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Environment Modeling Part 2 - Putting the Pieces Together

Welcome back! This is part two of our Environment Modeling tutorial. In this part we will be putting to use all of the tools we created in part one.

In the previous lesson we used ZBrush to create ZTools from tileable textures and alphas. In this lesson we will use these ZTools inside of Projection Master to texture and model at the same time.

:large_orange_diamond: We will be adding one twist to a normal Projection Master routine by using a Stencil within Projection Master to mask out the shape of a doorway so that our brick’s don’t model over the top of it. :slight_smile:

Enjoy! :slight_smile:

[attach=15308]facade_3_clr_2.jpg[/attach]

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Create Base Wall

  1. Import your own mesh or follow steps 2 through 6.
  2. Select Tool: Plane3D.
  3. Tool: Make PolyMesh.
  4. Select Tool: 3DPM_Plane3D.
  5. Tool: Export, click MRG on, turn GRP off and export.
  6. Save it as a baseWall.obj.
  7. Draw it on the canvas.
  8. Enter edit mode.
  9. Texture: set size and click new.
  10. Orientate the wall so that you are looking at the front of it. Use the Shift key to constrain the model to a 90 degree axis. Then press Alt and click on the canvas to center the wall in canvas. For many of the steps to work here you must center your model on the canvas.
  11. Turn Tools: Geometry: Smt off
  12. Divide the model to the sixth level of resolution; Tool: Geometry: Divide.
  13. Press M to mark its position.
  14. Enter Projection Master with color on, deformation on and everything else off.
Features First.

You will want to create the individual, distinct pieces first. Anything like a door or a window that will not be tiled should be used first. Work from specific to general.

  1. Tool: Load and select first Feature if it is not already loaded. The order doesn’t matter here.
  2. Draw it where you want it to be on the wall.
  3. Tool: Geometry. Make sure you are at your highest resolution.
  4. Press M to mark its position.
  5. Pick up from Projection Master.
  6. Save tool, Tool: Save As.
  7. Repeat steps 1 through 6 above for all the other Features.
  8. Save the document so that we save the markers as well; Document:Save As.
[attach=15309]feature_web_2.jpg[/attach] Making the Mask
  1. Set the color palette to black.
  2. Texture: Set Width and Height to 2048 x 2048 and click New.
  3. Drop into Projection Master with only color checked.
  4. Select or load the Feature tool.
  5. Texture: Load mask file texture created in Photoshop for this tool.
  6. Click the marker that we just stored for it. This will redraw the model in the exact position.
  7. The feature we are drawing should be completely white and the rest of the wall should be black.
  8. Bring the feature forward in Z space by pressing Move in the shelf to get the gyro. You should not be in edit mode. Then click and drag downwards once or twice.
  9. Repeat steps 4 through 8 for every other Feature that you have included.
  10. Pick up from Projection Master.
  11. Set your render settings to ignore lighting; Render:Flat.
  12. Grab the canvas to use later as a Stencil; Texture:Grab Doc.
  13. Convert this to an Alpha; Texture:Make Alpha.
  14. Select your color map from the Texture palette.
[attach=15310]mask_2.jpg[/attach]

Converting the Mask to a Stencil

We will use the Stencil while working in Projection Master to keep the Features from being effected by our broad placement of the bricks that we will do next.

  1. Select alpha created from grabbing the canvas and make it a stencil. To do this, select the Alpha in the Alpha palette and click Alpha: Make St.
  2. Invert the stencil. Stencil: Invert.
  3. Now, let’s make it easier to see through the stencil. Click Stencil: Elv.
  4. Position the stencil correctly by clicking on Stencil: Vert or Stencil:Actual. This will position and resize the stencil so it lines up vertically or according to its actual Pixol dimensions.
Laying Brick
  1. Select our wall’s texture map.
  2. Enter Projection Master with deformation and color on.
  3. Select a Brick Tool made in the Creating the Elements section of this guide or load one if it is not there.
  4. Stroke: Freehand, set spacing to 1.99
  5. If you are using a tablet, turn off the tablet sensitivity; Preferences:Tablet: turn off Use Tablet.
  6. Go into Picker and click Once Ori and Once Z. Then set Z to -1. This will eliminate any problems with the bricks rotating while you draw them on the canvas.
  7. Set draw size to size of bricks wanted.
  8. Increase the geometry resolution to its highest level.
  9. Press shift and draw in a straight line across the canvas. The tool should tile across the canvas.
  10. After you finished the stroke, press the Move button on the shelf to adjust the placement of that row of bricks. Leave space at the bottom for another type of brick.
  11. Bring them forward or back in Zspace as needed. To do this, click and drag up or down outside of the Gyro. You want the bricks to just break free of the wall otherwise you risk projecting too much depth.
  12. Snapshot the first row to canvas.
  13. Move the stroke down for another row and snapshot that to canvas. Continue as needed.
  14. Load the other type of brick and repeat steps 3 through 13 for it.
  15. Pick up the wall from Projection Master.
[attach=15311]stencil_2.jpg[/attach]

Exporting

  1. With the wall still drawn on the canvas and in edit mode, go to Tool: Geometry and return it to resolution level 1.
  2. Then go to Tool: Morph and press Store MT to store the morph target.
  3. Now let’s import the mesh we will use in our game engine. This will be the baseWall.obj we exported earlier. Tool: Import and select baseWall.obj
  4. Generate the normal map. Tool: NormalMap. Click Tangent, set the resolution very high, let’s say 4k. Then click Create NormalMap.
  5. Generate the bump map. Tool: Displacement. Click Adaptive and set the resolution to 4k. Click Create Displacement Map.
  6. Export the maps. Texture: Export the normal map and the texture map. Alpha: Export the displacement map. This will be our bump map.
Below are examples of the difference maps that are extracted from the above procedures.:)

[attach=15312]differenceMapComp_2.jpg[/attach]

THUMB.jpg

Attachments

facade_3_clr_2.jpg

feature_web_2.jpg

mask_2.jpg

stencil_2.jpg

differenceMapComp_2.jpg

thanks very helpfull to me

Very cool! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. I’ve printed it off and will work through it this weekend. Cheers!

Well, glad you find it helpful. I will have a PDF of it available very soon. :slight_smile:

r

I am having trouble with the Features First section of this tutorial. After I load the feature tool (doorway) I cant get it to fully overlay on the the plane to project on. The doorway shows partially through the plane but I cant get the whole thing to be visible on top of it. How do I get the doorway to lay fully on top of the plane as shown in the screenshot below? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Schivosa2 - can you post an image of your problem? :slight_smile:

r

Ok, here is my problem. I really appreciate the help. I watched your new Tileable Texture Tutorial earlier but I didnt have a chance to actually try it yet. Are you planning on doing any more environmetal tutorials? There are really informative and I have not really seen any other Zbrush environmental tutorials elsewhere. Thanks.

Attachments

Door.jpg

Schivosa2 - The door way is actually slightly behind the main wall. What you have to do is to is as follows:

Exit edit mode. Unpress Edit.
Immediately press the Move button
click and drag downward outside of the gyro to bring the doorway forward in ZSpace. Becareful not to bring it too far forward. Just barely enough.
Go back into edit mode if you need to make adjustments. Otherwise just keep on going. :slight_smile:

Ryan

Well, I’ve done the tutorial twice and here is what I ended up with both times. Any idea where I am going wrong? Thanks.

Attachments

Result.jpg