Creative Ergonomics Lab

[Mytholon]

PLEASE READ: In this thread I am going to be experimenting with various techniques and combinations of tools, with one goal: to improve the speed and efficiency of my workflow in order to better serve my creative needs.
So this is basically an ongoing lab rather than a structured tutorial.
It occured to me that my experiments (even the failed ones) might be of use to ZB users, and that is why I decided to post this thread in the tutorials forum.
But at the same time this thread is a WIP, where the work in progress is the constraction of techniques. So any feedback, critics and advice are higly apreciated.

[Mytholon]

I am going to be using ZBrush in combination with Photoshop and sometimes Modo, in order to achieve the highest efficiency in my images. This is a speed ZPainting. It started as a displaced plane. I rendered it with several passes and then I composed the renders as layers in PS. Then I speed-painted some of the areas of the renders using brushes derived from drawings and ZBrush alphas. Total time: 2-3 hours (not fast enough).

JungleIsland.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('49408','JungleIsland.jpg',1,0))

[Mytholon]

This is a product of the same technique. Here I tried to be bolder on my brush strokes to increase the speed. Also, I used the Fiber Brush in ZB to create a better base for the speed-painted trees. By doing that I didn't have to paint tree trunks (except for the two in the foreground), and also I could bettera visualize the jungle.
Total Time: 1:45 (somewhat satisfied).

Jungle.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg('49409','Jungle.jpg',1,0))

[calum5ZB]

Thanks for sharing,Ilike this thread!!

cal

[Mytholon]

Same technique again, displacing a plane and also a sphere primitive with one of the default tecxtures in ZB. The creation of distant shots with ZB is intriguing. This went faster too. Here is my layer composition too.
Total time: 1 hour (about 15 minutes in ZB and 45 in PS).

Stranded.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749410%27,%27Stranded.jpg%27,1, 0%29)

LayerBreakDown.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749416%27,%27LayerBreakDown.jpg %27,1,0%29)

[Antimorph]

LOL, I love it. How fast will it get I wonder. :)

[aurick]

We love to see this kind of work! However, we ask that you be courteous to your fellow ZBC members. Every time you create a new post with a picture, another thumbnail is added to the bottom row at the top of ZBC. You now have three such thumbnails, of the eight that are available.

If you already have a post with a thumbnail in the bottom row, please do not create a new post. Instead, edit your previous post and add the new picture to that. That way, only one thumbnail will appear, saving room for your fellow members. If you want your newest image to be the one with the thumbnail, change the previous image tags from and to and instead. ZBC will use the first image in a post with the ATT tag, skipping any that say ATN.

I'm editing your previous posts now to remove those thumbnails from the bottom row.

Thanks!

[aceala]

very good job!

[Domodab]

I find your thread very interesting. i think that your painting of the jungle is my fave. Great use of time. I've seen pics like these as part of concept art for films and such. Feeling very inspired.:tu:

[Mytholon]

Opps. Sorry about that Aurick. I didn't realize it worked that way. Thanks for fixing it.

[lemonnado]

This is fantastic!!!
Do you build color swatches or do you select colors new every time you change them?
Lemo


PS:Ahhhh, a ZeebleSpaceCraft! You are my hero! And you have proven... they do not fly well haha.

[PSTCHOART]

very good work !!!!

[TVeyes]

Great to see these type of pictures from you again Mytholon :tu: I loved your earlier concept works.

Thanks for the breakdown of the picture elements. They give me courage :)

[panstar]

This is brilliant, love what your doing. been playing with landscapes myself, but not as much skill as your displaying here.

keep up the good work

[Frenchy Pilou]

Nicy tuts :tu:
And the famous texture N° 13 always alive :D

[Harmonic]

Inspirational and innovative as always Mr. Mytholon. Please keep posting.:) :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Mytholon]

Thank you for checking out my lab people.
Lemo, talking about Zeeble, how about this.
Another experiment. This time, I generated the model from a masked plain which I then converted into a Poly3D.
I also created adaptive UVs in ZB but I rendered it with Modo.
This is an occlusion rendering. Glows, colors, grunge and dirt were added in Photoshop.
Time without rendering: 20 minutes.
I rendered this at about 2500 px wide. So the rendering took another 20 minutes I think.

City.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749449%27,%27City.jpg%27,1,0%29 )


City2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749450%27,%27City2.jpg%27,1,0%2 9)


BuildingsAlpha.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749451%27,%27BuildingsAlpha.jpg %27,1,0%29)


City3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749469%27,%27City3.jpg%27,1,0%2 9)

This last one is rendered in ZBrush and painted in Photoshop. The lights are part Zbrush (Intensity and Glow brushes) and part Photoshop (color dodge).

[lemonnado]

SCALED ON Z!!! hahaha... Now I feel like such a retard. I always ended up with flat results and could not find a good way with size and inflate, spherical.....
LOL... Have to try that today. Thanks fir the hint. It's so obvious, but I didn't get it...
Lemo

[Frenchy Pilou]

Youn don't know this mythic page? (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=17116#post17116) :D
(slide a little)

[Plakkie]

My God... it's wonderfull to these such illustrations come from programs I own too. Yet my images never look that good, which goes to show that you can have the best software in the world, you still need to be an artist to make it tick. :D
Inspiring to see Zbrush used as a painting tool again Myholon, keep posting. :tu:

(p.s. I liked the thumbnails too ;))

[lemonnado]

This is fun 8)
climbing.jpg

[lemonnado]

Your last one is amazing!!! I look at it and it's moving...
Lemo

[Frenchy Pilou]

Cool one too! :tu: :D
Vertigo! :lol:

[lemonnado]

ZCanyon.jpg
I'd like to be there. Nice hot canyon.. Sniffel... Lemo sick.. back to bed.. cough cough...

[aurick]

There's some really cool stuff going on in this thread, showing ZBrush being used in ways that are quite different from the norm. It's great to see people pioneering new ways to use ZBrush's many aspects, and I hope that more users will participate in this thread!

We're definitely featuring this one. :)

[boozy floozie]

There's some really cool stuff going on in this thread,
Couldn't agree more - it's just like the old days at the forum.
Brings a tear to my eye.

Great examples Mytholon and Mr lemonnado.

[vlad74]

Couldn't agree more - it's just like the old days at the forum.
Brings a tear to my eye.


Sadly you are so right Mark. :(

Great examples Mytholon.

Love the canyon Lemo.

[Bas Mazur]

Couldn't agree more - it's just like the old days at the forum.
Brings a tear to my eye.

Great examples Mytholon and Mr lemonnado.

Yep, the old times... The 'only-made-in-zb' times :-) They will be back after the 2.5 release, I think/hope.

[lemonnado]

Haha, 2.5 will be a riot. The Forum will explode. I bet the Gallery will look more like an Animation. Every time yu refresh the screen you have two new images in the row hahaha. Btw.... How's it goin Gentlemen? Something new Mark, Bas? I love your work and have not seen much this year :cry: .
Cheers
Lemo with the Cold
(Need Job in a warm place. San Diego, Singapore, anything above 45 in Winter. PLEASE! cough sniffle cough.. need more hot red wine...)

[AVTPro]

Amazing. :eek:

[3Point14]

Some of the people whose work inspired me to try Zbrush don't seem to have recent posts. I can think of about 20 other things that could take up their time.
I might post something here if I can figure out the theme. ;)

[Mytholon]

Thank you for your comments people. Feel free to include your workflows if you think that they are ergonomic enough.
Pride: The theme of this thread is an ongoing search for ergonomic techniques that speed up the creative process and keep it fresh. I post images that take no more than 3 hours to create at most, and I also post information about the workflow (this is a tutorial thread).
Bas, Vlad, Boozy: Those magic days are about to return.
Lemo: Thank you for your contributions! I hope to see more.
Auric: Thank you for featuring the thread. Perhaps this will draw in more contributors to this ongoing tutorial - workflow - lab.
Frenchy: I didn't know about the mythic thread you mentioned. Got some good information out of it. Thanks.

My new experiments are going towards a different direction:

Dog.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49498','Dog.jpg',1,0))


Mad.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49499','Mad.jpg',1,0))

[Aumakua]

Great Z-paintings, especially the Urban Enlightment and City3, I hope you're going to write some juicy tutorials about them ;)

[Drummer]

really great use of zbrush! I like your concept paintings very much.
keep it up

[Logick]

obviously a rip-off of your earlier post mytholon, just a contibrution, kinda, to show that i'm trying to follow the techniques you guys are showing.


thanik you for your teaching attitude!


logick

[lemonnado]

Yes! Mytholon rocks! Many thanks for the lectures! I love concept art as it allows, like reading a book, the mind to wander and imagine detail and a story behind the concept.
Lemo

[Roja]

Hi, this is a nice tutorial!

I have a newb question: In the first three environment images, how do you do those different render passes in Zbrush? Or did you render them elsewhere? If you do them in Zbrush, can you go into some detail on that?

[BokoWar]

Beautyful landshafts:D

[Jason Belec]

Good to see you back again! Sweet work once again! Keep 'em coming! ;)

[Mytholon]

Logick, nice work. Thanks for the contribution.
Roja, those renders are from ZBrush. The process is very simple. Layout your scene. Choose a material, render and export PSD. Then put a new material on your scene for lets say shadows (I use the fast shader material for that). Render with shadows on. Export as PSD. Do the same for all the passes you need, open the PSDs in PS, and drag them all into the same document.


Here is another workflow experiment. The goal is always Speed and Freshness.


SenseiYatanaki.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49603','SenseiYatanaki.jpg' ,1,0))


SenseiYatanakiPart1.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49604','SenseiYatanakiPart1 .jpg',1,0))

SenseiYatanakiPart2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49605','SenseiYatanakiPart2 .jpg',1,0))

SenseiYatanakiPart3.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49607','SenseiYatanakiPart3 .jpg',1,0))

[wckedsunny]

Hey Antonis.

I was waiting for this wip tutorial from you and look at my luck i cant practice it or take part in it, due to my injury as I have no zbrush at my brothers place...

I just dont know what to say, without practicing it I cannot learn.

Anyhow I will keep attending this post and if I have any questions will shoot at you.

Keep trying more, especialy these cartoon characters.;)

[wammerl]

great thread
i really like that last character !!!
he is fantastic

[Svengali]

Mytholon,

As Matthew said, this is a real "breakout" thread and I must add my thanks to those that have already been expressed.

I've used ZBrush in a rather similar fashion for a long time now but your illustrated examples here have exploded my thinking. I'm especially inspired by the most recent workflow - Sensi Yatanaki - mixing ZSpheres with inserted local meshes - poseability with modeled detail - a fantastic prototyping strategy for enhancing my hand-drawn end-product! Woo!

Sven

[edit ]An example (from six months back) of my sketch-style, drawn over VERY basic ZSphere-posed figures, using Bauhaus Mirage's 2D Animation Software...


gang002a.jpg

[Plakkie]

Oh man! A character inspired by a picture of Morihei Ueshiba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morihei_Ueshiba), the developer of Aikido! How cool is that. :tu:

[AVTPro]

Wow! Love how fast you did that. Also I like the drawing directly in Zbrush instead of in Photoshop. I have to take a closer look at this whole thread. Thanks for posting.

Wow you connected the head in ZBrush? I just did this with my Cupitron character but in Maya. Gotta learn this.

[marcus_civis]

Mytholon,

Good to see some more of your excellent work and thanks for sharing your techniques. It is always interesting to see how others work and your methods are adventurous and illuminating. All very much appreciated. :tu:

Cheers,

[j.c.]

Thanks for the great thread, Mytholon. You've given me some great ideas on how I can use ZBrush further for my own work.

[XtremeAMX]

This is great. Yet, I am not familiar with the local mesh combination. I gave it a try and it put my mesh inside the Zsphere. How do you properly connect it?

[acmepixel]

Wow, another great Mytholon thread. I keep all these as part of my Zbrush reference materials.

Thank you very much for sharing this with us. Hopefully more newbies will realize that Zbrush is a full-blown and unique paint program and not just a mesh-head sculpting tool.

Great contribution! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: up!

(No, I don't have four thumbs, the other two are my big-toes). ;)

[Steve Warner]

Mytholon,

I've been inspired by all of your posts but this has got to be my favorite. Thank you for all that you're doing to show how useful ZBrush can be for 2D artists. Your examples have completely changed the way I think about ZBrush. I recently picked up some freelance work doing book cover illustrations. I was going to create the images in LightWave, but because of your examples, I'm convinced that it would be better to do them in ZBrush. Thanks again for the tremendous inspiration!

Cheers!

Steve

[Roja]

Thanks for the answer :)
I got one more question though..how did you make the last render pass in the row? (the 4th from the left in the 1st image, 3rd from the left in the 2nd) What material, etc was used?
And, here's to show i'm a real rendering noob, what is that pass even called? :o

[lemonnado]

It's the 'Depth' pass. You can do that using the tool 'MRGBZ Grabber'. When you select that tool you can draw a rectangle on the canvas and all the depth information in that rectangle is converted into gray scale values and is stored as alpha in the list of alpha images.

All rendering systems I had my hands on can generate this path. It's always useful if you want to create an effect which is distance/depth related. Like fog, haze, depth of field, light intensity, a gradient. OR if you do a composite out of two pictures you can use this information to mask away parts from one picture/render which would be obstructed by elements from the other picture/render.

This map does not require the application of a special material. It's a byproduct of the render process.

Hope that helps and I hope that's the map you meant.
Lemo

PS:Black value = as far away as possible , white = as close as it get's.
ballstack.jpg

[aminuts]

mytholon.....great thread as always.....one question....

do you keep ps open while doing your various pass experiments and tweak via zb or no....just render whatever ya think might work and deal with it later?

was wondering cuz sometimes i can save time by keeping a seperate file open in ps in which i copy layers over to for quick checking if i am heading where i want to go or not before returning to the zb file and returning to zb with either way too many new options haha or realizing that was definitely not the material etc way to go etc etc....

love all your threads....as always...very informative, opens new eyes for sure, and if nothing else....a pure joy to watch someone who loves zb (who actually has talent....i mean as opposed to me not any one else in zb land) .....push it...and find there is still more one can do.

Thanks for sharing!!!

[chyv1083]

omg omg omg OMG!

[Hysteria]

Mytholon,

Just want to tell that you've really impressed me by your workflow. I really admire your skills in post-production using Photoshop. The passes you've used have a great possitive influence in the results. Great!

Mick

[Roja]

Thanks a lot lemonnado! That's exactly what I wanted to know about. I even tried it out myself in Zbrush..it's really easy to do :)

[lemonnado]

Thanks a lot lemonnado! That's exactly what I wanted to know about. I even tried it out myself in Zbrush..it's really easy to do :)
You're welcome. Also check out the mostly unnoticed Draw -> Channels -> Z-Tolerance slider. Together with the ability to lock the brush into a Z-Plane with the right Picker setting (Once Z, or Z depth slider there), you can do amazing things like paint earth layers in a canyon according to depth etc...
Cheers
Lemo

Sample: Every color is on it's on depth layer using the picker on Z-Once and a Z-Tollerance of 0.3. The brush is a single layer brush, single stroke, and flat alpha. Variations are plentiful and yield very interesting results. I am sure it's a cool weapon for manual fog with lower color intensity settings.

umbrellas.jpg

Another great use is to lock the depth to paint a grout into a tile floor and then the tile colors on top without ruining the grout...

Quick and dirty depth limited texturing sample (2 minutes total):

quickie.jpg

[AngelJ]

Mytholon,

You Sir do some outstanding work and I really whole heartily appreciate your contributions to this forum!! Great innovative ways to work in concise and time efficient manners while maintaining amazing quality. :tu: Continue to look forward to more!!

[Mytholon]

Thank you all for your taking a moment to write a coment. I am glad this thread is helping people with their workflow.

Lemmo: Thank you for your answers. Very usefull info.
Aminuts: My PS process is preaty much streamlined, and the render passes I do are standardized (to achieve higher speed). However, I do keep both programs open, because I often do a pass on the fly. I do this when I get the feeling that my image is becoming stale, to look for happy accidents and keep things fresh.

Recently I have been inspired by the ergonomic procesess of Thierry Doizon, Sparth and the rest of the Steambot team. Hey, they are my heros!
So I decided to try their brush utilization techniques in combination with the magical capabilities of ZB in creating particle forms (base forms from which larger and complicated constracts are composed).
I created a couple of those base particles using masked primitives. I then randomly sprayed them on the canvas, creating chaos, until I shaw a form emerging in my mind's eye. I painted over that form to bring it out.

This is a super ergonomic way of working concepts. It is fast, fresh, and sponteneously creative. It is a true way of exploring concepts and designs, because the only thing that you begin with is a focused intend in finding the forms you need.
Once the form was out, I took the image to photoshop. I created brushes from the ZB particles, and I finished the painting there.
I simply can't think of another more ergonomic way than this, to do mechanical concept art.
Total time: about an hour.

Machine.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749808%27,%27Machine.jpg%27,1,0 %29)


Brushes.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749809%27,%27Brushes.jpg%27,1,0 %29)

After this I decided to create a ZScript of the whole process. I also decided to test this workflow further, by trying to create a specific theme . You see, it is much easier to create chaos and find your forms in there, if you do not have a specific theme, because anything goes. So this time I wanted to test how disciplined the result can be. First I decided upon my theme: Concept for a heavy duty, all-weather bike vehicle. Then I created some particle chas. Then I looked in that chaos for the form of the vehicle I wanted. This is what I've found:

3X3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749810%27,%273X3.jpg%27,1,0%29)

You can download the Zscript showing the creation of this image at:
http://www.giotavorgia.com/tutorials/bullfrog.zip

As always there was a slight mistake on the recording of the script and my paint layer has been moved a few pixels to the right, but you can get the idea.
Total Time for this: 1:30 (I concluded that it takes a bit longer to work with this technique if you have a clear theme to accomplish, but it is still very fast)

[Halil]

Perfect!

[lemonnado]

Jaw=Drop!
Lemo

[godlike27]

Cool script. It's funny, when I first watched it I thought that something went wrong because I was watching at what looked like a complete mess for 20 minutes and eventually pressed Escape :lol: But decided to try again and when I watched till the end I thought: Mytholon is Genius! Genius!!! :D

---Tomas

[calum5ZB]

Thanks for the script!
Cal

[Mr micro26]

Mytholon,your style and work is very inspiring.
keep it up man... :tu: :tu:

and heres my small contribution ,1.5 hours.
matte1_painting.jpg

[Bas Mazur]

Hey Micro, that's looking great. Looks like an Escher! :tu:

[Plakkie]

I'm the first to acknowledge that my drawing talents are nothing short of disastrous, but Mytholon's threads keep showing ways of digital painting that seem so appealing. And now I finally tried it myself. It's so much fun!! This is actually the first handdrawn computer image I ever made! Took 1.5 hours to make (by my standards the longest time drawing I ever did). First made a greeble object from a cylinder, lighted it, baked the image and selected a colorblended smudge tool to give it a painted look...
Then suddenly an hour had passed and there was a sort of roller on my screen moving over a blob of... paint?

Roller.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49846','Roller.jpg',1,0))

To me, it actually looks a bit like an illustration. I could never have imagined the highlights and shades myself, so I see now how Zbrush can help with that.
Keep posting and scripting Mytholon, you are actually making ME paint. :tu::tu: :D

[lemonnado]

Looks great Plakkie! Handmade always looks good! I did some stuff to but it's... errr.... not quite there yet lol. Any case, I'm infected as well.
Lemo

[Steve Warner]

Way to go, Plakkie! That looks awesome!

[Mytholon]

Mr.Micro: That is super. I like the perspective and the grand scale of it. Thank you for trhe contribution.
Plakkie: That is so nice for a first time out! The color mixing on the paint blob is very succesfully oily. To give you courage towards that direction I will say that most finished digital illustrations take an average of 10 to 20 hours to create. Spend that much time and you will have great results too. :lol:

People, if this thread has inspired you to create, then it is a great success. This is a very rewarding experience.

[wckedsunny]

Hey Guys

I have asked my brother to bring my hardisk from my house and attach with this laptop, I really dont know that way zbrush will work or not, but I simply cannot miss this wip.

I am dying to tryout mytholons zscript.

Lemo I was not able to understand the z tolerence part but let zbrush come may be then I will try it out.

[Aumakua]

Nice mossy waterpaint-like work MrMicro.Please make some more :)

[Plakkie]

Lemo, Steve & Mytholon: thanks for the encouraging words! My first go at digital painting, and I have this thread to thank for it! It feels a bit like cheating, 'cause Zbrush has done all the perspective and lighting things for me, but I've caught myself making tiny creative decisions while painting over the things Zbrush computed. I'll try 'Imitatio' first and maybe the 'Aemulatio' will gradually follow. This technique helps me get started on something where I would normally give up after three misplaced lines.

I had a go at the building-block technique and had fun doing it for 2 hours straight. Although this is a thread about ergonomic workflow maybe I'll try a 10 hour session to see where it goes Mytholon! :D

gebouwen2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('49867','gebouwen2.jpg',1,0) )

Mytholon and Mr. Micro: I really like the sharpness you get in your images, and still have that painted look. For those of us who never used PS (or Zbrush) for painting before, can you explain or show a bit about how you paint those objects? (brushes, tools, etc)

Lemo, I'm looking forward to seeing what the infection has done to you. :)

[Frenchy Pilou]

...to transform the Mytholon Zcript Bulfrog above in 640*480 zscript for the demos users?
Because nothing is visible :( (double, resize...are not permited)
Thx by advance :)

@mister micro & Plakkie :tu:

[lemonnado]

Plakkie, I think you just defined the reason WHY this thread has the name it carries. It's about cutting off the 'routine' actions while starting a concept and being able to focus quickly on the main subject and focus on the 'little' creative decisions which in the end make out the character of the piece.

You simple geometry has character. It looks interesting and the scratches and tonal variations give it character. Without your work on it it would be a common 5 minute ZBrush blob. Now it already looks nice. Comp some plants in or paint a figure or more standing on a ledge and you already have a cool scene going.

Cheers
Lemo

PS:My experiments have brought me forward quite a bit as well. I am now able to compete with 4th graders... :D

[Plakkie]

Thanks Lemo! I'm in my abstract period right now, so a figure on a ledge would be a big step forward. :D Maybe with some Zsphere figure... hm...
I wanted to comp in some plants, but my Vue 6 didn't start anymore. :mad:
I'll study Mytholons first landscape pictures and see if I can mimic some of his flora.
How did you do those palmtrees? They look a bit Vue-ish.

[Mytholon]

Plakkie: Check out the section in my images where I show my alpha brushes. This is how I did the vegetation. You could create similar alphas in ZBrush, and paint over your image to create the impression of trees and flora. Vue would not be as ergonomic as that.

Pilou: I didn't know that. I will see if I can make another such script.

Another character concept called: All Things Come To He Who Waits

AllCome.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749874%27,%27AllCome.jpg%27,1,0 %29)

AllCome2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2749875%27,%27AllCome2.jpg%27,1, 0%29)

[Frenchy Pilou]

...Thinking Spider! ;)
And subtile mix comics / tut :tu:

[Brian Healy]

[QUOTE=lemonnado]You're welcome. Also check out the mostly unnoticed Draw -> Channels -> Z-Tolerance slider. Together with the ability to lock the brush into a Z-Plane with the right Picker setting (Once Z, or Z depth slider there), you can do amazing things like paint earth layers in a canyon according to depth etc...
Cheers
Lemo

Sample: Every color is on it's on depth layer using the picker on Z-Once and a Z-Tollerance of 0.3. The brush is a single layer brush, single stroke, and flat alpha. Variations are plentiful and yield very interesting results. I am sure it's a cool weapon for manual fog with lower color intensity settings.

Another great use is to lock the depth to paint a grout into a tile floor and then the tile colors on top without ruining the grout...

Quick and dirty depth limited texturing sample (2 minutes total):

LEMO,

I apologize for my absolute ignorance but I can't seem to get your comments above to work. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I can't
seem to lock depth and control anything, color or depth with the Draw > Channels > Z Tolerance slider and the pick once depth. I see your examples but cen't seem to control anything. For example in the gout example I can draw the cubes of different colors on a plane but when I try to color I get a sinle color smearing over everything without stopping at any cube borders. I've played with this for a couple of hours and I know I'm missing something.

Brian

Lemo,

Sorry about the above comment. I finally figured out how to get it to work and it is really a neat trick. I can't beleive how much there is still to learn about this program and the really cool stuff you can do with it.

Thanks again for your contribution. I would never have even looked at this feature before.

Brian

[lemonnado]

That spider must be an Astronaut... :D
L

PS:I'll make a short vid for the depth stuff.

[VeryGrimm]

I keep coming back to this thread wanting more. Give us more please, Mytholon (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/member.php?u=35506)!

[testure]

A spider with a diaper? It's MC PeePants!

http://www.avclub.com/content/files/images/avclub_review1178.thumbnail_0.jpg

[Mytholon]

When painting there is no 2048 antialiasing limit (I think). The paint looks just fine at 4096 without having to half the image down.

Those two characters where created in the same way like the "All come to he who waits" image with the spider, but I also created some custom brushes to get the organic paint look and feel. Total time for each of those was about an hour.

kitten.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('50249','kitten.jpg',1,0))

policeman.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('50250','policeman.jpg',1,0) )


I am preparing a tutorial on creating these kind of character portraits using custom brushes in ZB like you would in Photoshop or Painter. I am not a purist (I tend to use more than one programs when creating stuff), but these techniques certainly utilize ZBrush as a total studio for 2D+3D work and they are fast. I just wish that the layers were more functional (more like photoshop, with blending modes).

[AVTPro]

That'd "monkey fun" good.

[Frenchy Pilou]

...with only the smudge brush :)
Smudge brush + Ctrl = Paint with color selected!
"C" = eye dropper
So with the Alt, Zadd On Off, Size of brush , + Alpha you can make some crazzy things!
Have happy painting !
:cool:

Ps Something Curious, using the Smudge brush, if you click on the icones with Ctrl around the canvas, these last disapear!!! A bug? :confused:

[Plakkie]

Hurraaah! I checked this thread twice every day to see if there were new posts. Didn't have time to make something myself, I guess that is a common problem.
Lovely characters Mytholon, and such a brush-paint-tutorial within Zbrush would be a feast! I'm thrilled and will check this thread trice a day now. :lol:

[Marsyas]

Always inspiring to see your use of ZBrush, Mytholon.

Thanks for this thread! :)

[Plakkie]

I just wish that the layers were more functional (more like photoshop, with blending modes).Would be an nice bonus for the new Zbrush 2.5. (Maybe not if we have to wait another year then... ;))

[Mytholon]

Frenchy, actually those were not done with the smudge. I used simple brush with a custom alpha tip, and a lot of C-picking of colors.

However I have used smudge brush in the past: people, you can check it out HERE (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=024114)

Here is a different one. Perhaps some of you will find the walkthrough interesting.

Teddy.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750304%27,%27Teddy.jpg%27,1,0%2 9)

Teddy2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750305%27,%27Teddy2.jpg%27,1,0% 29)

Teddy3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750306%27,%27Teddy3.jpg%27,1,0% 29)

Below you can find the Teddy material, and the shaggy Photoshop brush I used for the fur (it is a modified Nagel brush).

[lemonnado]

Thank you soooo much for your lectures!
Lemo :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Harmonic]

That is so awesome, thanks Mytholon!!:tu: I have been wanting to try something similar, I will have to get that Pixol to Pixol plug-in. I would also like to use projection master on an entire 3d seen. Maybe if I set the seen up and grab the depth, and deform a polymesh plane with the alpha? I will have try it.

[Atwooki]

Great character and walkthrough Mytholon :)

Your unique and intuitive presentations here provide some real gems here for the ZB community - thanks :tu:

Chris

[guilemo]

You, Sir, have inspired me greatly :D

I had given up 3d, including Zbrush, but when I saw this thread I felt a fire within me to start with zbrush yet again. You have showed me possebilities I though were impossible to acheve inside Zbrush.

When I painted before, I used Photoshop as my main app. Now I use Zbrush along with Zbrush and I LOVE it.

Thank you again Sir :D

By the way, I made this painting using some of your tecniques. Its not exactly great, but its a start :)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/guilemo/ZValley1copy-1.jpg

[DMerchen]

This is great information. I love your illustrations and really appreciate that you share in your creation process. Thanks!

[AngelJ]

Mytholon,

Your tut presentations are extremely informative, innovated and well done. Information is clear and concise. Looking forward to seeing more of your work and presentations in the future!! :tu:

[Mytholon]

Harmonic, this sounds like a neat experiment. If you do it, please post some of your results here.

Guilemo, nice! Thank you for the contribution.

Thank you people for your comments!

[H3DCLIFF]

WOW :eek:


Great thread! Great Works!

Congrats, Mytholon.
I really appreciate all the process.

Thank you :tu:

[markkens]

Kudos Mytholon!
Great thread!!!

Mr Micro, I can't help looking for Eloi and Morlocks in your post...it has that wonderful decaying future look. Maybe a bit more on your workflow, if the time has not passed for that?

[marcus_civis]

Great teddy bear technique - and I'm glad Pixol to Pixel is useful. :)

Switching on Continuous Color in the Picker palette can be a great way to smudge paint.

[yoogy]

Thanx a lot for the Teddy - he is so loveley- great :tu:

[Mytholon]

In the TeddyBear walkthrough above, I mentioned that the potential of using Projection Master for illustration is huge. Since an illustration is a static image, you can place your models first and texture them later. That way you don't have to worry about seams, distortions or symmetry, and that gives you great creative freedom.
I have some close up examples of my SpellDancer image where this technique was used.
I do not claim that this was a quick job. The whole image took me 15-18 hours from sketch to finish (2 days). However it is a good example of ergonomics, because this could have taken me twice that time if it wasn't for these techniques.

SpellDancer4.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750386%27,%27SpellDancer4.jpg%2 7,1,0%29)


SpellDancer2.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750387%27,%27SpellDancer2.jpg%2 7,1,0%29)


SpellDancer3.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750388%27,%27SpellDancer3.jpg%2 7,1,0%29)

You can check out the complete SpellDancer illustration HERE (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=35923&highlight=spelldancer). (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=35923&highlight=spelldancer)

[Harmonic]

Hey Mytholon, I thought the Spell Dancer was rendered in layers and composted in photo shop:qu: How did you use projection master in creating it:qu: Just curious, I love that tutorial, it is what got me into CG and Zbrush. I have been working on my experiment of painting an entire seen in projection master, I will hopefully some Post results today.

[Mytholon]

Harmonic, I am glad SpellDancer had such an impact on you. This image was indeed composed out of layers, but the textured (colored) layers were created with that technique. That is why I posted the close ups, where most of that work can be seen.

[Harmonic]

Hey everyone, Well this has been interesting. I was curious if you could place many models in a zbrush seen and then paint the hole seen in projection master. I tried deforming a polymesh plane with the alpha from the seen but I wasn’t happy with that because as you can see below everything comes out really flat so it didn’t really shade right, and that is half the point of doing this to have zbrush put in basic shadows for me.

plane.jpg

In all farness I didn’t mess around with the displacement intensity, so maybe you can get better results. But I found I could trick projection master into taking an entire 2.5D seen. By drawing an active polymesh on the canvas and then dragging it off the canvas, you can then enter projection master and paint your hole seen. I found it worked best to work if fast render mode because you don’t actually have a texture map applied to the seen, so you are painting directly on the material and the material really shows threw the color. If you try to pick the seen up ZB will drop everything except the active polymesh, so instead I went into zapplink and saved the zaplink doc into my folder for this project. Make sure you have backups of your ZB seen incase you accidentally pick up!!:ex: :ex: :ex:

color test hs 2 zb copy.jpg thunbs zbc hs.jpg
Here is my wip as it stands now, just a basic color pas from PM and a few materials composted together. I am not a fast painter, I will post the final result if this thread is still going when I get it done.:lol: This post is much more about experiment with PM much more than my amazing painting skills.:lol:

[Mytholon]

Hamonic: Interesting experiments! Thank you for sharing!
:b3: Some feedback: You could use layers for your elements. When you come out from Projection Master, the rest of the layers will still be there.
In SpellDancer I used Projection Master in conjuction with layers and markers. That way I could take objects one at a time in projection master and work on them, and still have them live by using the markers to bring them back when I needed to work on them some more.
Also, depending on the result you are trying to achieve, perhaps you do not need to go through projection master at all. I use it for single objects (or MarkerMastered multimarked polymeshes). For a whole scene, you could just place the objects on your scene and paint on them in regular mode. You do not have to be in Projection Master to use ZApplink.

:qu: I have noticed though, that when I get to ZApplink outside of Projection Master, colored materials (such as the ReflectedMap material) come greyscale in Photoshop. Any feedback on that :qu:

[Harmonic]

You don’t have to be in projection master to use zapplink!! Well I guess that makes that technique useless, :o that’s a bit of a bummer I thought that was such a clever trick, but I cant’ think of any other reason it would be useful. But in the end that just simplifies things and I am really excited about experimenting with this more!! I will have to experiment with markers more, I tried Marker Master but it didn’t seem reliable, sometimes things would be marked and sometimes not? As for material coming out grayscale in zapplink, I had that happen when I worked on this yesterday. So I experimented with zapplick today to see if I could find some cleaver solution and I took every transparent and reflective and colored material I could find into zapplink and they all showed up perfectly in Photoshop, both inside and outside of projection master. I cant explain it, I swear it didn't work yesterday??

[Yari Jindou]

omg! i understand alot of things now =) GREAT WORK[yes it deserves some caps because its so good] keep it up!

[Mytholon]

Here are more characters, created with the techniques of this lab. Except PUG, the others are created exclusively in ZBrush, The pending painting tutorial has been delayed due to too much work, but it is still on the way.
PUG took me about 2 hours to create. The other two paintings took about an hour and a half each (mixing paint is too time consuming).

Pug.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('50774','Pug.jpg',1,0))

LittleDog.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('50775','LittleDog.jpg',1,0) )

CattleDog.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('50776','CattleDog.jpg',1,0) )

[Mahlikus The Black]

Very cool! Would love to see a tutorial about all this.

[Plakkie]

I really like the second one, with the small body and the big head; nice shading. Great to hear you are still working on the tut. If we can wait a long time for Zbrush 2.5 we can wait a bit for this goody as well. :D

[guilemo]

Beautiful as allways! The first thing I noticed wasthe truly amazing eyes! You make them look so alive!

[wckedsunny]

Hi Antonis

I did went through your tutorials, but was not able to add in before.

I learned your spell dancer technique before I had the accident and I have to thank you that you showed me a way which is very efficient in creating stand alone illustrations.

the coloring and painting part is never my problem, till now I was stuck with detailing. I have understood zspheres takes more time in detailing. For stand alone illustrations sculpting individual parts is much easier, consumes less time with very less polygons. And more polygons can be added anytime to give more smooth detailing.

Heres what I have created -
(http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750840%27,%27warrior-workflow1.jpg%27,1,0%29)

N.B. - I need to mention, I touched zbrush after 2 months yesterday. and I am working on a notebook with only 512 mb of ram without any plugins installed.. this was all I could create with the touch pad mouse. So do not expect much detailed or smooth results. :D

Thanks for these techniques, you made me forget the pain of my broken knee. ;)


warrior-workflow1.jpg (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2750840%27,%27warrior-workflow1.jpg%27,1,0%29)

[mikehiroaki]

Mytholon, you are like my friggin hero. amazing work. it inspires me alot.

[lemonnado]

(mixing paint is too time consuming)

It would be fantastic to have a color swatch pop up in the righ click menu with the mouse or a key. The only thing which is holding me back most of the time is the lack of a nice color pallet.

Lemo

[Plakkie]

It would be fantastic to have a color swatch pop up in the righ click menu with the mouse or a key. The only thing which is holding me back most of the time is the lack of a nice color pallet.

LemoIsn't that an easy thing to make with a Zplugin or script? Not that I'm capable of writing such a thing? But maybe it's peanuts for someone else?

[wckedsunny]

Maybe that will change with Z3.

I should shutup, the great pixol has many eyes, nonethless he will decide to add that as well , delaying the realse again :)

[lemonnado]

I don't know Plakkie. I am thinking along the line of a circular color wheel with radial sections of harmonic colors and an outside rim of definable custom colors.
And maybe a smudge area.... And all pops up on a key press aeound the cursor. So it would only take a very small move to pick up a new color or shade. A bit along the line of the stencil tool functionality.
Lemo


PS:Cool tool: http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html

[lemonnado]

Just found this....

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=23194

That's almost what I was thinking about.
Lemo

[yfchild]

Mytholon/Saltapiedras are for me goods mentors, very diferente styles but i love this guys;)

This image"mother ship is come back" i made it with "art speed painting from Mytholon". Sorry i don´t think for this image... and try no stop and i want a burn rose purple colors. I love it like that. I do it several versions, orange, blue, etc. but il like this one.

For info:

All brushes are made in zbrush, i convert to alfa, and convert to brushes in photoshop.

All background building are made in zbrush

The ship are made like Mytholon, and create 3/5 objects diferents for the big ship (the mother ship . The little are = same way.

The "big vegetal" at the right = same way and duplicate the layer, and convert alfa for have mask in photoshop.

Mytholon = now i like the experience zbrush = thanks a lot, you re a very good artist


Sorry for my bad english.

[javalabala]

i wanna be there

[Plakkie]

Hey Mytholon! Just to let you know: despite the Z3-rush we are looking forward to your toutorial too! Maybe it's time for a movie about it's upcoming features? :lol:

[Mytholon]

wckedsunny: Thank you for the contribution. I am glad you found the Spell Dancer technique helpful. Keep in mind though, that my renders are painted-over in that technique.

yfchild: Thank you for sharing your image! Interesting world.

My painting tutorial is still pending, but I have another workflow. This painting took me 3 1/2 hours to create.


Hunter.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('51559','Hunter.jpg',1,0))


Hunter2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('51560','Hunter2.jpg',1,0))


Hunter3.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('51561','Hunter3.jpg',1,0))


Hunter4.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('51562','Hunter4.jpg',1,0))

[lemonnado]

I don't dare to post any of my results yet as they lack a lot... But I must thank you a lot as your work flow made a lot of things 'click' in my mind.
Using the 'rough' 2.5 geometry to create shadow and light just has shortened my learning curve significantly. I also use the layers to simply drop a few geometry items on one layer just to see how shadow falls, then switch it off, and back to the original layer to paint/correct the image I am working on.
It actually made me draw things I would not have attempted before. Your work flow is a great asset and should be considered as an teaching aid by many.
Have a great weekend!
Lemo

[javierloredo]

Hey Mytholon!
You got a beautiful piece of art here. I really love the colors you picked, the lighting and the composition of the girl siting on the tree. Very nice!

One question! Do you use PS or Painter?

Ok keep the good work! Have a good one!

Javier Loredo.

[AngelJ]

Mytholon,

Again, can't say thanks enough for the things you share to help give others more food for thought. I'm just getting started in 3d and as more of a traditional artist it helps to see various workflows which help merge both genre's. Brings me insight and workable knowledge!! Can't put a price tag on that if you could you'd be extremely wealthly i'd imagine. Perhaps you'll do a instructional dvd and that could come to pass :tu: :tu: .

At any rate keep it up.. your contributions speak for themselves but many thanks my friend!!

[eboy]

Mytholon, I've been following this thread now for a while but still have not commented so thought now was the time. Just wanted to say I think this is a excellent way to produce quality concept art in an efficient way. I think I'll certainly give this a try for my next character design.

Thanks for showing us the ropes :cool:

[Mytholon]

Lemmonado: I am looking forward to the results of your experiments.

javierloredo: I use PS.
Painter is excellent for illustrations and digital paintings, and it has the unique ability to paint and blend at the same time.
However, I find it too slow for concept art. There are ways and techniques to work faster in it, but when I use them, it seems to me that the end result and especially the colors tend to have a copycut look, immitating GrandMaster concept artist Ryan Church (bow in deep respect).
So its just ZBrush, PS and Modo for me.

AngelJ & eboy: You are very welcome. If this thread has helped you become more creative, then that is a great reward to me.

Here is another image, created using the same techniques. 2 hours.

Passage.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('51644','Passage.jpg',1,0))

[dani_z3]

There is no exclamation hard enough to describe my opinion about your work :o
You are just amazing :o

Keep walking...

[DivideandRender]

Hey that looks realy cool. looks like its missing some torches and piles of bones or something.

[Plakkie]

Mytholon, if I were a director/producer with a budget, I'd let you design my films without a question! :tu::tu:
Time for me to study your images again. Isn't it funny how we bow in respect to the ppl 'above' us? I'll bow to you for now: I hardly dare look at Ryan Church's work... ;)

[Plakkie]

Ok, I tried to follow some of Mytholon's workflow again, trying to make a landscape like the first posts and the last few. Three hours in the process yet, but I'm not going for speed at this point: something that would look like a painted landscape would already make me verry happy. :rolleyes:

landscaping1.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('52156','landscaping1.jpg',1 ,0))

The first steps were fun and easy. But now I get to the paintover part, and I'm a bit at a loss as how to proceed. Just using the smudge brush doesn't feel very satisfying and I loose much of the nice details in the rock. What would be the best tools to use while painting so I can get that painted look and still have a lot of detail? I guess the already shown alpha's come into play but how to make those and with what settings to use them is a bit confusing to me.
Guess I need a bit of advise right now, and ofcourse: crit's are always welcome. :)

[lemonnado]

That looks already very well!. Try and use a 4096 texture on that model, and AUV or GUV tiles. hat would eliminate the distortions. Or use the stencil and do not use the projection master at all. In that case, use the largest canvas size you can manage and paint in aahalf. That also gives more detail and no jaggies.
Lemo

[Plakkie]

Thanks Lemo! I used Bcast for this canvas format. :tu::cool:
This image ís done in AAhalf. I thought the distortions were caused by the way I blew up my plane object. There isn't any texture involved so far, as my goal is a 2D painting and not a 3D textured object. I just placed my un-textured and un-UVed object in a fancy position and started using the deco brush. Is it better to UV and Texture anyhow?
I didn't mind the distortions so much as I was planning to paint it over anyway. But: a nicer reference picture will make my painting nicer too I guess, so I'm eager to learn...

[Harmonic]

Hey Plakkie, I have been working with this technique too and the bet advice I can give you is- you have to just let go of what you have now and dig in ant start painting. Don't wory about loosing your details, just use what you have there as a base to create something new , and hope for happy accidents. I know how you feel, because what you have there already looks good and at first you are going to feel like you are messing it up. But after I make a mess of things for a bit it usually starts to come together. As far as what brushes to use I use them all, the simple brush, smudge with color bleed, MRGBZ grabber with directional brush and drag and drop, deco, are my favorites.:)

[Plakkie]

Thanks for the advice Harmonic! Indeed I felt like I was making a mess of it. I'll try and go on messing it up, untill maybe something new happens.
I ám curious how you are using "MRGBZ grabber with directional brush" while overpainting. Can you show an exemple?

[Harmonic]

Hey Plakkie I am glad you asked, it is one of my favorite Painting methods in zbrush. It’s is especially god for adding allot of texture. Sometimes while I paint I will start to get a pattern some color variations that I really like, I grab that piece of the canvas, well usually many different pieces, so you can keep it from getting to repeated. Then paint those textures on using various alphas and opacities. You can get some really great abstract results. I use it allot for backgrounds but it could just as easily be used for texturing anything.

I used it a lot in painting the background for this piece that I am working on here. I think The ability to paint textures in this way unique to Zbrush and it some thing I miss when using PS or Painter. :)

Mrgbz dem copy s.jpg grabs.jpg

[Plakkie]

Ah, I see. Very cool! :tu:

[Plakkie]

Well, I followed Harmonic's advice and started messing up my image with the smudge tool, loaded with regularly picked colors from my original image. After the first scary moments the simple mindless fun of painting kicked in and after an hour my I took a step back (zoomed out) from my foreground rocks and...
they still looked a bit like rocks! :D

landscaping2.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:zb_insimg('52209','landscaping2.jpg',1,0))

I will do the background too, to see where this will go. Crit's and tips are again welcome.

I have one problem. I baked the layer before the start of the paintover. But now I can't paint in the part where the sky should be. There is nog geometry there, so Zbrush won't color it? How do I make this empty bit act as a blanc piece of paper?

[Plakkie]

One lonely person working through the night in the ergonomics lab...
And having fun!

Done the background and the rocks to the left. I'd like to make a dense forest in de valley below if I only knew how...
I found out that I could still place a plane behind my mountains, so, I baked again and I could paint a sky (kinda). 2.5D rocks! :tu:

landschap5.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('52211','landschap5.jpg',1,0 ))

It's weird... in the left part of the background a small plateau formed itself in the painting while it wasn't in the rendered object. It's probably one of those happy accidents? :cool:

[Harmonic]

Hey that’s looken good, I personally don, like the mount of fog, I would paint some of that out. Instead of baking the layer I covert it to a flat image with the MRGBZ grabber ( make shore you turn auto crop off) or by exporting it as a pds and then importing it. And for painting trees and such check out the first page of this thread again, mython does a great job of suggesting grass and trees with a custom brush, without allot of detail. :)

[Plakkie]

Thanks Harmonic! Ofcourse, MRGBZ grabber, that would work too. Do I understand correct that you loose you're depth info after that?
"I personally don't like the mount of fog". Do you mean the amount of fog? I used it to get a suggestion of depth in the image. I do think it's just a bit to gray at the moment, but I'm planning to add a bit of contrast in PS when I'm finished with it.

[yfchild]

I put here... i made it with speed painting method Mytholon

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=43039

[Harmonic]

Hey, yfchild that’s a cool abstract spacey style piece, good work. :cool:

Plakkie, yes I did mean”the amount of fog" oops. :o Yes you will lose your depth information if you covert the piece to a flat image, but it allows you alot more freedom to alter shapes and proportions and such.

[lemonnado]

I spend some time this week on this... It's slowly getting there and at a stage where I can show a wip. The terrain is an Alpha painted in ZBrush. I made a lot of Alpha's for that to be able to adjust for different corrosion styles. It's LARGE. 4069 format. I'm playing around trying to integrate stuff, get the fog and terrain color half way right. Tweak clouds.... One can get lost in this...
mtrainer_sml.jpg
Here a pic of the ZBrush Buildings. Later simply wedged in between two PS layers, then blurr and color corrections... Still tweaking so.. Buildings are simple cylinders which were masked and negative inflated, then tapered. Instant windows...
mtrainer_zbuild.jpg
Here a detail:
mtrainer_detail.jpg
Lemo... back to the woods...
PS: The ZBrush Alpha has been rendered in Terragen as hightmap. Render time of the 4096 pic and the large Alpha was 17 hours. Sky is painted. Lot's of corrections as well.

[Slosh]

Lemo, I am truly impressed! Even the closeup looks fantastic. I'd like to point out that what you have done here, and Mytholon, shows that you can get some very realistic paintings with zbrush. I recall a recent thread where the artist was being accused of doctoring a photograph. People could not believe he could get those results from ZBrush...well, here is the proof.

I'm eager to try this technique myself. I never bothered to read this thread before (it was too long, I thought), but I'm glad I changed my mind. I would like to get a better understanding of the multiple renders and using them in Photoshop. I've seen artist do this in nearly every software package and never could grasp why. I tried it myself, but I don't think my layer blending methods were the proper ones, since my final pics usually just looked muddy and dark.

Anywho, everyone keep up the good work...Mytholon, you ROCK!

[lemonnado]

I think I made up my mind. I'll try and integrate a nice Zeeble ship (what else... I am so predictable... :rolleyes: ).
I quickly made a Z-Ship and rendered that for the scene.
ship01.jpg
And the first result looks like it will be a nice scene. I have to change the details, the ship doesn't look like much. So, back to Zbrush for some more Zeebles.
mtrainer_space.jpg
Lemo

[dogbone]

Goddammit Mytholon, I used up all my available effusiveness on your last Tarot Tut thread. I'll need to invent some new words to elucidate how marvellous and inpiring your work is.

[Plakkie]

Aaah... Mister Lemo shows his work...

And it's GREAT!

Don't know how you painted that sky, but it's verrrry nice, so much depth. :eek: That alpha map is so detailed I can almost count pebbles. And the Zeeble ship is... is... well, huge! :lol: I heard the Zeebles like their ships huge, they can contain as much as six Zeeble females; maybe you can draw them in there too Lemo? ;) (the males stay on Z, their homeplanet, designing and polishing their newest and nearly uncomprehendable Zeeble ships. One day a certain informative TV-channel will make a series out of it, titled "Zeeble Build-off", so millions of viewers can watch the Zeeble males use coarse language and pressing deadlines. They'll probably be contending against a Romulan shipyard or the Biker-mice from Mars)

Anyway...
Mytholon, some of us are still dying to see the tutorial you talked about. Any news? :cool:

[jmeyer]

Hey Lemo,
Do you already use terraconv ? You can convert 16 bit ter files
to 16 bit tifs and viceversa,can be very useful.And it´s free.;)

Btw i´d like to see that toot too.

J.

[lemonnado]

Yes, the tutorial would be great!
LOL @ Plakkie haha. Sky was PS painted with the usual cloud brush trickery... I also found out how to render them.... now I can be lazy. I give up on that landscape. It has major problems with the scale. I am having difficulties estabishing fore, mid, and background. Well... everything is background right now. Then, the ship is SO HUGE that I cannot create detail without it being rediculous. People would have to have the size of a pixel... I am making a better sample with a bit more strategy. It's a lot of fun. I'll shell that off as it's own thread.. so poor Mytholon doesn't get highjacked :D .

I convert my ZBrush Alphas with PS. Terragen digests those nicely. 16bit all the way. 32 would be nice, but large. I copied landscape aerial photos, made a greyscale, and use those as brush 8). Ahhh the trickery ...
Lemo

[3Point14]

I would also like to see a tutorial.....but not as much as the Zeeble females in a wet "T" shirt competion. :lol: