stray sod wip

[stimpack]

This little guy is a brian froud character from his faeries book. Im doing my take on it, since the pic was so small I cant be exact ;) currently im just working on the characters body, the final will have grass twice his height growing from his back. Im doin this game rez so the grass will just be a bunch of alphas. Anywho, was thinkin I should post up and get some crits, im having problems getting my details crisp. they feel muddy, mayb im not using a small enough brush? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

upload.jpg

[womball]

Awesome character! Its almost perfect except for the back. It needs to be as detailed as everything else, it sticks out too much as it is.

[Rory_L]

Stimpack, do me a favor and model all Froud`s creatures: each one is teriffic and worth Z-Brushing. Go on; won`t take you long ;) !

The `muddy` quality of your lines might be the result of a handful of things. Be sure to have sufficient poly detail to hold the creasing, (I know you know that; I`m just being completist); size up the model in its highest sub-D level by 100 about three times; change your brush curve to a `J` shape and turn on Accurate Curve.

When you`ve finished modelling you need then to size down the model by -50 three times.

That should help.

Cheers,

R

[stimpack]

Hey guys, thanks for the love! The back im leaving kinda bland because he will have it covered up with tons of alphas. No reason to over work myself :D

Thank you for the tip rorl but i actually have no idea how to do what you just said. Beyond the brushes in transform I dont know how to do much else. If there is a tutorial You could point me to, that would be fantastic!

Thanks again, Ill try to make some updates soon and repost =)

[Rory_L]

Stimpack, sorry to have seemed so cryptic. It`s a tough call knowing how much detail to give people without being patronizing; I`m always getting it wrong!

:b3: Make sure your model has plenty of polygons in the areas you wish to have the greatest detail. No matter how beautifully detailed a model can appear to have become thanks to an extended session in Projection Master, if there are not enough polys to `catch` that detail, then on leaving Projection Master much of that detail will be lost. Adding a level to your tool (model) might be the answer. Do this by clicking the big `Divide` button in Tool/Geometry.

:b3: If your tool is too small in Z-Brush`s `opinion` then Z-Brush can have a hard time spotting the individual polygons in your tool; it groups adjacent polygons so that what should be a crisp, narrowly carved line ends up being broad and `muddy`, like you observed. If this is the cause of your problem, then enlarging your tool by a value of 100 three times should fix it. Do this by typing 100 into the number field of the Size deformation option, located in Tool/Deformation. 100 is the maximum value you can enter, so you need to enter it a few times to achieve an adequate enlargement.

When you have finished modelling the tool, you have to return the model to its original size for export and map generation. Do this by typing -50 in the same numeric field. Three times, if you enlarged the tool three times.

:b3: In the Transform menu, click where it says `Edit Curve` and adjust the brush falloff curve to resemble a `J`, or the righthand half of a `U`. Now turn on `Accurate Curve Mode` which is also in the Transform menu, under `Modifiers`. Clicking this button ensures that Z-Brush precisely recreates the shape of the brush curve when modelling.

I hope this clears up the confusion and helps you avoid muddy details.

Cheers,

R