ZBrushCentral

Making glacier forms?

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hi Guys,

I’ve been spinning my wheels trying to (somewhat quickly) achieve a certain look.

Specifically, on the lower, middle half of the glacier in image below, I’m struggling with getting the chiseled, cracked, yet covered in snowy debris look.

I’ve gone through a lot of rock tutorials and such, but the techniques I’ve been using just aren’t working (or I haven’t been using them right :()

If anyone has any suggestions, or if anyone could possibly give me some examples or even quickly demonstrate a successful approach, I’d really be grateful. It’s been a discouraging couple of days.

[attach=215079]glacier.jpg[/attach]

And in case my attachment doesn’t work: glacier

Attachments

glacier.jpg

#2

I can only tell you how I would approach it. since ice/show look is actually not defined by the basic shapes ( the cracked chiseled erosion shapes), but more by the surface I would first start sculpting it as if this were rocks and then tweak the fine surface to match the surface of snow. think like a head which could be a sculpt of stone or a real human head. if both have exactly the same shape it’s only the surface conditions/texture of the skin that make the difference. snow and ice are semi-translucent and do much like skin have a lot of subsurface scattering going on.

your final result will also depend very much on the renderer you use. you might actually get decent results with the SSS BPR in Zbrush.

#3

Thanks Julian, and I think your exactly right. Aside from the material treatment though, do you have any particular techniques/suggestions for the features I mentioned - even approaching this like rock, I’m having a hard time getting those precise, sharp lines at the top, and the piled up bouldery snow at the base.

I’m just wondering if there’s something obvious I’m missing like "oh you could easily make those cracks at the top just by doing ‘this’ " or "to create that rubble-y look at the bottom, use something like ‘this’ "

#4

ok… if you want to go for a very realistic and actually easy way,then do the following:

go here and download digital elevation data files.
http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/dem3.html#ant

then get a converter from here ( haven’t tested it , but should do the job)

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Image-Convertors/HGT-to-DEM-Converter.shtml

and convert your downloaded files to*.DEM files, which then you can import into 3dsmax for example. ( no idea what app you actually use besides Zbrush)

From there you can export it as obj to Zbrush. you can’t realyl use the geometry itself because most likely its all triangles, but in Zbrush you can quickly get an alpha depth map from it which you can then apply to any geometry of your choice ( a subdivided plane for example).

that should at least give you a good base to start from.
the whole gravel and detail stuff should be easy enough. get images of gravelky, earths, snow etc… with very neutral light and in photoshop make greyscale images to create alphas from, which you can use in Zbrush to get the right structure.

#5

Interesting idea - I’ll give it shot - I’ve actually worked with DEM before, but not in a while - I’ll let you know how it works out! Thanks for the reply, I’ve been wracking my brain on this (probably over thinking it too :/).

#6

how do i create that alpha depth map without having a lower SDiv level?