Hi. I’m trying to achieve that beaten up old robot\worn, hard surface look. And strangely enough I’m having a hard time finding tutorials on the subject.
I know Zbrush has the “mask by cavity” feature. But would like to see a good tutorial on the subject. Or of course learn a better way.
Thanks.
Hello @laughingcrows
Spotlight and Noisemaker are both going to be very useful tools for this. Looking for instructions on their use may clear a number of things up for you:
http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/sculpting/surface-noise/noisemaker/
Otherwise, answer some questions for yourself about what kind of metal it is, and how exactly it’s being worn.
A piece of refined, unpainted metal metal like gold may merely develop a surface of very fine scratches, with tiny little nicks on edges. A simple alpha with a fine 'scratch" pattern may work great here. Note that you can change the stroke type with an alpha to produce different effects.
If the metal is painted or plated it may also have the scratches, but also have areas where the paint or surface has been chipped or worn away. These areas are most likely to occur along edges that might make regular impacts against other objects. If the surface has been chipped from impacts, the edges of the wound are likely to be hard edged and possibly look slightly recessed under close scrutiny. If the surface has been worn away, the transition between the two zones will be softer, possibly separated by a haze of scratches.
Other metals might rust. Areas of rust might occur anyplace, but looks especially convincing if it looks like the result of water damage. Water tends to streak downward in the direction of gravity, or in the direction of the rushing air if the object is frequently in motion (like a plane). Light “spray” stroke types might be useful here.
If you have UVs for your mesh, you can create new black and white polypaint in which the dark areas represent different material zones. ZBrush can mask areas based on the color intensity of an applied texture. This can be used a number of ways:
It can be re-applied to the mesh at will to use for a masking target, so your actions will only affect one zone or the other.
Can be used to isolate zones to receive different material characteristics, for instance in the case of chipped paint or rust.
Can be applied in an external program for the purpose of a bump, specular, or alpha map to render the look of different surface characteristics, or give them a slightly recessed look, as if the surrounding paint has just a bit of thickness.
Hope that’s helpful! 