3d-collage effect??

[upham]

I've been given an assignment to create a 3d felt-collage style picture
much like the picture below....
(made in Xara-X by Dušan Kastelic) ....


(I hope I'm not breaking any copyright laws here!)

I've fiddled around in ZBrush with the Single-Layer brush tool painting
different colors on different layers and then moving the layers forward
and backwards (by holding the titel-key (~) and the alt/option key and
click'n'drag in the document window) - but I get pretty jagged edges around the
painted blobs. I've thought of creating several flatish objects and painfully
shaping and coloring and manuvering them into place....
Has anyone else got any bright ideas??
Thanks in advance.

Upham.

PS. I think Kruzr and Impending had a thread similar to this at the ZAcademy,
but I couldn't understand it! (a black stick-figure guy with shorts on?) Remember?
Kruzr made a tree with an alpha channel in Photoshop ... ???

[juandel]

ola, upham!
i think you are referring to the alphaman pics (golden trousers et.al) i did as a try to help kruzr. my approach was to draw something with simple brush, mrgbz-grab it and then use the newlywon alpha with 3d-brush and dragrectangle stroketype... (rotate/scale/move... all possible) in front of a background layer. kruzr finally came up with something very nice for his tree... i'm sure he is having a good one and will share his insights soon!

[Kruzr]

'Morning Upham & Juandel...Geezzz, that looks like me about 15 years ago.

Upham, you'll have to give me a little more info on what problems your having.

I did a little test image (posted below). What I did was to create 6 layers, starting from the bottom layer which I filled with a solid white for background, using the "Simple Brush", I started going up layer by layer & in each layer I used a new Material with a different color. All I did was make a few scribbles in each layer for this test. But as you can see, there doesn't seem to be any problems with the edges or anything else? I also did the adjustment of layers, the same as you.

This is why I'm not understanding why you should be having edge problems???

Also, this image was only rendered in the default image size, can't remember exact size, but it's around 600 by 800.

Anyway, if you want, you can e-mail me & explain a little more or I can just e-mail you a similar ZBrush file to see if it'll render the same on your system, as it did on mine???

Hey Juandel...I haven't seen you in a long time, where have you been??? I don't get to ZBCentral too much lately, been busy over here trying to make a little money to pay all these bills.

You guys have a good one & Upham, let me know what's going on over there with that new project your working on. You shouldn't be having any problems at all with what you want to do.

See'ya later guys..... Mark.

[Kruzr]

Hey Upham...Here's another example of "Painting on different layers" with shadows, in a little higher image size, then reduced in Photoshop. This image has 10 layers in it.

I don't know if this is what your looking for or not??? If this isn't the effect your looking for, let me know what the effect is, that your looking for & maybe I can help???

I hope this helps some? See'ya a little later... Mark.

[upham]

Hi guys
Thanks for your replies - and humblist apologies to Juandel!! Sorry, my mistake! All credit to you my friend.
I'll post some experiments later today. Due to different timezones you'll proberly get them tommorrow. I've got to shower and shave and zip off to work.
U

[Kruzr]

"ZIP OFF TO WORK"???

I read in the New Zealand "City Voice", that you won the big $6 million dollar lottery!!!

Boy, if I won that kind of $$$, I wouldn't be zipping off to work. But then, some people really love their job & wouldn't quit for all the money in the world.

See'ya tomorrow - your time & have a good one... Mark.

[juandel]

ola Kruzr & upham!

as it seems i am prolongating what i did back at the ZAcademy (in general - but in an enforced way in this very) thread in question: confusing everyone (no wonder you did not understand any of my displaced blahblah! ) - so in respect to the somewhat likely quick-link-section-future of THIS thread i will get out of it asap this time...

just wanted to tell you, that

a) seeing all these incredible ZMasterpieces in the forums lately makes me feel more like a newbie every day (hey, those were the times! anyway: i’m even a bit afraid of 1.23! )

and

b) my loooong & desperate quest for the infamous "tilde"-key on my obviously made-for-yodeling-purposes-only keyboard finally ended successfully this very afternoon when i tried to figure out uphams problems - what a fascinating feature! (for other tildesperados out there: at least on my alpine keyboard it’s right beside the shift-key). thank you, upham, once more!

[Pixolator]

Hi
Upham: Is it the layering effect that you are most interested in? There are several methods that you can utilize in order to create such image (quite easily). I have found one of my old Arts&Crafts tests which has a ‘layering’ effect.



This image was created by using a 3D Cylinder tool. I am not sure whether this is what you need, if it is and you (or any member) are interested to learn about an easy method to create such images, please let me know and I will post a mini tutorial.

-Pixolator

[Kruzr]

Hi Pixolator...Although your images & message was directed towards Upham, I would like to see a "mini tut" on how you created these images.

But of course, I'm always willing to view any tuts that you want to post.

Thanks in advance & have a good one... Mark.

[Nikko]

Pixolator, you should know better than to ask us IF we would like another tutorial of ANY kind from you. I might not be planning any "arts and crafts" type pics right now, but I sure would like the info added to my Z-arsenal.

Please, tutorialize us on this subject. That image is pretty cool and those textures are great. Very 3d.

[upham]

OOh! How cool! The 3d cylinder tool? I never thought of that! Stroke set to dots,
depth turned down ... hmmm
Hey Pixolator, if you are not too busy I would be REALLY interested in a miny tut!
Please!
Several methods, ah?? ... Since I'm a millionaire I'll have to get some servants
to research this... while I lie by the pool... being fed grapes ...
by playboy bunnies...who sing christmas carrols ... hmmmmmm...
Upham.

PS. This is to create a childrens book illustration.
PPS I've used the single layer tool, but end up getting big black lines around the edges,
which is usually fixed by playing with the lighting.

[upham]

Heck its easy to get sidetracked in ZBrush!
I started playing with the MRGBZgrabber with this image ..



I was hoping to get a Alpha grab with out 2.5 depth - just black & white. Oh well.
And then I exported the Alpha out and loaded it in Photoshop. When examining
the results in PS it seems to have two alpha channels and one of them is pretty
crazy lookin' ...



I could proberly use this to import back into ZBrush as a alpha-texture!
I better get back to the oridginal thread topic!
U.

[Pixolator]

Hi
Here is a quick explanation of the method that I used when creating the image in the previous post, and the image below. I will (as soon as I find the time) write a more detailed explanation of the process because it is quite effective and fun to use, with this method you can quickly create images that do have many uses (such as children’s books, illustrations, fun web pages…and lots of fun )

1. Select TOOL Cylinder3D tool (later you may want to try different tools)
2. Select STROKE Dots stroke type. (Or FreeHand stroke type)
3. Locate the PICKER Z slider, which is located within the Picker palette. By using the slider we are instructing ZBrush draw the Cylinder in the specified depth and not use the auto depth adjustment. You will be using this slider a lot, so it is a good idea to ctrl-click the slider and bring it out next to your floating menu (this will allow for an easier access). We set the initial depth to 0. (type 0 and press enter)
4. By default, ZBrush will try to orient the 3D object based on the existing Pixols in the canvas. In this case, we want the Cylinder to be at the same orientation at all times, to do so, we need to click on the orientation (pencil) icon that is located at the top-left of the Picker pallet. Pressing this icon (without changing the orientation of the ‘pencil’) will turn off the default “Continuous” that is assigned to the orientation of the drawn objects.
5. By default, ZBrush will place the center of the 3D object in the specified depth. In this case, we want to have the front-facing side of the cylinder to be drawn in the specified depth and not its center. In order to do so, we set the DRAW IMBED value to 1.0 (exactly 1, no more, no less). This is an important step without which, the depth of each layer will be modified by the size of the brush and you will not get a consistent-depth surface (especially if you are using a pressure-sensitive tablet). If you click on the tool preview icon below the IMBED slider and rotate the object about 45 degrees upward, you will be able to see the impact of changing the imbed value on the placement of the 3D object. (The imbed value deserve a more detailed explanation which I will add when writing the full tutorial)
6. All is now ready. Set brush size to about 20 and draw a free hand stroke in your canvas.
7. Modify the Z Depth value to –10 (negative ten) and draw another stroke. You’ll notice that the new stroke is drawn in front of the previous stroke.
8. Set the Z Depth slider to 10 and draw another freehand stroke. This time the stroke will be drawn behind the previously drawn stroke.
9. That is all. You simply select the depth value (-20,-10,0,10,20…) and draw.


Note: From time to time, you may want to try a different stroke type.

What is a “Stroke Type” ?
Stroke type determines the method in which ZBrush interprets your mouse clicks and movement. For example… The ‘Drag Rectangle” stroke type instruct ZBrush to create s single object in which the center of the object would be in the “Mouse Down” position and the size of the object will be determined by the distance between the “Mouse Down” position and the “MouseUp” position. The “Dots” stroke type instructs ZBrush to continuously draw the selected tool wherever your mouse is positioned while the size of the object is determined by the “Draw Size” value. The “Line” stroke type instruct ZBrush to place repeated instances of the selected tool in a strait line between the “Mouse Down” position and the “Mouse Up” position.

Why is ZBrush utilizing the “stroke type” method?
The “Stroke Type” method main benefit is that it allows each tool to behave differently based on the currently selected “Stroke Type” which in essence increases (significantly) the number of tools variations that are available in ZBrush while still keeping the number of actual tools manageable.

Here is one more of the Arts&Crafts tests…



Note: In the above image, I have slightly modified the basic Cylindrer3D tool prior to drawing. I have used the TOOL DEFORMATION SquizXZ function in order to add a bit of curvature to the Cylinder.


I would recommend to everyone (even if not specifically interested is this type of images) to try this method; you will find it easy to use, very effective, and fun. If you do try it, please post you findings and image/s.
Thanks,
Pixolator

P.S> Upham: The reason that you are getting 2 alphas is because ZBrush is internally using a 16bits alpha which allows for 65536 gray levels while standard Photoshop alpha is utilizing 8bits alpha which allows for 256 levels. When exporting ZBrush alpha, ZBrush will create 2 Photoshop channels in order to hold this information (which can be imported into ZBrush with all 16bits intact). The first alpha channel contains the most significant bits of information while the secondary alpha is the least significant bits of information. (in simpler terms, the main alpha holds the integer values from 0 to 255 while the secondary alpha holds the fraction part of the value from .00 to .99 )

[juandel]

thank you, pixolator! one more neato feature on my learn Zchedule!

[upham]

F A N T A S T I C !!
This is JUST what I'm after!

Thanks for creating this tutorial Pixolator! I know you are a busy guy, so extra thanks comming your way!! I really
appreciate your time!
Now I'll get creating some results..
Upham.

PS. Thanks for the info about the alpha channel. (a wee bit over my head - but I roughly know what you are talking about)