Z-Brush for Mattepainting-RAINART

[rainart]

Hi all,

I'm concept, mattepainter and compositer artist in a game industrie and new on this forum.
I would like to explain and show in this tutorial how i use z-brush for a mattepainting.
I hope my tutorial will be explicit despite of the fact that...he is basic.
This is not a realistic picture...just i would like to show the process.


Thank all the z-brush community and Pixologic !!

RAINART

www.rainfx.com (http://www.rainfx.com/)
www.steambotstudios.com (http://www.steambotstudios.com/)

Final picture for a Z-Brush tutorial:
serenity2.jpg

[Moochie]

How fantastic! It'll be wonderful to see how this is done! Thank you and welcome.

btw .. the Adapt website is unbelievable. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a cooler site! Ever. :eek:

[lemonnado]

Such a tutorial would be heaven!
Lemo

[abraXas]

well, this looks quite realistic to me....

[Frenchy Pilou]

Don't find it on your cool sites... ;)
Pleasant landscape teasing :D

[aurick]

Here is the step by step ;)

Seb. Larroudé AKA –rainart-
2D & 3D Matte painter & compositer artist

Ubisoft (Montréal studios) – STEAMBOTSTUDIOS

www.rainfx.com
www.steambotstudios.com (http://www.steambotstudios.com/)

Passionate about moving images and set design, Sebastian began with creating set models before deciding to buy his first film camera. From that instant he decided he would get into computer graphics. After graduating with Photography, Visual Arts and Computer Art diploma he began illustrating scientific data, then architectural and design rendering for various companies and agencies. He perfected himself in Matte painting as a passion, developing his own techniques. He is currently serving at Ubisoft Montreal as GFx Artist and juggles regularly between Compositing, Matte Painting and GFx (with a specialisation in particles and cloth). He strives to mix his high rendering qualities in an exciting videogame development team.

I find that using ZBrush for Concept and Matte painting is an excellent technique. It delivers effectiveness, productivity and freedom to create environments in short timelines.

serenity1.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734247%27,%27serenity1.jpg%27,1 ,0%29)


This matte painting was done using several elements 2D and 3D. (2D painted with Photoshop.) I needed to create some type of ''valley'' with two mountainous slopes in order to place a tower in the center. For that, I created a simple plane with deforms and details thereafter. I used only basic brushes.

image003.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734248%27,%27image003.jpg%27,1, 0%29)

Subdiv: 1

image004.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734249%27,%27image004.jpg%27,1, 0%29)

Subdiv: 7

image005.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734250%27,%27image005.jpg%27,1, 0%29)

I don’t need to add more details. The rest will be painted later. Contrary to character modeling, environments (especially for a matte) can be enriched in several ways. The interest for me is the speed and freedom of creation. ZBrush gives me possibilities of precision but also of 'involuntary' creation of artefacts which are paramount for concept.

Then return to 3D with a shader of occlusion and paint over with Photoshop.

ground.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734251%27,%27ground.jpg%27,1,0% 29)


I try to most of my work in ZBrush. The fact that I decide to paint in Photoshop ‘‘delivers'' me from the constraints of UV in 3D (although sometimes one cannot escape from it) and allows me to save time. Also, I want to avoid having to do another pass in Maya, Max or XSI, and so try to accomplish everything in ZBrush. Very little will be lost by doing this, and the saving of time is rather important.

Thereafter I paint the background and keep on working on my image: texture, lighting, fog etc…

ground2.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734252%27,%27ground2.jpg%27,1,0 %29)


Concerning the towers they are made up of 2D and 3D elements, as with the foreground.


capotDeform.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734253%27,%27capotDeform.jpg%27 ,1,0%29)


capotScult.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734255%27,%27capotScult.jpg%27, 1,0%29)


elementp1.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734256%27,%27elementp1.jpg%27,1 ,0%29) elementp2.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734257%27,%27elementp2.jpg%27,1 ,0%29)

The final pic looks like:

serenity1.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734247%27,%27serenity1.jpg%27,1 ,0%29)


Here are other examples of matte-directed structures (architecture or design):

Z_Edge.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734260%27,%27Z_Edge.jpg%27,1,0% 29)
Created from primitives (box and cylinder).

build.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734261%27,%27build.jpg%27,1,0%2 9)
Another Matte with details of structure and architecture.

cavity.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734262%27,%27cavity.jpg%27,1,0% 29)

mona.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2734263%27,%27mona.jpg%27,1,0%29 )

[Frenchy Pilou]

...I understand :cool:

[Evan Gaugh]

thanks for showing us your workflow you have some really nice works here. I really like the one with the interesting rock formations. :tu:

[marcus_civis]

Wonderful :tu: Thank you very much.

[MrLearner]

Thanks for sharing. Most inspiring.

[saltapiedras]

Buenísimas.:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[jantim]

Thanks, Sebastien...great stuff :tu: ..and good to see ZBrush used in this way !

[froyd]

thanks alot for that inspiring tutorial :D

greets
froyd

[GORILLA]

Awesome! :tu:

[Qa]

Thanks for shared your skill with us.

really impress !

:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: <- five star :lol:

[Lamez]

Forces to do great work, arouses the new thoughts. On foreground trees... It is part of photo?

[cyberman2]

hey man, very nice work!
im gonna try to work for ubisoft montreal soon too but i hope i dont have to be THAT good omg :o

[ramon22]

great works you got there,and Thanks for sharing. Most inspiring. my favorite the Matte with details of structure and architecture

[rtwolfenstein@hotmail.com]

Cool art, it is very abstract and real at the same time...
Could I know what video games you have worked on?

[Jason Belec]

Great to see more of this stuff, it all seemed to really take off over the last year or so. Yeah Zbrush and those willing to use it. ;)

[kkv]

A different genre altogether, a most welcome change. A very well executed
work. More of this please.
KKV

[rainart]

Hi all and Thx you so mush for your comments !!

About question:

++ Trees in the foreground, to be exact: i mixed 2 types of vegetation:
Photo and 3d trees (created with Maya). The next step is a kind of paint over.

++ About my recent project: it's Assassin Nextgen. (Uebisoft Montreal).
And special project with our collective steambotstudios.

About News, i'm an Adapt's instructor (Montreal, with my Steambot friends: Vyle, Barontieri etc...) and i'm preparing another 3d Matte with ''full'' ZBrush !!

Thx all :)
Great stuff for all !!

www.rainfx.com (http://www.rainfx.com)
www.steambotstudios.com (http://www.steambotstudios.com)

[Daniel M.S]

Your images are wonderful and really inspiring, as I'm pursueing this kind of pictures recently. I just became your fan ;)

Cheers
.................................................. .
My threads: Tribute to Tsutomu Nihei: http://www.pixolator.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=34870
Old Man Head: http://www.pixolator.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=34941

[javalabala]

welcome to the forum, your images are great

[Hami]

Hi Sebastien it was nice to meet you at the Concept Art Workshop. It was great to watch how you work and thanks for sharing some of the details here.

[Bonesone4]

im new with zbrush and fairly new with 3d in general. what do u mean by when u said " ...then return to 3D with a shader of occlusion and paint over with Photoshop." i really just dont understand occulsion/normal/bump/ etc etc etc maps! its so confusing to me. everytime i read about someones work they mention some other kind of map that they used. can u break it down for me in a nutshell? talk to me like im 12. its the only way ill know what u are saying!! seriously. compare it to something i can relate to since im new...thank u

Bones

[rainart]

Hi ''bones''...

Well...no very easy to explain that in a ''nutshell''...so, i try to...

First: the question is ''why''...i try to find an effective pocess.
Ok, ''occlusion'' or ''dirtmap'' ... it's a Shader (3d) render with all 3d package...
I use this shader to fake radiosity (but it's depend of my matte...) but it's very effective to save computive time...but you can find another way...like good renderer...personaly i use Mental ray (it is not fastest...but you can try V-ray...i lioke it !! it's very easy to learn it), and i composite my occlusion pass (same in compositing)...over my mesh...and i paint in photoshop details and other...

second: Bump...it's just granulosity, relief, details etc...you can find on google many basic tutorial...but it's don't use bump with radiosity...you result tightened ''Null''....lol

Normal mal...just generate normal to create details....personnaly, i create (in zBrush) a Displacement map or i export my object in Maya...(sometimes that is faster to calculate an mesh with many detail subdivisions than a simply object with dislacement map.)

If you want understand all this process...just feel free to go in the zbrush forum and find a doc about mental ray_displace...

I hope that my answer will help you !!

rainart

[panstar]

This is fantastic Rainart, Don't know how I missed it. And only last night I was pondering if it was possible to get these sort of results out off ZB, for using as backgrounds. And if by design, this thread answers my question.

thank you.:tu::tu::tu::tu::tu::tu:

[Crazywizard]

I love to see this type of work in movies. Some of the best artwork is actually missed in movies because it fools the eye in thinking it's part of the scene.

[iXaarii]

wow! trully beautiful stuff! and exqactly on the subject i love: painting helped by 3d! thank you so much for telling! curious what techniques you used to model shapes like
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/attachment.php?attachmentid=34485

[pixmaker]

I understand how you made the ground and the tower structure, thats easy to understand. however you never mentioned the sky, did you just paint the sky photoshop? did you actually composite and render this image in ZBrush (using layers) or did you composite it in Photoshop? as far as the trees and the rock textures, did you paint those in or are the a material in ZBrush?

im sorry for asking too many questions im just trying to understand?
Great work and ASSASSIN is the game im waiting for XBOX 360. wooohooo.

thank you...