ZBrush to Animation Master

[DMerchen]

I have been a little distracted as of late with a new project. Well, here it is, my distraction. I created this model in ZBrush and then imported it into AM for rendering and testing. I would like to animate him, but I am not sure if it will be possible. When setting up for import into AM it should be with a low poly count. This one as you can see is not exactly set up the best maybe, but it still seems to be working pretty well. I will probably continue on with this experiment to see how well I could get it to animate. Anyway, I hope you like this little guy, and you can look for him again in Zbrush and AM. Enjoy!! :D

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200303/user_image-1047767895fhp.jpg

And the patch view...

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200303/user_image-1047767992mrf.jpg

[The Namek]

looks cool :)
is AM easy to use/learn ?

[KenH]

What a great model! Can you give us step by step pictures?
I would recommend that you take a few of the loops in the legs and wings as it will be easier to animate. You could do that easy enough in Wings 3d. Btw....the render looks great! Is that AM....what version?

[DMerchen]

Thanks for the compliments!

Namek: Yes I have found AM fairly easy to use and learn. But with that said, I have never used Lightwave, 3DS, Cinema 4D and others. Everyone has their favorite and I really do like AM.

Ken: I will have to try and remove a few of the loops to ease the animation. I will try to get some pictures. Anything you are looking for specific? Yes that is an AM render, version 8.5. I believe they have V10 out now.

Thanks again! :D

[DMerchen]

Here is just a quick sketch type of pic to show you the project in progress. I will probably try and animate this in AM, but do the illustrations with ZBrush. With this render, I tried to bring an Animation Master (birdbath) object I created into ZBrush. I had to use the obj format, but it worked flawlessly (except for having to flip once in Zbrush). Anyway, this gives you a rough idea of what I am trying to do. I will keep up the updates as I have them. Enjoy.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200303/user_image-1047798087zlg.jpg

[KenH]

Looks cool! Is that one bird model edited twice? :tu:

[DMerchen]

Yes that is the same model, I am working on having them be the same type of bird, but slightly older or different in some way. Hopefully it works ok. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[KenH]

Not really...just the usual like bigger heads for the dopey look etc. You know the drill I'm sure. :) Have you had any problems with creasing in the patches?

[Ctrl-Z]

I haven't upgraded from version 8.5 either. =)

(I'm waiting for MIDI support, to drive multiple pose sliders with something like this (http://www.waveidea.com/en/products/bitstream/) - you can only move one at a time with the mouse...)

Anyway... If you want to take advantage of Animation Master's strengths, you'll want to use that mesh as sort of a 3 dimensional reference image and build a new spline cage around it. It's a bit of extra prep work, but the ease of animation this would give you on top of your quickly designed ZBrush work would be worth the extra effort.

[DMerchen]

I think I might upgrade soon to the newest version, and I still have to try and build the model for this bird in AM. The fast modeling in Zbrush coupled with the animation capabilities in AM might make for a good combo. Thanks for the feedback on this.

[ArfGraf]

Greetings,

Could you reveal the details of how you are exporting from Z-Brush to Animation Master.

I'm currently using A.M. 9.5 and tried exporting the Z-Brush models as .dxf files, but A.M. 9.5 won't except the imported .dxf
file.

Thanks in advance.

[DMerchen]

ArtGraf there is an obj importer for AM. Export you model as an obj from ZBrush. Here is the direct link to the import file for your version of AM.
OBJ.hxt (http://12.213.91.41/AM/OBJ.hxt)

You can also do a search in the Renderosity Animation Master forum for obj import. I believe they also have the links in Sherwood Forest from the Hash site. It works quite well importing models you may have created in ZBrush. :D The only thing you may want to look out for is to keep your polygon count down a bit. You can see from my example above that it can get pretty busy once you import it.