In The Sand

[DeeVee]

This is an experiment in which I tried to replicate Ken B's wet sand look unsuccessfully! The Conchs and Yellow tail Snapper were alphas I had. They were imported as a texture.
Just another doodle, of things we sometimes find in the sand. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1034781436vfv.jpg

[Fouad B.]

nice pict !!
sand appears much compact not enough granulous
it look's plastic ... (I think...)

compared Ken has.

but nice picture !! :tu: :tu:

[Jaycephus]

DeeVee,

( :ex: EDIT: you could apply some noise and color bump to the base sand material. With the right setting, you could have a gritty surface with built-in color variation.)

I think this is a nice base of sand for the next step that will produce success. Create a 'sand particle' tool. This could be one little blocky shphere or rounded off cube, or multimarker of several sand particles. You want the particles in a multimarker tool to be very close together and not greatly spaced out, because if they get applied at an angle, you'll have sand 'floating' in the air above the surface, and this may show up in a close up with strong shadows. Use this with the Spray Stroke. Start with a material with higher specular to continue the 'wet' look, something very much like what you have in the base. Spray some sand onto the base you already have. Use very little color variation. You'll have to turn it down from the default .2. It may be better to manually vary the color to get the exact variation desired. The automatic variation is too random. This will give you your realism as far as the sand is concerned.

You could then duplicate your original material and edit it to have less specularity. The idea is to make the next layer of particles appear to be drier than those you applied earlier. Apply however many 'layers' you like. Of course, using multiple ZBrush layers as you do this would allow you to clear and restart a new application of a different size/color/material sand particle without loosing all of your work.

[Q-qeo]

Hé DeeVee, maby Ken will share some
technique you are close......... ;)

[DeeVee]

Thanks for the replies. Honestly I like to try and work things out myself, that way I remember it better. As I mentioned this was just an exercise to try an effect, not to produce a work of art, I just thought I would give it a try and share the results. I have no intention of going any further with it. I did find out what I wanted to during this exercise. Thanks for all the suggestions, they are noted and appreciated.
DeeVee.

[The Namek]

hehe , this is weird , when I saw Ken's picture I spend the next hours trying it out too. I didnt save anything though , never really got close to it.
I always keep having rough visible edges between sand - water - objects.
My water doesnt always turn ou how I wanted it , and I havent found a way to render all the layer without flatten layers.

Anyway , you're attempt was way better than mine :p

[Fouad B.]

as you said before.."This is an experiment" :)

[Flycatcher]

With you all the way, Joe. I download and keep copies of hundreds of tutorials and the like from the Forum, but also prefer to try and sort out a method for myself first. Normally I only go back to the tutorials to compare my method with those of others, or if I do get truly stuck. I'm sure you do learn more this way, and it sticks better. So OK, this one didn't come off, but keep right on experimenting - way to go. :tu: :)

[DeeVee]

I have been fiddling with this image and finally got two versions that I am more satisfied with. http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1034808502tiv.jpg http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1034808554fay.jpg

[Fouad B.]

It's better !!!!

very nice work DV !! :) :tu: