Vampyr !

[Davlin]

Hello all,

It's been less than one month that I started learning ZBrush, and I can say I had some hard times with it. But today, I finally managed to get something that I feel good enough to be shown, so here it is. :)

I started to make a Lost Boys/Buffy vampyr look-a-like... Beginning with a very low poly man model, I cut everything under the shoulders to make a bust, then bent the head to give this model an attitude, unwrap the UVs and exported it to ZBrush. My original plan was to get a 300.000 polys model, get it back to Max, and continue working on it to get a displacement map from a 2 million polys to use as a bump map.

The thing is, I did a series of mistakes ( not experienced enough ), and now I'm forced to finish everything with ZBrush and my 2 millions polys model. So, I post some pictures of the grey mesh, and a MAX render with the 300.000 polys model, dentals and eyes included. I know this work insn't flawless, so please give me some comments and critics so I can better this model ! Thanks ! :)

Render 01.jpg
Render01S.jpg
Render05S.jpg
Render07S.jpg

[mutant]

hey - looks good!:tu: im a fan of anything evolving from a human form..

the details around the eyes and forehead looks good/works well. be great to see something like this textured up.

only thing that i think could do with some development is the mouth area. specifically, the corners and the bottom lip. other than that - once this guys dentures are out - hes gonna look pretty scary!!

[MrMoe]

Hi Davlin,

Great start you,ve really put some work into that skin, this can only
get better.

MrMoe

[Davlin]

Well, thank you Mutant and MrMoe for your kind words !

@Mutant : I'll try to see what I can do to improve the lower lip. :)

I'll start the texture as soon as I can, already designed the color scheme in a realistic approach - subtle colors, bloatches, dots and so on. In a way, I will surely miss the comfort Photoshop give me, but hey, that's the occasion to learn to paint directly. ;)

I'll post updates...

Bye !

[MattHHH]

Very like it!!Why don't you make a Angel or Spike's portrait?


WANNA LOOK?


ALIEN FACE HUGGER (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=25941&page=1&pp=15)
FANTASEA...WIP (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=29353&page=1&pp=1)


MattHHH :cool:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/images/statusicon/user_online.gif

[Davlin]

Thanks, MattHHH. :)

Well, originaly, the Buffy make-up comes from the "Lost Boys" movie, it was the first who designed the vampire make-up with those particular eyebrows. In fact, I wanted to do this that way, with the hair ( which is part of the design ), but... I won't be able to make realistic hair in Zbrush, it seems.

Plus, people tend to know more about Buffy than Lost Boys, so I finalised the sculpture with more a Buffy-esque look.

I'm not very attracted to to a likeness, because I prefer to have the freedom of designing my own stuff, without being captive of a particular character. I can try lots of things like that, and so learn a great deal, which is my point. :)

Bye !

[Davlin]

Hey guys,

I have been working on this dude during my few free times.

First, I spend some crazy time trying to learn the Antropus' " Picasso shader ", it wasn't easy but I figured all my way out of it. I tried and improved the shaders and make it the way I wanted, means a ( near ) perfect base for airbrushing work ! :)

Please note that I reduced to the lower possible the bump color and the noise, since this will be stuff I'll add myself during the paint process.

I just finished the first step of painting the diffuse, just put some color on it to place the right areas. Here's a little screenshot, before I begin the real paint job and put on some specular... Crits are more than welcome ! :)

Bye !

[Davlin]

Hi again,

Found a bit of time to finish the first step of texturing. While discussing with a friend about the textures on this dude, I found it wasn't clear that I did all of that by hand...

So, to be specific : The textures have not be done with any help from textures, photographs or ZappLink, I took a simple blurred alpha and start painting this bust like I would do with an real airbrush, layer of colored dots after another, working with blues, purples, white yellows, reds, browns and orange colors, simulating veins and faking thickness. My goal, if I can reach it, is to paint a vampyr head which would be totally realistic. :)

First step being done now ( which is to create the thickness and simulate what's under the skin ), I will start to paint what's is on the surface of the skin... Growing beard, dots and little veins, that kind of details. :)

Since I'm done, here's a little " first step completed " screen.

Bye !

Render12S.jpg

[Davlin]

Hey guys,

Alright, the diffuse is finally completed : Now he as tiny details, imperfections, acnea, beard, and very short hair. See the posted image below.
Please, let me know what you think of this work ! :)

The background is done, the teeths nearly done, so I just have the eyes left to do. It's almost the end of this project ! :)

Now I got two questions, and I didn't managed to find the answer by myself ( browsing 200 search answers wasn't a wise choice ), so I'm sorry if thoses questions are already been answered, but I really need the answers.

- To paint the specularity needs a few materials used at the same time, onto the same model. It is possible to save those materials & configurations within the tool, or do I have to re-do it each time ?

- I would like to smooth a surface, not by dividing the polygons but using the normals of thoses polygons, exactly as MAX does by its smoothing groups. Unfornately, I could'nt find such an option anywhere on Z. Is it possible ?

Thanks by advance for the answers,

Bye !

Render15S.jpg

[aminuts]

well for your first question

you could save the document with your materials loaded in different slots but you also need to save the tool!!!!

I prefer tho to use zmats plugin for saving materials...it has several banks you can save them in so save one for projects like this.

Zmats and other way cool plugins are listed in my worlds best link in my signature....take alook around you will find all kinds of goodies you will find useful.


as for your second question I am not 100% on what you are looking for but maybe the smooth option in the tool>deformation palette is what you are looking for?

you can smooth how it appears in zbrush by turning quick off and turning dsmooth in tool>display properties to something other than 0 but I suspect this isn't what you mean.

[Davlin]

Well, thank you Aminuts for your answer. :)

- Saving the document AND the tools, I didn't thought about that. I'll go and download the plug-in you're told me about. :)

- For the second question, I did a picture so I can explain better. Hope it will help. ;)

Bye !

[Davlin]

Okay everyone,

First of all - I finally had the answer to my previous question : Getting smoothing groups working from other 3D packages in ZBrush is impossible, because of the way the .OBJ is written by the softwares.

So... My loss, but it's a good thing to know, to avoir errors in the future.

I built all the pieces altogether for the first time today, first using the MarkerMaster, but I had a lot of trouble to solve, so instead I switched back to 2.5 ZBrush's pixols. Here's the result. Still, there's a lot to improve ( specular for the skin, better eyes for instance ), so my next render will at last be the final one. :)

Hope you'll like it - Give me some comments please ! ;)

Bye !

[Davlin]

Hey everyone,

Okay, this dude is finally done. I did the render in ZBrush ( it will be the last time, the lightning system is a pain in the *** ), composited all the elements in Photoshop, and here I am. :)

Too bad the filesize eats most of the fine details. :/

Since I didn't have many comments during the making of this piece, I don't really know what people think of this work, but I hope you'll enjoy it. :)

I'll try to make a better one next time !

Bye !

[Weelittleman]

Hey Davlin,
Big Fan of the Lost Boys / Buffy style of vampire face your work looks awsome!!! ive only been working with max for the last 4 months at college and just started character modeling so im kinda new to the game but very impressed with your work im interested in doing the same thing , i hope i get that good one day

[aminuts]

hi

he turned out pretty cool! make that background a little scarier...maybe throw a cloak over him and put him in the halloween 2005 gallery!!

Don't be discouraged by lack of replies...sometimes if there is a lot of activity threads get moved to page 2 then aren't visible right away. Some folks don't check anything beyond the first page. If you are proud of what you accomplished then all is good!!

[quasty]

Looks really great! :tu:

How did you make the venes beneath the skin?

[Davlin]

Thanks Quasty !
Wow, I didn't thought that this thread could come back to life one day ! The undead thread ! :lol:

I did the veins paint by laying colors with 50% opacity, and using a pattern for it. If you know how veins grows within the skin, it is easier to paint them.

It was also a lot of test to check if everything was rendering okay. But if I had to paint thoses with real paint and real surfaces, it would be layers and layers on top of each other, working with opacity to fake translucy. :)

Don't be afraid to use saturated colors, because of the translucy.

Bye !

[GhostofMacbeth]

I don't think I commented the first time around but I really liked this guy.

[crazer]

It looks a lot like your MM Richard model, same base model?

[Davlin]

GhostofMacBeth : Thank you. :)

Crazer : Nope, both base meshes are different. On Vampyr, the base mesh has shoulders, the polycount higher and mesh symmetry, and that was things I avoided on the Richard model.

To be more specific, the model had a symmetry line and when I subdivided it, it made a problem appear. Because when I smoothed those areas, a kind of weird edge was visible and very difficult to remove/smooth, right on the symmetry line.

As for the shoulders, those parts ate a lot of polys, and I prefer those to be on the face instead. :)

Bye !