Hello,
As the title suggests I’m trying to figure out how to model an old Egyptian vase with hieroglyphic writing wrapped around it. The catch is I’m trying though I’m trying to give the texture on the vase to be weathered and ancient with cracks along the seems. Also, I’m trying to give the hieroglyphic writing an inverse displacement giving it the impression they’re grooves on the surface. I have a pic as a reference.
Just to give a little bit of background on the programs I use. Rhino 3D has been my main modelling program for the past 5 years, so I"m pretty solid with the application as a whole. This past year I"ve been training myself in 3DS Max because there’s models that are too complicated for Rhino to simply do without plugins such as T-Splines and Grasshopper. And they’re not as well organized as the UI is as 3DS is, so naturally over time I’ll be moving permanently from Rhino to 3Ds when all is said and done. But lately some of my designs required more scultping, and that is where Zbrush has come in. However I’m such a newb when it comes to this program mainly because the UI is throwing me off so I basically have no idea where to start, but from the video’s and tutorials I’ve seen, this is perhaps the best program to use to accomplish what I’m trying to make.
Making the vase itself is extremely easy because I can simply make the model from Rhino or 3Ds and then export it, I just need guidance at how to pursue the texturing of the surface to give it that rough weathered look. I’m making huuuuuge assumptions here because I’m still limited in understanding the full dynamics of Zbrush so don’t kill me here, but from what I’ve seen using a texture bitmap and applying it through a UVW map would be my best option here, and the easiest. I’ve seen tools such as normal mapping, zmapper, alpha mapping, and they all seem like different ways to approach the problem, but I still need to figure out how to apply the texture and wrap it around the vase.
Anyways, I appreciate any help I can get at how to tackle this issue, and to make it easier for you guys, if you really don’t feel like giving me a step by step process, simply just tell me which method would be best and I’ll look at some tutorials based on what you recommend. Thanks…
