ZBrushCentral

Snake wrapped around a flagpole sculpture project

Fellow Forum Members,
I do metal welding as a hobby and I would like to use Zbrush to test out an idea I have for a metal sculpture of a snake wrapped around a flagpole. I want to cut all of the snake’s scales into nickle coin size metal pieces and weld them all together with a 1/8 inch gap between all of the scales. Something similar to the photo shown below but hopefully with a lot more artistry:

Metal Snake.JPG

My questions relate to Zbrush workflow for creating the scales. My idea is to model a body of a snake wrapped around a flagpole but how in Zbrush can I stamp out scales all over the surface of the snake body mesh model and then delete the snake body mesh model but not the scales I spent time stamping out? In short, after deleting the central mass of the snake body mesh model what I need Zbrush to leave behind is a snake skin of hundreds of scales all spaced with a 1/8 inch gap. Is there an automation tool in Zbrush which will make it possible to create hundreds of scales that follow the form of a snake body mesh model wrapped around a flagpole and this tool will also automatically calculate the scale sizes as the girth of the snake body gets wider? Any tips that will put me on the correct workflow path to flesh out this project using the best Zbrush toolset will be greatly appreciated. BTW, I’m using Zbrush 4R8.

I would make an Insert Mesh Brush of the snake and drag it out and around the pole.

Dillster,
Thanks for the tip. Such a brush I guess would have to be custom made so that when I apply it to the entire length of the snake mesh body model it creates an inlaid result for each scale. What I mean by “inlaid” I guess can best be defined with the photo below.

Taj-Mahal-Agra.jpg

It’s an example of inlaid marble work from the Taj Mahal. The precious stone is inlaid or embedded within the white marble. So my hope is this “Insert Mesh Brush” you mention generates inlaid results for each scale. Then once I have all of the scales inlaid into the mesh snake body I can delete the snake mesh body and just have the scales left behind. The part I’m perplexed about is how do I calculate the size of each scale. Because the girth of the end of a snake is much more narrow compared to the girth at the mid section of a snake’s body.

For now I will try to find a YouTube video on how to create an “Insert Mesh Body” brush because I don’t know how to create such a brush. If anyone out there has seen good training material on this creating such a brush please post a link in this thread. Thanks in advance for your help.

Maybe this method would help >> http://docs.pixologic.com/reference-guide/tool/polymesh/array-mesh/

Fellow Forum Members,
I hope Nacho does not mind I’m borrowing some of his art to help me learn how the mesh extract workflow is done. Essentially, his graphic below shows what i want to accomplish with mesh extract. It’s the body of a coy fish but for my purposes please pretend it’s the body of a snake. In short, I want to model a snake wrapped around a flagpole and then extract from the body all of the scales which conform to the surface of the body as shown below. Then I want to weld all of the scales together.

Can anyone out there please provide a summary of the steps involved in accomplishing such a task using the mesh extract tool? I would like to know how the mesh extract tool is setup so the scales end up as shown below. Any tips will be welcomed. Thanks in advance.

Snake Sculpture.jpg

Any tips will be tremendously welcomed relating to using the mesh extract tool to get a similar result to what is shown in the photo above. Thanks in advance.