background tutorials??

[Kat]

Hi! Another Newbie here...(ok, you can groan). I'm looking for a tutorial on making backgrounds in zbrush, does such a thing exist? :confused: If so, would someone be kind enough to point me towards it? I'm building a lovely landscape and now am ready to stick somthing behind it, but am having troubles with 1)ideas 2)layering. Any help would be forever appreciated!

Kat feralkat@ev1.net

[DeathScythe]

Well im stuck here with you im a noob also, im still in the corner with no one to help me with making a rendered Tank =( i cant create anything lol

[Stonecutter]

Welcome K!
The easiest approach would be to paint the background in 'Flat Color' material...This would prevent it from reacting to the light and giving you shadows where you don't want them. Personally, I do backgrounds first, while I'm modelling objects for a scene, and then fill the back layer first with the painting, adding layers subsequently as needed... ;)

[Denture Cream]

Use the plane3d tool with the DragRec stroke and set down a plane on the first layer. If you'd like shadows cast onto a ground, I suppose you could set a plane down as the ground, and use the perspective distort option in the Draw panel to give it depth.

From here you could apply textures to the plane (pre-made .JPG from Photoshop or Illustrator), or paint on it directly with the BumpBrush, DepthBrush (with many different alphas), and SimpleBrush in the Tool Panel.

By applying planes, you can still use all the depth tools in ZBrush, and adjust the layers ZDepth (Displace Z) via the layer panel, which can be helpful when applying Depth Blur and fog effects from the Render Panel.

Also, check out the Vegetation tutorial in the QuickLinks.

Ideally, you should sketch your scene first using just a pencil and paper, so you have a basic composition already prepared.

I know this isn't a detailed tutorial, but hopefully these ideas can get you started. :)

[Stonecutter]

I think D's suggestion will also work, but I prefer not to add geometry if I don't have to...If you have ZAdd on, you don't need a plane, you can just paint. And the 2.5D tools will still work without the plane... ;) You then add another layer for the new components. And if you want to displace the layer, (something I haven't had to do in over a year of use, because I plan ahead...), you can still do that too! :)

(If you check this detail of my 'Caterpillar' image out, you'll see how I used a basic material so I WOULD get cast shadows on my background...I still painted this without any geometry...)


http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1031520673nrd.jpg

[Frenchy Pilou]

A very speedy background method
- Select a texture
- Menu Layer Modifier Fill
Pilou :)

[Denture Cream]

Stonecutter,

Thank you for the tip. I just assumed the 2.5D tools needed an object. I have never used the Flat Color material, but will be doing so in the future. :D

[banez]

here is a background Tool :: http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=004187 i never finished it but its fun to make when your done you can even use alot of brushes on it i would try the SMUDGE Brush with differnt Alpha

[Kat]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I downloaded that texture tool, looking forward to playing with it. I found one tutorial that was very helpful, Drag Rectangle Stroke by Zoid (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/counters/increment-zscripts.cgi/z007dragrectstroke.zip?1tutes/z007dragrectstroke.zip).


Just wish I could import with the demo version so I could work back and forth with Paint Shop Pro, am getting all kinds of ideas of things I could do bouncing back and forth!! Guess I'll have to wait till I get the cash up for a full version. :p

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