Sweet Tooth (new images added)

[Angst]

'Afternoon all,
Had an hour or two to kill, so I figured I'd Once-And-For-All have a go at learning Z2, and boy am I gald I did. What a software package!
All I can say is: God Bless The Cavity Shader.
Anyway, this is a little guy from the Role-Playing Game that I'm forever procrastinating on, but since it's now SO easy to model this kind of thing in Z2, I might actually finish the forty or so remaining illustrations and call the thing DONE (half will be traditional pencil and the other half ZBrush).
Roughly one hour in Z2 and aprox. 1/2 hour tweaking in PhotoShop (yes, yes, I KNOW I can tweak in Z but old habits die hard).
Enjoy.
~A...
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200406/user_image-1086738923jnw.jpg

PS Yes, I ALSO know it looks like a cross between a hooded Cobra and the Alien Chest-Burster.
PPS But it's not.


Edit Edit Edit

Hey,
Another view of the same beast (striking at a hapless individual this time).

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200406/user_image-1086796545dat.jpg

Yes, it DID begin as ZSpheres and was just plugged away at until I was happy with the look. Obviously the Cavity Shader was used heavilly and being able to constantly bounce to the lower subdivision state to repose the beast is a God-Send for creating multiple creatures from one flexible model (like this one).

And, just for the record, the creature HAS no eyes (relying instead on several other non-Terran senses for survival and locomotion).

Just thought you should know.


Edit Edit Edit (again)

Here's YET another view of the beast, in a different pose (mouth closed).
By returning to the lowest subdivision level, you can repose and have 10 entirely new creatures for the price (and effort) of one.

Life can only get better if I achieve my dream of being 7 feet tall and gilded in Bronze.
~A...

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200406/user_image-1086894135fgo.jpg

[50'sKID]

Hi Angst, very imaginative little creature. I hope you'll post the others as your game developes. 50.

[abxy]

I don't know about you guys, but if I ever saw that thing cross my path, i'd completely freak out...great work mate...I can't believe you did all of that in about an hour...how'd it start, zsphere's or what?

[kobi1kobi]

nice :)
only thing missing are eye(s).

[Frenchy Pilou]

Frightening indeed :eek: :eek: :eek:
Pilou

[Buckie]

Nice one matey!!!

[kayoto]

WoW ! I love it !!!
How duid you made the mouth part ?
I mean is it all 1 shader ? or you split it into few objects ? like teeth ? and skin ?
and how did you model the teeth all at once ? (alpha invert ?) or modeled one by one ?

Sorry for the stupid questions.. Just curious about your amazing creation !

[Angst]

Kayoto: Not stupid questions at all, my friend. Asking questions is how we get good at using this software (Like the hundreds I asked of Glen Southern, for example).

The teeth were, indeed, masked, inverted and pulled up into points.

I first select all parts of the model I want to see (CTRL and Shift) but I do this in the LOWEST poly mode (much easier to select stuff that way - remember you can CTRL+Shift click on poly groups and select them directly that way as well). I then zoom WAY in and go to the higest subdivision level possible to make the symetrical teeth "dots" (by holding the CTRL key and masking).

Then I invert the mask, INFLATE the now-white dots (Tool > Deformations > Inflate) by around 20 or so to give them some initial mass and THEN pull them up using the MOVE tool to get the white (unmasked) dots into position. (obviously I then do this same routine for the other jaw).

Next, I go in and SMOOTH the teeth (TRANSFORM > SMOOTH brush - or just hold the SHIFT key to do this by default) so that the cavity shader won't mark them all up.
I INFLATE the areas around the teeth for gums, push them around to fit and that's it for the modeling.

Projection Master comes into play next for the coloring and texturing of the model. For the color, I turn ZAdd off, pick a color and go to town, making nice, clean color divisions between teeth and gum.
Next, back in Projection Master, I turn DEFORMATIONS on, pick a nice bumpy ALPHA, select the normal brush and create creases and wrinkles that the Cavity Shader will exploit nicely.

I use three lights with shadows enabled, set rendering to accept SHADOWS and hit the BEST RENDER button.
Instant textured beast. How nice.

Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer and I'll be most happy to oblige.
~A...

[kayoto]

WoW !
Your Explanation was really great, thank you very much I kinda try make teeth over a regular sphere and it came something ..like teeth.
Just didn't found the shader you talked about, Cavity Shader, Couldn't see it on my list of shader when I click material.

So I understand ALL the creature is Cavity Shader, but using the texture you colored diffrent ways using alpha and colors.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200406/user_image-1086948565yoc.jpg


I got 2 Questions:
******************

1 - Cavity Shader - Where where is it ?
2 - After you done modeling your creature, How did you pose it ? (adaptive skin, make the ZSphere disable I think)


Thank you Very Much Angst for your very "Step-By-Step" explanation, it helped me a lot !

:) :tu: ;)

[Abyssis]

Hi Angst, very nice and useful explanation of your techniques :tu: Thank you well...

(Do you know, what "Angst" in german is? "Fear" :D ... you know it? )

[Angst]

Kayoto – you're very welcome, I'm happy to help. In answer to your other questions:

1.) Cavity Shader really isn't its own Material as far as I know. It is a series of five settings beginning with CavityIntensity and ending with CavitySpecular that affect SOME already existing Materials (you have to see which ones have the Cavity settings, not all Materials DO) and they reside near the end of the list of alterable properties for the material. Make sure you have the Material section docked in either the right or left hand side of the screen so that you can see all of the properties for the Material when you expand the long list.
I used the Toy Plastic Material for this guy, went in and changed the Specularity, Diffuse and other properties (under the S1 heading), and then also made the Cavity settings I liked for the bumpy look I was after. These Cavity settings will affect all bumps, wrinkles etc. you paint on the surface (I use Projection Master a lot to add these details).

2.) I posed him using the ZSphere view. I never actually even made him into an adaptive skin at all. I only saved the tool as a ZSphere series and Previewed the mesh, (hit the "A" key), increased the ADAPTIVE SKIN > DENSITY level to 8 and then used the TOOLS > GEOMETRY section to slide the level up to add whatever effects I needed. Every time I needed a new pose, I'd just hit the "A" key and go back to ZSphere mode for my new view. Also, by using the GEOMETRY slider, it's easy to go down to a simple block view of the model (DENSITY 1) and select things easily or just get a better idea of the overall mass of the object.

3.) Yes, the creature is only ONE Material with Cavity Shading applied and THEN Textured with colors and little details in Projection Master.


Abyssis - Ja weiß ich den, danke.
It ALSO means: Anguish, torment, anxiety, trouble, sorrow, and worry (though I always used it more in the 'anguish' capacity, myself).
I started using the word to sign artwork back in high school as it was a natural combination of my first and last names and it sounds pretty cool as an artist name as well.
I'm considering using it as a stage name, too. Hey, OTHER bass players do the "one-name" thing... Flea, Sting, P-Nut, Fieldy... why not add Angst to that list?


Everybody else - Thanks for the kind words and comments. I'm starting to model several other creatures and Player Races for my game and I'll probably post many of them as I find the time to work on them.

[kayoto]

About that Pose subject, I Wonder how you make it.. I mean When I start a Zsphere and make a creature (using the "A" key) the DEVIDE button isn't appear, so I can't make the mesh Higher res... and it's very hard to sculpt it, so how you made all this without even use adaptive skin.. that's sound really cool way of working... but I only sucess higher resolution after adaptive skin.. and then No Way back to ZSphere, So I can't pose the model...

[Abyssis]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> I'm considering using it as a stage name, too. Hey, OTHER bass players do the "one-name" thing... Flea, Sting, P-Nut, Fieldy... why not add Angst to that list?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Of course, why not :tu: :tu: :D

[Angst]

Kayoto - yeah it IS somewhat confusing until you get the hang of it:

1.) Make your ZSphere model
2.)Open up TOOLS > ADAPTIVE SKIN and press the PREVIEW button
3.) Set the DENSITY up to 8 (and make any other settings here you want, IRes settings, Membrane settings etc.)
4.) you can close out of ADAPTIVE SKIN mode now and just use the "A" key in the future to turn on and off PREVIEW
5.) Go up and open TOOLS > GEOMETRY. You should now have a slider that lets you move up to Resolution 8 or down to 1 (for a simpler, blocky model).
6.) Do all your cool detail stuff in the highest resolution (including Projection Master stuff) and when you're happy with the detail, Press "A" to bounce back to ZSphere mode for posing. Now, don't go CRAZY with a wild new stretched pose or you might mess up some of the detail, but you CAN do some nice things.
7.) When you want to see the new pose with your former details, hit "A" again.

I don't even make skins anymore, I just save the ZSphere model and all those changes are saved with it. The next time you open the model, just make sure you PREVIEW it again by hitting the button or by pressing "A".

[kayoto]

Angst, thanks again !

Now I understand how you pose your model.
the problem is that even on density 7 my puter is kinda slow (when roatet the model and work on it while I'm in realtime)
but I'll try even texture something.. the hard part is texture...

also what I want to do is finish model+texture all in ZB2 and use the complete textured model in MAYA to rigg and aniamte, but it seems like Billion of faces when I import it into Maya... any solution for that it will look smooth like in ZB2 but won't be so heavy in Maya ?

Thanks again :)