Z4 Beta Testing By: Jelmer Boskma

[Jelmer]

It was a blast using the new zbrush. I wish I had more time to push my work, but I was happily surprised and quite impressed by this release and all the new doors it opened. Here is the final image and the gist of what I showed at Siggraph regarding Functional creature design using Zbrush 4.0.

Final Image



Design Phase

- Finding the design, by Symmetrical sketching, a technique borrowed from Neville Page. I started out with a low polygon plane and glazed the surface with value, eventually moving on to subdividing the plane and sketching in details. For this I used the standard brush with RGB values.

Early sketches:



I kinda liked the shape of the head element on this one, and decided to go with that. It felt fresh and pretty new to me.


Final Designs:




- Z-Sphere Sketching, quickly blocking out the design in 3d with Z-Spheres and the new Clay Buildup brush.

[Jelmer]

Build Phase

- Retopologizing the face, with the intent to create Morph-targets for this new mesh before continuing the rest of the design.


- With the basic Morph-targets in place, I used the Timeline to key all morph targets to create one total state of deformation that would give me a general idea of how the face of my creature would deform. Based on this info I designed the hard surface detail. Being able to deform and morph your model while you are still designing it is a great advantage. I don't have to just think about how elements would function or move, I can test it right away. Having the Morph-targets there I also instantly get to see whether the other elements are limiting the range of motion of my design, or whether things would work.

All plates and hardsurface elements were created in Zbrush using Shadowbox and the new Clipping tools. I used Contact Points to snap the plates to the organic deforming mesh. This way everything stays in place, and I am able to show exactly how the creature would function. In other words which plates would rotate, and which would slide or stay.

To see it all in motion, Click here (17 mb .mov file)



- Moving on to the body, using the exact same idea. This time I created the body with Z-Spheres and by using the Edgeloop feature, I was able to create a mesh that had polygroups representing the main musclegroups.



- I created a lateral raise Morph Target as a guide to build the body detail on. Same idea as with the face.

To see it all in motion, Click here (8 mb .mov file)



- Final plates were created for the body, again by use of Shadowbox and the Clipping brushes.

[Jelmer]

Render and Comp Phase

- Finally by using the Best Preview render settings I was able to render out beautifully anti-aliased renders right out of Zbrush. There was no need to move into Mental ray or Vray for rendering.



- Using the Best Preview Render I rendered out 9 passes which I comped together and painted on in Photoshop. From left to Right
- Alpha, Keylight, Rimlight
- AO, Wide-spec, Tight-Spec
- Refelection, Cavity, Shadow



- And the final design image. A creature that was designed and tested with various morphs and deformations inside Zbrush. Being able to 'test a design' while you're designing it is fantastic and in the long run saves everybody time. In the end, anyone who will have to work with your character will have a functional design with perfect reference to how it would move and deform.

[PascalR]

Stunning work Jelmer, love that creature!

[chemkid]

great concept! the final render looks too cool!



chem!

[LY]

So is that a prawn female?

[HUN-Firebat]

Hey!
Very nice work!
when u create passes, u just change the materials?Is it possible the lock our scenes,when we create passes?

[O/MI]

awesome work jelmer... and thanks for putting all together...

[Jelmer]

Thanks!

LY: I will not deny that I was not heavily influenced by David Meng's awesome design work on the District 9 aliens. I had his maquette on my desk for the months I was working on it... must have left a trace, haha.

Firebat: Yup, just change lights, materials. I don't think it's posssible to lock your scene, but you can key the position of your camera on your timeline, so it will stay in the exact same position, even if you accidentally moved it. That's what I did.

[Renaud Galand]

Stellar work as usual Jelmer ! Looks like those new features are working great. Can't wait to give it a try

[dagoned]

I too love the Neville Page technique..This turned out great man..thanks

[HUN-Firebat]

Oh, its good to hear , its almost the same, so i glad to know that .
Did you used the retopology ? or any improvements about it?

[giotto]

Woooooooow, this is so amazing! I'm impressed by the power you have to visualize and test morphings right in ZBrush 4- without rendering it in Mental Ray or other Renderengines.

Very inspiring!

[xeno3d]

Holy crap! So this was rendered inside of ZBrush with some PS work???

[Derek Frenzo]

Looking good!