First Post, be gentle.

[baker17]

Stunning detailing, and i too cannot wait for the medusa!!

[Atwooki]

Uploaded some tentacle refs to my website for you....
From the 'Giant Squid' exhibit at the Natural History Museum, London, UK this week

here:







C.

[3ddude]

Wow, thanks a ton. Those are great. Nature sure makes some creepy stuff.

I actually will tackle it after the medusa head since the whole copying and pasting displacement for similar things seems to work. No way I am modeling 20 tentacles either : ) The snakes worked really well all things considered.

Thanks again. Great reference pics. Bet they smell. The tenatacles, not the pics.

[madrenderman]

if is a first post you are incredible, congratulations.
the quality, richness and fine dectail are amazing.

[capu]

hmm, how did you get the eagle on the helmet ?
which technique did yiu use for it ?

can you explain for us a little bit to learn more from you . it´s really soooooo professional.... thank you a lot,
capu

[frenzyfol]

Great work, can you describe your workflow?

I would be very keen to see how well that high polygon version would work as a normal map on your low polygon version.

If you have a spare 20 minutes could you do a normal map render for us all..

Cheers,
Adam

[3ddude]

The normal map thing. I would be happy to post the base model and a normal map for you somewhere. Not sure where I can put it but I will think about where. Will need the code for the exporter to make sure I do the correct kind of map. I have almost zero experience with making or using them.

So since I am an idiot, where would I render that? I have applied a normal map to a model in Maya, but never for render purposes. I always use diplacement maps.... sorry for being baked here. Briefly tell me how and I will gladly render one : )

I am just running out displacement maps for these still and trying to get some cavity grabs and such to do the morph anim. Sort of getting sideTracked with the medusa head.

The eagle head....... I made a brush and used projection master to pull out the basic shape, then worked it with the standard tools and alot of the move tool, usually bad I think because it alters the base mesh alot, tons of pinch brush.
Workflow....what workflow, lol? Basically I used the UV's to make a map in photoshop to punch out the square outline on the helmet and fin things, shoulder pieces, collar (level 5). Then just used a bunch of custom alpha brushes to do freaky details and such. Again, alot of move tool and pinching, smoothing. But what do I know??? Each model took about 12 hours.Once it is up there in poly count, most work done in projection master. Big fan of the standard and inflate Dot too, as you can see : )

Let me know on the normal map thang.

Cheers. Gotta' go work on a snake head : )

[frenzyfol]

Everything should be able to be done in Zbrush

If your model started off as a low polygon model and still contains all the subdivision levels all you have to do is rack it down to the lowest subdiv level.
Then create a normal map by going to tools - normal map.
This will generate a normal map for you.
Then all you have to do is grab zmapper plugin and you should be able to view the results using the low polygon model + normal map as texture within the zmapper.
Heres the link.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/sho...d.php?t=031281
hope you find it useful.

[capu]

eagle on helmet:
you used a brush ? a special brush ? for doing what exactly ?
for me it´s the greatest detail work I´ve ever seen... it´s really amazing and absolut pro. lot´s of congratulations.


But that with the eagle I really don´t understand. At first I thought you made the eagle as extra 3d mesh, and added it to the helmet. Hmm, I thought maybe multimarkers.

But as you wrote, you mean... that you pulled out the eagle from the helmet basic mesh, or isn´t that right ? With the move function, or ?

Hmmm... but than you modeled the eagle out ? part for part, step by step ? still on the helmet mesh ?

would be great to let us know more about .. it´s soooooo fine.
hmm, and one more question with this image:




thank you for every little help,
capu

[3ddude]

Ok. Yes, both models have all the subDivisions intact. I did not know you could view stuff in ZMapper. I have it but have not installed it : )

Will do it otmorrow and post some pics. Just did some work on snakeHead thing..... gotta' crash.

Will get to the alpha stencil eagle head thing question in morning, ok? When i won't fall asleep at the keyboard - will explain in detail. Happy to share. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[capu]

yeah, awesome that´s really great.. can´t await more from you...
we all love you !!!!!!

[3ddude]

Ok, to try and be more specific. Yes, the eagle was a 16Bit PSD file that I loaded into ZB and use it in projection master to pull out the basic shape. I think I used the standard brush and just dialed up the projection depth, and turned off normalize so it came straight out.

Then just used alot of the move tool to pull the rest of the form out and then the standard tools to add other stuff. Eyes were the standardDot, etc.

See pic below and I think you will get what I mean. I just wacked it onto a sphere to show you the basic shape that came out : )

C

Make sense?

[capu]

hi and thank you for your nice reply and image documentation.
that´rocks..... and the idea and technique you used for, is really effectiv.

I will try next week to model an easy helmet... lol; I mena, I´ve tried a few days ago, but my result is not to show.... ufff.... looks like a chicken egg; lol;

well, thank you a lot for your detailed description.

One more question:
The sharp and excellent edges on the helmet, are they all made by hand ?
The lines are looking extrem clear.... hmm, I´ve tried around to make such edges, and I´ve used a lot the pinch tool, but never got this result.

It´s really an eyecandy......
okay, so bye for now and take care,
capu

[3ddude]

No problem, glad to help.

Yah, to do it with the pinch brush, dealing with that many poly's..... I can't see it being that crisp. I'd never say never, but this is way easier, faster, and the line is crazy sharp!

I used that trick in the ZB User Guide where you import an image and use it to displace the mesh, by pressing the mode button and applying it. Went to level five and imported a grey scale, 16Bit image I made using the UV's as a guide in Photoshop. The biggest key to that is use 16 bit files as they really are infinately smoother. It is hard to edit them, but for something like I did, it was just all middle grey, with some black and white lines and shapes. Even I was surprised how crisp it was. Great way to add the tiniest noise to the surface too.

You could project the edge too, in projection master, but then there is the distortion issue to deal with, and makeing edges meet, etc.
Go to Photoshop and make a 512 square pic, fill 50% grey. Put your initials with text tool in middle, make text white. Use layer option to put stroke around text, make it black. Flatten, save as 16Bit grey PSD file.

In ZBrush, load that file. Get a polyplane or sphere or whatever, and tesselate up to something crazy, like a million polys. Then use that meathod (happy to tell u if you can't find it) to take image and displace the mesh using it. The edges will be sooooooo sharp. Hope this helps : )

[capu]

okay, I will try it.
You´ve talked about the ZB User Guide ?

Do you mean the Welcome Guide ?
I´ve searched on zbrush.com but couldn´t find the guide you wrote.....


would be nice to get the direct link...
thank you sooo much, you are the best !!!!!

capu