For better performance on slower machines try this out:
When modelling your creation, don’t worry about modelling high level details, which require further subdivisions with a performance trade off, just make sure the main areas of form are defined, such as bone, heavy folds of skin etc.
Bumping:
First create a new texture to use for a bump map, the larger the better. I used the max 4096 by 4096 and set it a mid grey colour, 127,127,127 (roughly half of 255,255,255). This colour will the base level that does not have any bump.
Select the bump viewer material, which is found in ZBrush 2’s default material directory.
Use Projection Master to detail out your model, for clean results. Use any brush with Zdepth off, and texture any protruding details (e.g. spots), with shades from the base grey to white and any depressions (e.g. wrinkles) with shades from the base grey to black.
To erase details select your base grey colour and paint them away.
Tip- use the roller and directional brushes to quickly create detail.
When your bumping is complete, convert the texture to an alpha.
Displacement:
Change the material from the bumpviewer to a basic material.
With the bump alpha in the alpha slot, create a new texture, which is active in the texture slot. (If no texture is selected then the displacements will not show).
In the Tool menu, open the Displacement options >>>
Switch on the ‘mode’ button (for true displacements) and change the intensity slider to a low value – I found that if you divide your mid grey colour by 10,000 (which gets us 0.0127), it seems to be a good way to match the bump viewer settings.
Your model is should now be displaced correctly, and you can colour and texture your model, using the displaced bumps as a guide.
Tip- if you get any seams when texturing, go to the texture menu and hit the ‘fix seam’ button, to get rid of them.
Test out some cavity material settings to see how all the bumps are picked out nicely.
hope this helps,
Rob.