Illuminated Letter

[sgbrown]

Just a doodle using alpha skinning and "spraying" on different materials.
The decorative letter form was done in freehand in black and white then exported as a psd file. It was then imported as an alpha and skinned. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1039753016ldf.jpg

[gummie]

Very nice decorative letter, it's well done. But I think you could have skipped the exporting and 3d directly. :) :D

:tu:

[sgbrown]

Thanks for your input, Gummie. I'm sure it could have been modeled in z-spheres; but this sure was fast. Also it's good to play around with all of the features in zbrush. It's just so versatile, besides you could do all sorts of latice work using alphaskinning or as a stencil. Part of what attracted me to zbrush was it's ability to bring in outside graphics and integrate it with 3d. It's not just a modeling program.
Your point is well taken though. I've been just starting modeling with zbrush maya and wings 3d and it is well worth the time to tackle everything involved with zbrush's powerful features.
Cheers

[aurick]

Actually, you could have used the MRGBZGrabber with AutoCrop turned on to capture the letter off of the canvas rather than exporting it. This creates an alpha based on the depth and a texture based on the color. You could then either use that alpha, or you could press Texture>Make Alpha to turn the texture into an alpha. It all depends on your needs. :)

[Muvlo]

Very pretty, Sg. :) It looks like a wonderful tree! :tu:

[sgbrown]

OK, now I see... Sorry Aurick, I didn't express myself clearly. I generated the letterform in freehand. Then I imported the freehand-exported-as psd file into Z-Brush. I didn't export the file from ZBrush. Also, I needed a crisp letterform to start with. Drawing by hand would have been too time-consuming. I tried the zscript alpha text tool that used one letter font but thought I'd try this way as well as I found that I had more control this way.
Since there are no text-font tools in ZBrush, you have to import the letter forms.
This was a decorative "P" (I can't remember the typeface). If you want to do an "illuminated manuscript" type of lettering it seems to me the easiest to import the letter forms as alpha and use as a skinned object or as a stencil. Thanks for the input, Muvlo.

[Flycatcher]

A very attractive end result - love the materials and the nice crisp outline.