Pixologic Release: Artist in Action - Cesar Dacol Jr.

[ryankingslien]

cesar_masks_zbcMain.jpg
Welcome to another release in the Artist in Action series!

In this video, cg artist and traditional creature fx artist, Cesar Dacol Jr. ( aka voodoomonkey) demonstrates his working process using Masks and ZBrush's sculpting tools to rapidly create incredibly detailed creatures. Along the way, Cesar imparts his wisdom gained from many years as a traditional sculptor and an excellent teacher.

This video shows one of the most innovative uses of masks that I have seen. You will not want to miss out on this!




Download the movie (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/movies/zclassroom/modeling_w_masks.mov.zip)




Learn more about Cesar Dacol Jr. here (http://www.cesar-dacol-jr.com/)



Thanks Cesar!

Happy Pixoling!

Ryan




cesar_masks_zbcThumb.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2731877%27,%27cesar_masks_zbcThu mb.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[bicc39]

Downloading now, sight unseen, many thanks.
These videos (and I might add your superb narrating style) have made them
a welcome treat and valuable addiition to the zbrush arsenal.
Thanks to all involved.

Edit: post download. Wow!!! So that's how it's done

[ZippZopp]

cool technique cesar, i'll have to give that a shot on my next model. thanks for sharing!

[Evan Gaugh]

Sweet I love these Artist in actions. This is a technique ive been playing with for a while, its very effective though Ive never done it for details. Excellent Job Voodoo Monkey.

[Plakkie]

Jeezzz... I am gonna be busy this weekend... Greet vid, didn't know masks could do that for you!
It is kinda weird that in Zbrush you can use masks to get wrinkles, while in real life people use masks to get rid of wrinkles... :D
Thanks a lot!

[ltrain7]

Thanks Ryan

I love the Artists in Action Series...It's really helpful seing different peoples workflow and how to integrate it into your own. Between these, the learning series, the user group meetings and interviews what more could we ask for (maybe the next version of zbrush...nah there's enough to learn as it is now...you don't know how many times that gets asked in Scott Spencer's class...we're just excited that's all)...a huge thank you from all of us here on the forums and at Gnomon.

-Lawrence Pasion

[Moochie]

Oh boy .. what an inspirational vid! A perfectly timed creative shot-in-the-arm for me. Thank you, Cesar.

[Shannon Thomas]

Pretty sweet technique. Thanks for sharing it.

[DanRoberts]

Thx much for this Tut .... extremely usefull.:tu:

[eddski]

awesome technique with great results! thanks man

[Enigma]

Great tutorial guys! Zbrush never ceases to amaze me with its versitility. Is there nothing this program can't do?

[venomize]

Always good to see someone else's workflow!

[Marsyas]

Great tutorial! Thanks! :) One question: I like to use masks too but whenever I draw a mask with quick gestures I get a stream of dots instead of a solid line. Is there a way around this or does it just have to do with the speed of my computer?

[jit_gohil]

Thanks for this - you are so fast - I will definately use this technique as it looks great!!!

[Moochie]

whenever I draw a mask with quick gestures I get a stream of dots instead of a solid line. Is there a way around this or does it just have to do with the speed of my computer?
Stroke > move the Mouse Average slider to the right (assuming you use a mouse).

[Marsyas]

Stroke > move the Mouse Average slider to the right (assuming you use a mouse).Thanks, Moochie! That definitely helps. :) Seems to work fine with my tablet too.

[SolidSnakexxx]

Thank you so much for the tutorial! Great learning resource!

[Hardtwist]

Thank you for putting this together. I learned a lot and enjoyed it very much.:tu:


JIM

[Sebcesoir]

Thats a interesting way of modeling actually!

I never thought this way but its pretty efficient...
Thanks for the tips!

[rasamaya]

Wow, thanks a lot. I look forward to these. I hope to one day be able to share such gifts.

[Siggi]

thx... :tu::tu::tu: realy nice tutorial, only for me, as a beginer realy quickly...;)

ok, i do watching again and again and again....:lol:

[MASTERSHOKHAN]

Great tutorial! What level of subdivision was he on......4 or 5 or does it matter?

[womball]

What a great technique! I think I know how to model my next character quickly! A simple question, what are the hot keys for inverting masks, creating them and deleting them?

[meanboythecat]

That was an EXCELLENT tutorial. I was currently working on an old man/mage type of chatacter, and this tute really gave me some great tips on how to effectuvely work in some wrinkles. Fantastic stuff!! Thank you voodoomonkey

[voodoomonkey]

Hey all.
Wow! I'm so happy you guys feel this will help you.
I essentially use masks as a knife to cut into my digital clay.
I find it very fast to shape my canvas.
Sorry I didn't drop in earlier, work kept me busy yesterday. :cry:

Ryan, thanks for the nice words and all the hard work you put into helping me create this. :tu:

womball, Cool, please post it here. I'd love to see what you guys come up with using this technique. As for the hot keys. Ctrl left mouse allows you to draw the masks. Ctrl click on the canvas, Inverts the mask. Ctrl drag on canvas, Clears the mask. Good luck.

MASTERSHOKHAN, Thank you, the level it's mostly a matter of detail. If you want to create some wrinkles you'll want to be higher up the chain. Or be it most of the work you saw me do was at level 3. Having said that I also did the neck at level 2 then jumped into level 3. I tend to go back and forth lots. I'll drop down to a lower level if I want to drastically smooth something out. Hope that helps.

rasamaya, Thank you, I look forward to it.

Sebcesoir, Hey Seb, always nice to hear from you. Nice to hear you found it useful.

Hardtwist, You're very welcome.

Marsyas, Also try playing with your draw size and counter scaling your character for fine lines. Keep in mind your SubD level has to be higher for wrinkles.

Moochie, Thanks.

jit_gohil, No... Ryan sped it up by 200 %... :D

venomize, I agree.

Enigma, You said it. I'm always amazed at what I can do. The cool thing is if it's not working for me in one way I can find another way to do it. You're not stuck. It's completely able to adapt to your work flow.

eddski, Thank you, I'm humbled guys. This is so nice.

DanRoberts, That makes the effort worth while.
I'm a firm believer that our purpose on earth is to learn. We learn from the time are born to the time of our departure. So if I have in some small cosmic way made your journey, even if in the tiniest way better, easier or more enjoyable. Then I'm proud to have been of service.

Thank you all again for the kind words, keep on smiling. :D
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[voodoomonkey]

meanboythecat, Awesome I look forward to seeing it! It's exciting to see that people find this method useful in their own work flows. Good Luck!
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[Dezz]

this is a very interesting approach, although it's not for me, I feel like I don't have enough control with this technique, I change brush size and pressure very often, but it seems nice to get quick results.

[VeryGrimm]

Awesome tutorial Voodoomonkey. With your help, I threw this together much faster than I would have otherwise.

fist1.jpg

[mangriff]

I am not able to view the video track on these quicktime demonstrations including this one! I get this message
qtime.jpg
Please provide a link to some codec or sumthing, im missing out on many many great tutorials because of this, thanks

[voodoomonkey]

Dezz, Hmm... I'd have to disagree. But that's OK. ;)
For me I find it actually allows me to create what I want without allot of back and forth. Imagine you have a chunk of clay. Well the masks work like digital knives that allow you cut into it, removing huge chunks for it.
This is basically what I do in real life with various sizes of rakes.
Thanks for watching.

Hey I wanted to give a big shout out to SHEB.
This is the canvas I used on the tut.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=31409

Thanks sheb, I've had tons of fun with your canvas. :D

VeryGrimm, Hey that's really cool! I'm glad it helped you.
Keep going look forward to seeing where you take it.

mangriff, Sorry to hear that. Did you try downloading Quicktime ? :cry:

Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[voodoomonkey]

Sorry... that should read quicktime 7.
VM

[ryankingslien]

mangriff - Some people have resolved this problem by reinstalling quicktime 7. I believe you have to use the quicktime installer that includes ITunes. :)

Ryan

[wenna]

That's what I had to do.... I installed q-time and turned around and uninstalled I-tunes.. LOL It wanted to take over my comp!

Just wanted to add my thanks for doing this tutorial! I've made some stabs at it and still need to work on it..LOL

[baker17]

excellent approach to sculpting in ZB!

cant wait to give it a go.... :tu:

[voodoomonkey]

wenna, Glad you're able to watch the tuts. I've found all of them extremely helpful.

baker17, Thanks! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[Nemoid]

Inspiring technique. i loved how you could sculpt areas like eyesockets and their wrinkles so easily. also this helps alot to have more expressive details and less smooth feeling in the sculture.
one question tho: do u use move with brush, or also use the general move command on the palette ?

[voodoomonkey]

Nemoid, I'm using Move with brush. I change the draw size and focal shift depending on the effect I want to achieve.
If you change the focal shift and get into negative numbers you'll get harsher edges since there's less fall off.
So you can use that to your advantage. Just depends again on what it is you want to achieve.
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[Nemoid]

Many thanx and also for the negative numbers tricK !! its cool;)

[yapdakilla]

VoodooMonkey YOU ROCK MAN. Never had so much fun creating wrinkles with your method using ZBrush man. MANY THANKS !!!

wrinkles.jpg

[voodoomonkey]

Nemoid, Cool! Glad that helped you. :D

yapdakilla, You're too kind, Awesome that you're having fun! Looks like it too. ;)
Keep it up. :tu:

Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[Dezz]

Dezz, Hmm... I'd have to disagree. But that's OK. ;)
For me I find it actually allows me to create what I want without allot of back and forth. Imagine you have a chunk of clay. Well the masks work like digital knives that allow you cut into it, removing huge chunks for it.
This is basically what I do in real life with various sizes of rakes.I see what you mean cesar, personnaly I like to work step by step so the form takes slowly shape.
I don't like exagerating the sculpt then refining when working digitally, this is a total different style of modeling the important is the result and you seam confortable with it.
thanks for sharing this

[mangriff]

holy cow . . Very nice method for speedy wrinkle and definitions. Thanks for your help with quicktime, I just reinstalled and worked fine. Thanks again for an amazing post!

That monkey took me to the zoo!

[voodoomonkey]

Dezz, Hey absolutely, I agree it is a methodology thing. There's never one way to do things.
That's the beauty of it. The cool thing about the Internet is that it's very easy to be exposed to different techniques, styles and methodologies.
The bad thing about the Internet is that it's very easy to be exposed to different techniques, styles and methodologies. :confused:
No seriously, there's something to be said about becoming proficient in one thing then moving on.
I see this everyday here, someone will post something and people will jump all over the latest App.
Realistically it's not the App, it's the artist.
Although some Apps will make your job or task easier.
But mainly it's the experience of the artist creating the task.
Having said that, I wouldn't have it any other...
In no time in history of Human kind has more information been made available.
The amount of information out there is incredible.
Food for thought....
Can you imagine what the greats would have done if they had the Internet availble to them. ;)

mangriff, I'm happy you've found it useful. I'm very excited to see what you all come up with. :D

Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[rogfa]

This is one of the best Artist's in Action clips. It's helped me so much already. Thanks Voodoo Monkey!

[voodoomonkey]

rogfa, Hey sorry for the late reply. That's awesome!
It's great to know that it's helping people.
Look forward to seeing what you make.
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[FilthUponYou]

many hints and techniques, sweet! :lol:

[voodoomonkey]

FilthUponYou, Thanks... welcome to the forum. Look forward to seeing your works.
Cheers
Cesar Dacol Jr.
Aka, The Voodoo Monkey

[mike hovland]

Ryan or Aurick,

Can you make this video available again? The link at the beginning of the thread is not a link to the movie.

[Moderator]

Please try to download again. The link is pointing to the movie file download.

[mantodea]

what do you mean by move with a brush? holding alt while drawing or..? and one more thing, how do you get such thin lines when drawing a mask (around eyes)? i use wacom graphire4 and even with size set to 1, a line is much thicker (hold ctrl and draw?). thanks in advanced.
pz

[mantodea]

anyone?

[stalsby]

cool vid! thanks!

[alshakno]

Is the link dead or i am missing something?

[skulll_monster]

the link is dead...i guess !

[alshakno]

Thanks Majid
is there any mirror?

[Nattawat_OBBI]

Thank you very much for this Tutorial!