Ken Brilliant Lesson 3 - Membrane Curvature

[aurick]

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1037390401tng.jpg

This third tutorial by Ken Brilliant illustrates how to take control over Membrane Curvature when working with Adaptive skins. You will learn not only how to create spans between ZSpheres, but also how to control where the membrane curvature takes place.

The techniques can be used to achieve anything from the Pteranadon example -- to a full-fledged dragon! And the beauty of this technique is that it's not necessary to model separate meshes for the wings and body.

:b2: :b3: :b4: Click Here to Download the PDF (0.98 MB) (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/ZBC/MembraneCurvature.zip) :b4: :b3: :b2:
Note: You must have Acrobat Reader installed to be able to view the tutorial after unzipping it.

Thank you, Ken!

In addition, we're issuing a challenge to all ZBrush members:

Use the techniques shown in this tutorial to create your own ZSphere model using membrane curvature. Share your results here showing BOTH the ZSphere model and the resulting skinned mesh.

We look forward to seeing your results!

<hr width=75% align=center>

Other tutorials in this series:

:b2: The Octopus (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=008869)
:b2: The Cactus (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=008975)
:b2: Unified Skinning (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009063)
:b2: MultipleMarker Skinning (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009094)
:b2: Hard-Edged ZSpheres (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009191)
:b2: Stylized Illustration (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009287)
:b2: UV Mapping (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009571)
:b2: Transferring Textures (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009708)
:b2: Compositing (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=010310)

[DeeVee]

I am interested in the background! Is that done in ZBrush or one of those landscape creating programs? I would like to learn the techniques used to create land/seascapes like that!
Fantastic image. thanks for sharing!
DeeVee,Joe.

[Q-qeo]

Thx aurick, and Thx Ken for this great
turtorial. ;)

[Mr Z]

There's not a chance in hell that the landscape was made in Zbrush :D

Too *Realistic* lol

Thnx Ken for all your effort man and thnx Aurick and the rest of the staff for helping us learn this brilliant application! ;)

[Mahlikus The Black]

Okay, can someone tell me whats wrong?
I would think I did everything just as in the tutorial...
Man I hate it when weird stuff like this happens!
Help!!!
:(

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1037397287ptz.jpg

[Flycatcher]

Another one already! Thanks again Ken and Matthew. And an excellent atmospheric example image too - straight out of "The Lost World". :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Ken B]

Mahlikus,

I can't see what you consider wrong with your results. Your mesh looks like mine did before additional modeling.

[Mahlikus The Black]

oh I'm sorry I didn't explain...the wings go into round poles..not nice tips.
I see yours does a but on mine, the righ one looks fine but the left one really changes...is that normal?
Thanks Ken

<font color="#949494" size="1"> November 15, 2002 Message edited by: Mahlikus The Black </font>

[Ken B]

Try making the end spheres smaller

[Mahlikus The Black]

Thanks a bunch!
That worked!!!

[juandel]

wow, that background is really amazing, Ken! what a great vista for those awesome ancestors of Donald Duck :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: your fantastico tut seduced me into doing my first experiments with the cskin-membrane-feature and one of the rare texture-master sessions of mine... peaceful butterflies (i originally set out to do a few leafs :D) near some cliffs :)

http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/cliffbutterflies.jpg
http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/butterflyspheres.jpg

- juandel

PS: great contributions all over the forum everbody :) i cant wait to get into participating more in about two weeks or the like ;)

<font color="#949494" size="1"> November 16, 2002 Message edited by: juandel </font>

[drjjwow]

thanks ken and matt for putting such a awesome detailed tut for zspheres.. ive learned so much from both of you.. thanks ..

[Karasuando]

pfft Mr Z! ;), Im sure someone could pull off a landscape kinda like that with Zbrush. And I wouldn't be surprised if that someone is Ken B either.

I think this landscape is a manipulated photograph tho?.

And thanks again for these nice pieces!.

[Digits]

Again I find these tutorials fun and informative, thanks Ken and thanks Aurick for sponsoring them on your site.

I had pretty good success creating an early form of a hanglider but failed miserably putting it into a scene :) but here is the model

http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/Digits/iccarusmodels.jpg

Love them Butterflies Juandel :tu:

<font color="#949494" size="1"> November 16, 2002 Message edited by: Digits </font>

[JOHNVQ3]

:) This is really cool and I will give it a go at it, thanks, awsome bkgrd :cool: :tu: :tu:

[Ken B]

The background was a photo. I'm sure it could be done in ZB though

Terrific butterflies!

<font color="#949494" size="1"> November 16, 2002 Message edited by: Ken B </font>

[Frenchy Pilou]

Hi all Zbrushers
Have you see that ? http://www.peuplemigrateur.com/
Pilou :cool:

[Digits]

Nothing earthshaking here but I thought you might like a look at an alien airconditioner.

http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/Digits/zwingtest.jpg

and the model

http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/Digits/zwingtestmodel.jpg

[Digits]

Using the Membrane parameter you can almost get Zbrush to do Vector graphics.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1037569542rrg.jpg

Imagine my amazement after stepping on some dog doo that the resultant footprint revealed an ancient petroglyph

[Northstarr]

Well here is my contribution to this thread. This is a Thunderbird, copied from a painting with a few changes. The traditional colours for the Thunderbird are Black, Red & Yellow. I have done hundreds of them in beadwork, but this is the first attempt in Zbrush. I had to compress it quite a bit in jpg in order to get the file size down for posting, so it lost some of it's subtleties.

:b3: :b3: :b3:

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1037572617pap.jpg
:b1: :b1:
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1037572704fzt.jpg

:b3: :b3: :b3:

[Fouad B.]

nice work all !! :tu:

Digit great idea ! :) nice pict :tu:

[Muvlo]

Great tutorial Ken! :tu:

Awsome membrane images too, everyone! :)

[Fred S.]

Ya, this is some great stuff. Really helpful for my next project, dare I say it?.... yet another dragon :)

[Ken B]

Really cool results. Love those bird wings

[Gerlon]

Great tutorial Ken, now maybe my attempts at birds will come out a bit better :rolleyes: All the responces are great, too. I particularly like yours, Digits, both creative and pleasing to the eye! :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Ron Harris]

some very kewl and different experiments going on here...I like them alot...a seriously bunch of creative minds at work :tu:

[Kevin]

Maybe I missed a step or something but I'm having a little trouble. I mean, I made the bird fine. Looked pretty good. Had to set the membrane setting to about 63 to get it the way I thought it should look. 100 made the membrane too much I think. Then I created the adaptive skin. It looked good. Then I created a new document and redrew the new bird. But when I try to modify the mesh, it seems to respond too well. I've set the draw size down to 1 and z-intensity down to one as well. (Not sure if that's what it's called) but even then the detail that I can add isn't as fine as I'd like it to be. I did divide the model once and smooth it. I even shut down ZBrush and restarted it incase I had changed some setting I wasn't remembering. So what am I missing? Thanks.

[Ken B]

you may need to divid the mesh, or portions of it again. Look at the wireframe as see how dense it is. That will determine the amount of detail you can put it. Adaptive meshes usually produce lower polygon results, so you need to add geometry if you really want to put a lot of detail in the mesh.

Post your wireframe model image if you are uncertain

[Kevin]

I went back and tried it again, the next day and it seemed to respond a little better. The mesh wasn't quite so sensitive. I was able to pull on it, etc. Adding detail with zadd on and the pointer tool? (not sure if that's the correct name.) wasn't as refined as I would have liked even with the draw size and the z-intensity set to one. I wasn't sure how to make a "dot" image of my model to post. I turned on dots and got one of those multicolored meshes, but it only showed up when I was moving the model. Now that I think about it, I probably do need to divide the mesh some more.

[Kevin]

Oh, yeah...

One other question. How do you make that bump like texture that shows on the bird? I tried using an alpha brush in the texture master and I would have a bump, but when I picked it back up, the bump would be gone.

[Ken B]

I don't know if you are referring to my "bird" image, but all the bump detail was done with 2.5 tools after the model was dropped to the canvas

[Kevin]

Yes, I was refering to your bird image. Thanks.

[Zamboanga]

Truly,
For Ken Brilliant
;)

[GFX-Händchen]

I haven't used the Membrane Curvature but my Wing is relative ok.:lol:
The Picture from the side:

user_img-opR5y4Asmx_fluegel2.jpg
But from the top (http://www.zbrush.de/images/uploaded4/user_img-ZGwfzgOnnZ_fluegel1.jpg) it isn't so good.