Brooke's Sketchbook

[BrookeD]

Hello!
I've been wanting to learn ZBrush for a long time now, and the past week i've decided to just do it. I've been reading online tutorials etc and am learning as I go, but am all too aware that I have a LONG way to go!!

I'm sculpting this piece as a sort of test to experiment on - I want to design creatures, and the next step after getting a reasonable sculpt done is to add fur to it (something i've wanted to learn to do for ages). Then comes the good rendering, etc, and eventually in the distant future, animation.

Ok, so i'm pretty reluctant to post something this bad on this forum full of ridiculously talented people, but i've decided to swallow my pride and get some opinions and constructive criticism to help me along the way.
It's a squirrelly sort of thing, but I don't mind what it ends up as particularly as I want to use it to experiment. So far, i've successfully managed to place some eyes, which i'm happy about (although no idea how to make them part of the squirrel body - still learning the technical terms, obviously )
I've also managed accidentally to make it look really overweight, but hey...
The claws/paws are really bugging me - not sure what to do with them, or how to make them look realistic. Is there any way I can sculpt a detailed paw separately and use it like a subtool, attaching it to the current mesh and removing the current ones..?

Be gentle with me :P

Brooke

[uguual]

Hi,

Zbrush can be frustrating. Starting off simple is the key. Form as much as possible with the least number of divisions. If you can get the tutorials by Eat3D that will help you a lot. Keep on trying!

[BrookeD]

It's hopefully going to be covered in actual fur when I work out how to do it in Blender/Maya (I haven't used either program before, but have been reading about them). So the texture doesn't matter too much, but I wanted to have a play.
I'm going to try and steer it in a more fantasy-orientated direction.

I'm going to attempt to sculpt some separate paws and attach them... how do I make it so that after adding them as subtools, I blend all of them together to the same mesh?

Brooke

[mohamed raoof]

BrookeD:hai man,that's a good start.why dont you start zbrush earlier.I think you have a good knowledge on 3d.But lets make it reall.

"WE CANNOT READ AND LEARN SWIMMING,PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT"

[BrookeD]

Thanks for the encouragement!

Ok so I managed to sculpt a separate paw, and have added them as subtools, but am now trying to work out how to merge them both into the main body mesh.
Also, as i've not yet come to texturing and mapping etc, i've not got much of an idea of how it works as a whole - should I merge the eyes too, or keep them separate so I can assign them a separate texture somehow?

Brooke

[BrookeD]

And also, here's a pic of the paw/claw thing i've added as a subtool -



1. How do I merge it so that it doesn't have the seams? I've pressed merge visible and then i try and sculpt over it to blend it in, but the arm and the paw remain very separate.

2. How can i shrink/get rid of the dangly arm remnants?

Thank you!

Brooke

(Please bear with me while I learn - i'm a pretty quick learner when i'm eager to do something, but I do have probably some very basic questions which i've no idea about )

[arsalanali]

brother ur attemp is good .. keep on trying .......and look for anatomy..

[mohamed raoof]

I would recommend you to delete the unwanted faces of leg and use the move tool to get desired shape.and press "merge visible" withh subtools you want to merge

[BrookeD]

Thank you for your help guys!

I have a couple of issues, I hope you can help -

1. I've downloaded Transpose Master, but when I click to make the low-res mesh, it says it could not be found... Are there any other ways to pose my model?

2. This guy needs fur - I have Blender, and will soon have Maya, but what do you guys recommend for adding fur? Do I understand correctly that if I apply a texture map to him in another program and then add fur, the fur will be coloured with the pattern which is on the texture map? EG, a zebra, if I added a black and white striped texture map and then added fur, would the fur then be black and white striped in the same places?

3. I'm still a little unsure as to how i'd get this little guy into another program - does anyone have any links to simple tutorials about saving bump maps, texture maps, etc? It's all still very new to me and I can't quite get my head around how I get him looking like this into a different program to render properly...
Also, the eyes at the moment are separate subtools - If, in Maya, I want to assign a colour texture for the body, but a shiny black for the eyes, how do I do this? Do they need to remain separate objects?

Thank you so much!

Brooke x

Here's how he looks at the moment -


Quick Photoshop test to try out some different fur patterns -

[BrookeD]

Also, one more thing (for now :P ) - the creature is upside down when I load it into ZBrush - how do I move it round the right way (including the subtool eyes?)

Thank you!

Brooke x

[BrookeD]

Hello!
Happy New Year to everyone
I'm very excited to now be taking an online course in ZBrush (with Escape Studios) which is absolutely brilliant so far! Very much looking forward to being able to hone some skills in the program and get to work on more creatures.

xx

[BrookeD]

Hello!

I've been posting a lot on another thread which started out as a retoplogy query and then went on from there :P

HERE

But now i've decided I should return to the sketchbook thread



So, here's what i'm doing at the moment - it's going to be a cat sort of creature but it's mainly a practice in sculpting. I'm using a lot of different cat and anatomy references to sculpt based on, and no particular direction for the creature itself yet, just want it to look like a realistic feline.
Obviously it needs a major retopo - I started it from zspheres which always seem, in my limited experience, to mess up the topology Then I had a funny issue with this one where the symmetry was going round the wrong way, so I re-aligned the model in Maya and the symmetry is sorrrt of back on now, although i'm hoping a retopo will work to get it back properly symmetrical again so I can continue sculpting :s

Any comments or suggestions at this stage would be very much appreciated!

Brooke

[BrookeD]

Update of the cat-like creature - had a play in Photoshop earlier with colours and patterns, got more of an idea where this is going now

[Gary Komar]

mesh looking good now reminds me of an Ocelot ? gonna sculpt paw pads - claws ?