ZBrushCentral

Animating and displacement maps

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

OK so we have a high detailed sculpture of a head with loads of wrinkles, we take this as a low poly into say Cinema4D and use the map to displace

Now what if we want to animate. lets say we have a startled look so the wrinkles will move/lessen

Well this is what i think may happen, the DM is mapped UVW so it will move with the mesh but is a fixed image in that the map itself will not change. So as the mesh moves so does the displacemet but only over the mesh, the wrinkles will be driven by the greysacle of the map so will always be there

So the question is how do we go about animating with ZBrush ? Would ve have to pose the model in ZB map a DM repose make a DM etc etc

Just Animating the low poly mesh in C4D will not have the folds of skin moving correctly as the DM drives that

#2

The results here were accomplished in Messiah, but you may still get some good ideas to apply in C4D.

#3

Incredilble work and so much to read…however i use cinema 4d and am lost with all the tech details you have given

C4D has pose morphing is that how you did this ?

I would think in C4D you would have several poses created in ZBrush which you morph too, i think each could have it;s own tex map with a displacement

But how would you animate say a walking dinosaur ? The disp map would produce wrinkles from one pose but as the dino walked in C4D driven by bones then the “flesh” mesh would deform accordingly, however the original displacement mao would produce wrinkles and folds in the skin which should have changed due to the walk

I could see perhaps using ZB to crteate the displacement to give shape then fixing this ( current sate to object) and doing away with the map, the dino then could be animated and texturing/bump etc could be done in C4D howver this does produce a large mesh and looses the advantages of the displacement map needing only a low poly mesh

#4

While it is not practical or possible for us to provide support for other programs, I do know that C4D has the ability to keyframe textures. Since displacement maps are textures, you should be able to blend between separate maps.

#5

What you could do is to create small alphas for the areas which you want the deformation of extra details and link them up to controllers IE nulls, dummys, etc… so that they control the opacity of that deformation. So when a bone bends, you move the controller to 50% or whatever and you get more or less deformation.

I don’t have Cinema 4D so I am not familiar with its capabilities, though.

Revanto :stuck_out_tongue:

#6

Walking dinosaur…hmm…I was thinking the very same thing…

Sounds like it might be a lot of work, especially in C4D…

#7

Yes bobzilla whenever i am looking at ZB all i can think of is you and your dinosaurs !!!

As a real novice with ZB ( and pretty hopeless with C4D) i am not at all sure if this will work but what i think would be a solution

make the model in ZB with a fairly good but not high div and model in all the major structures and muscles

Export this as an obj and then reimport this as your starting model, ( maybe do a morph target save thingy ?)

now do all the fine deatil and make the displacement map

In C4D when the bones are added to the base mesh with all the main shape and muscles they will deform that and the disp map will serve purely for the fine detail

#8

I’ve seen the really cool stuff by Taron, but that seems like way too much work and not really what I was thinking. I need the wrinkles to unfold and things like that.

If you go to the thread “My first ZBrush Dinosaur”, you’ll see the kind of stuff I’m looking to do model-wise. This guy, David Krentz, is a professional sculptor and has worked on Disney’s Dinosaur and has released resin versions of his stuff. His work is amazing, and it has carried over nicely to the digital realm.

There’s so much to learn and so little time…

#9

Can you not model the major folds and muscles in ZB and use them as the base mesh in C4D (and then use a ZB texture for bump or disp for the fine details,) would they not deform with the bones ?