Thanks for the compliments everyone! I appreciate them. Hopefully someone has learned from my mistakes as far as zsphere posing, and from the hand tutorial!
And I agree Aztec, fog would look cool. In fact, I might make some background elements one day and rerender this scene. Thanks for the tip. 
Thumbs Up 
Great work.
Itās fun see your work step by step
Bye
Leo
Thanks for the compliments again! I post WIP images as a way of a) showing my progress, b) allowing for critique during the process, and c) to encourage/teach others how I came about my creations.
Iām all about sharing my work, in all aspects. I know many artists that Iāve been around are the exact opposite. Theyāll learn something, and never share it. Actually I went to a college where most of the teachers where like that too. But not me, I like to share stuff.
Thanks once again!
You right!
Art and beauty hidden are sterile !
Pilou
PS Of course your creature and tut are so cool 
Thatās a really great render. IMO I think it is worthy of being up on the top bar of thumbnails. Itās got a great sense of perspective. I would say that the only thing wrong with the pose is that the spine and neck are too straightā¦not a strong enough action line.
Thanks for the compliments, and the critique. Iāve had some problems with this guy posing, so I will definitely be rethinking how I make zsphere figures from now on. If you look at Lonnies thread he gives some great advice on Zsphere posing.
One thing that you donāt see in this pic is his right shoulder is completely twisted into a knot, and I couldnāt ārotateā the zsphere to fix it. So I just stuck with that pose, turned him in the pose you see, turned on the perspective view, and rendered away. Once I get more familiar with what zspheres are capable of, Iām hoping to do a lot more with them.
Thanks for that linkā¦I was just about to ask if anyone knew of good links that discussed working with creating z-sphere that work well when posing. Forgive my newbiness, but why is the term āzifā used sometimes?
Also, I was reading up about posing and storing morph targets and stuff. Could you tell me if my understanding of this is correct? You create a displacement map from the high-detailed mesh and apply that to the low-rez mesh created from the morph-target-stored zphere model? But because you saved the zsphere, you can pose it before turning it into the adaptive skin and apply the displacement map?
Thanks for the help!
No, thatās not the way that I did this. All you need to do is to set the adaptive preview density mode to whatever Subd level you want, and from there you can sculpt the model to look however you want. For this model, I got to level 7 before I had to stop, 1.8 million polys I believe. I need to get more RAM to do more. But for now, Iāve found that 1.8 million works fine.
Once I finish the tree tut, I will start working on a zscript that incorporates modeling a character like this guy. But that might take awhile to finish.
Hope this helps!
Zif = a 3D model made with Zspheres 
Pilou
Iāve decided to share the alien guy for testing in other packages. Itās free to use however you like, just credit the source.
As an aside, Iāve found that if you create a displacement in Z2 with this guy, it automatically recreates the subd levels too. I didnāt expect that, but itās good to know for those of you who want to save some space on your HD, CD, or DVDās later on.
Have fun!
PS: Iāve also included the the correct intensity settings in Z2 to displace the geometry as it should be. Itās .7652.
After seeing a few screenshots, and ideas throughout the Pix forum, I finally figured out how to make 5 fingered hands! Well, technically 4 fingers and a thumb, but you get the idea.
Anyway, I started this fella today. Itās about 3 hours into him. Most of the time was spent toying around with the zspheres, and their ability to pose. Once I get this guy finished, Iām planning on practicing, and exploiting the posable features of the Zspheres.
Here is a small step by step, although itās not finished yet, Iām still thinking of things to do with it.
And zeā small cavity material render. Not so great so far, but I figured out what all the sliders are for! LOL
Cool stuff
I am doing underwater stuff too
I live makeing scales
I realy like your charictor very creativeā¦ he would be fun to see animated
have a good day
Nice work
the hands look great!
I canāt wait to create something with a good amount of fingersā¦and thumb. 
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate them. After sleeping on this, I figured I should give him webbed hands too. And flippers, of sorts.
Iām going to be doing his clothes, and boots like the armor/scales tut Pixolator posted earlier. It should look pretty cool.
See you folks in a few days!
I was able to start working on this tonight. I like how the smart resymetry works, and I think Iāll be utilizing that more often.
Iāll have it finished this weekend. I have an idea for a pretty cool scene for this fellow.
Iāll post another update tomorrow, of which I will at least have the model done. Then on to texturing, which looks to be a fun undertaking in Z2!
Thanks for looking,
Chad
Both thumbs up!
Perhaps you can explain how to create such nice hands? I suppose you need to increase the resolution of the zsphere, but im not able to get your beautiful result.
Thx in advance!
What you need to do is adjust the density sliders of the zsphereās when you are modeling.
I think I set them at three at the base of the palm, but Iāll do a quick zscript of it to show you. It shouldnāt be that hard to do once you see how itās done. I have to do it in 1.55b, because I only have a Mac at work, so hopefully the script will work.
Iāll post it up here in a bit.
Very nice. I too would like some hand modelling hints, Iāll check back later.
Okay, the zscript did not turn out right. Apparently you cannot alter the XYZ density sliders during playback of a zscript. Odd.
Edited.