ZSphere Tutorial & Challenge

[aurick]

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036174742dcb.jpg

The uber-talented Ken B has put together a nice, simple and concise tutorial for creating ZSphere models with a cluster of branches from another sphere. Ordinarily, this would create a messy mesh, but he shows you how to get smooth results with ease.

:b2: :b3: :b4: Click Here to Download the PDF (536 kb) (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/ZBC/OctopusTutorial.pdf.zip) :b4: :b3: :b2:
Note: You must have Acrobat Reader installed to be able to view the tutorial

Thank you, Ken!

In addition, we're issuing a challenge to all ZBrush members:

Use the techniques shown in this tutorial to create your own ZSphere model with a branch cluster. Share your results here showing BOTH the ZSphere model and the resulting skinned mesh.

We look forward to seeing your results!

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Other tutorials in this series:

:b2: The Cactus (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=008975)
:b2: Membrane Curvature (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009010)
:b2: Unified Skinning (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009063)
:b2: MultipleMarker Skinning (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009094)
:b2: Hard-Edged ZSpheres (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009191)
:b2: Stylized Illustration (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009287)
:b2: UV Mapping (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009571)
:b2: Transferring Textures (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=009708)
:b2: Compositing (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=010310)

[wenna]

woohoo! Thanks aurick and Ken!! Downloaded and am going to give it a try! First sleep tho.. LOL

[juandel]

unnoticed by most the constipator-spores land in the backyard of juans sticky dinner at dawn :)

http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/constipatorsf.jpg http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/pfgrab.jpg

very cool tut - thank you Ken and aurick! :tu: :tu: :tu: not having much experience with adaptive skinning this is mucho appreciated - and i was totally blown away by the smooth - subdivision thingie - though i goofed the upper part up for one reason or the other (tentacles cluster to pairs) and its a pretty uninspired model i learned a lot - once again! muchas gracias!

- juandel

[Digits]

"constipator-spores" what a hoot Juandel! :)

I thought I would give this a try, great tip about "Use Last" to precisely add more nodes! That in itself was worth the exercise

http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/Digits/zoctopencil.jpg

As you can see I have alot of tenticals. I created a model and then used my Zsphere Widget to color, morph and weld it all together to make one model.

http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/Digits/zoctosetup.jpg

Here is the model

zocto.zip (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1036249096dsk.zip)

Here is a little animation as well

ZOctopus underwater Animation (http://www.cyber-webs.com/zbrush/Digits/zoctopus.html)


<font color="#949494" size="1"> November 02, 2002 Message edited by: Digits </font>

[Flycatcher]

Much appreciated, Ken and Aurick. As someone who has barely touched ZSpheres, it's an invaluable and very clear guide. :tu: :tu:

[Ron Harris]

and they make great party hats too :D

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036255257wqo.jpg

[Northstarr]

I believe I might have discovered this technique some time ago and not realized it was anything special. Below are two projects that were done very shortly after 1.5 came out. I posted one of them but never posted the other as it was basically just an experiment to see what could be done using colour on the zspheres.



http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036358997ehk.jpg

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036359057rjd.jpg


:b2: :b2: :b2:

[PixelDust]

Thanks for posting the tutorial, Ken! It helped me figure out how to smooth an adaptive mesh without adding a lot of polygons.

Here's my contribution. I did shape the petals of the flower after modeling to make them more concave, and textured it with TextureMaster. I hope that wasn't against the rules! :D http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036368550vat.jpg http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036368581cwk.jpg

[KenH]

Damn that flower is good....I'm just thinking how long it would take me to model that in another program! You'd be done in Zbrush by the time you thought about it! ;)

[wenna]

wow that flower IS fantastic!! I've been trying to make a realistic one for ages! Thanks for the how-to!!

[PixelDust]

Thanks for the nice comments! Modeling the flower with ZSpheres was very easy - the hard part was texturing it because I had to keep rotating the model and painting to try to get all the petals painted. The petals blocked each other's way. Also, it seems that with TextureMaster on a smoothed model, the lower the poly count, the less even the coverage, for some reason.

After making the adaptive skin, I made the petals concave by going into edit mode and using ZSub, but with a low Z strength, like about 5 or 10. I forget exactly how strong it was, but it should be set low - otherwise, you get unwanted crumpling or erasure.

[Digits]

The Carosel and flower are fantastic :tu: :tu: :tu:

I might mention (shameless plug) :) that my Zsphere Widget makes it easy to color each individual zsphere with key stroke or a click of the mouse.

Zsphere Widget (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=007694)

[ivan louette]

I like very much the kind of living cell like growth of the different organisms in this thread!

Kindly,
ivan

[Fouad B.]

:: Octopus "ZSphere".
:: Tritons "ZSphere".
:: ground "Terrain 3d"

Neptune's Guards.
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036457212duv.jpg

modelised from...

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1036457267olp.jpg

<font color="#949494" size="1"> November 04, 2002 Message edited by: Fouad B. </font>

[dO]

Hey! This method is very useful ...i had a few problems but i think i will get it now, thx!
One question (@juandel): How did you get this things transparent ? If i change the transparency in the material, i don't get it look like yours !?
hmm...it would be nice if someone helps me ;)

[Gazfx]

Here is my attemp from the tutorial. Only been using Zbrush a couple days now and already and sitting up all night getting little to no sleep..so addictive, so brilliant.

Anyways not much modelling other than simple zspheres etc and i used a texture i found off the net of jellyfish. My aim was to get the creature a little bit more translucent but i dont know how to.(yet)

Second image i inputted my pic into a water scene in photoshop with an adjustment layer of photo filter underwater look

Feedback on my efforts is mostly appreciate good and bad..

Gazfx

[luke.carelsen]

hi, ive tried the link and it just doesnt seem to be working.

thanks