval to get the small clouds effect. I also turned Zadd on and off as needed.
DeeVee,
Joe. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032716514tih.jpg

[Flycatcher]

So I assume you mean the first of the two alternatives I suggested in my previous reply? Something like this:

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032724947aqy.jpg

Here, as an example of an irregular shape, a star with straight edges has been created using multiples strokes of the simple brush and the spray stroke using the default alpha, with colour variation on and the basic material selected.

This was accomplished using a stencil, in this case created simply from the star-shaped alpha and enlarged.

Is this what you were after?

(If not can you provide some sort of graphic example to illustrate the desired effect.)

[DeeVee]

Thanks FC this is as close to what I want as I can see, so a stencil is needed, I was hoping to get the results without have to use a stencil. As I might have mentioned before, I have no problems with small brush sizes it is up to size 64 and above when you wish to cover a lot of canvas quickly, is when I have the problem. I will give this a try, it looks interesting.
Thanks for the effort I will use this until I find a simpler way.
DeeVee,
Joe.
EDIT: FC this will give you an idea of what I am trying to accomplish.
SprayBrush: Top left brush size 4
next size 8, 16, 24,
Bottom row right 32, then left 64.
I can work up to 32 without too much problems, but at 64 it just does not work for me.
I hope this gives you an idea of what I mean. Please do not waste your time on it. I usually find a work around method that work out OK. I just fuss a little before that part of the old noggin kicks in.
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032727258ygi.jpg

[Flycatcher]

OK Joe, now I have a clearer idea of the direction in which you're headed, a last try before bed. Here's the best I've been able to manage just drawing freehand, not perfect, but I think an improvement. Only two draw sizes are involved here. The triangular shape is drawn at size 64, all the rectangular shapes are drawn at a full 128. I think the size 64 effect may well serve your purpose of filling an area quickly with reasonably clean edges.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032744346czi.jpg

First the alpha: the smallest one (brush 40) was chosen. Everything was drawn with the basic material, MGRB and ZAdd on at 100% intensity. The Depth slider on the Draw menu was set very low - between 0.1 and 0.3. On the stroke menu the flow was set high, right up to the maximum in some cases. However the Placement slider was set low - somewhere around 0.12 to 0.16 seems about optimal. (Guess who wishes he'd made notes of these settings!) You can get edges smoother by taking this slider down even further, but at some point the dots all merge into a continuous flow and it becomes almost like using the normal freehand stroke (except if you've got the colour slider non-zero, in which case you do get variegated colours).

Of course the granularity at the larger brush size is more distinct, rather like the effect on your smaller brush sizes - but that is probably nearer what you would like anyway. Presumably this could be taken further by creating an even smaller alpha - right down to the limit of a single pixel if required. This should give very straight edges, and I expect could be made to operate pretty much like an air-brush effect (untried).

I think that's about as close as you're going to get without a stencil - though doubtless you will prove me wrong! :rolleyes:

[DeeVee]

Thank you very much. You have put in invaluable work on this. I hope you learned something along the way. I think between us some one of these methods will have to work.
All the best and have a good one, I know it is late in your part of the world.
Joe.

[juandel]

i love them, DeeVee - my fav being #1. veryvery nice depth in here! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: and thanks flycatcher - thats some very inspiring spraystroke explorations :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

- juandel

[Flycatcher]

A pleasure to have been of help, Joe and Juandel, and yes, I certainly did learn more about a tool I thought I already knew quite well.

Just to round off the discussion, I decided to try the effect of using a single pixel alpha in conjunction with the spray stroke, to see if it would work similarly to an air-brush as I predicted last night, and what other effects could be achieved with it. At maximum placement, it did indeed behave like an air-brush scattering randomly placed single pixels around, but variation of parameters showed it also to be a much more versatile tool. The following little doodle is the result of the experiment.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032828396ufn.jpg

This entire image (except the sky) was painted using only the simple brush and the spray stroke using just one custom-made alpha comprising a single white pixel in the centre of a black 64x64 square BMP. The variation was achieved by extensive use of the placement, scale and colour sliders on the stroke palette (flow was mostly kept at max). The other variables which had considerable impact were the draw size, depth and imbed sliders on the draw palette, and to a much lesser extent the width and height sliders. Sometimes RGB only was used, at other times MRGB using both the flat and basic materials. Similarly ZAdd was switched on or off as required.

The image is presented not as a polished work of art, but as a first trial of an interesting and previously untried technique.

[DeeVee]

Excellent work FC! it is strange that I began doing something similar today. When you get stuck in this program all kinds of things happen.
Here is what I was fooling around with, Using the SprayBrush at different sizes. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032838878wba.jpg

[Flycatcher]

Excellent piece of imaginative topiary, Joe. You can come and prune my bushes anytime. :tu: :D :tu: