ZBrushCentral

Painting 2D ZHair!

ZBrush Artworks
#1

I suspected that the new ZBrush might be better at all kinds of 2D painting, including hair, and it’s true! Perhaps it is not quite as powerful as Photoshop with its 2D layers, layer masking, and drop shadows, which allow for some very nice hair painting, but I hit upon a combination in ZBrush that is very fast, and without all the ‘options’ of Photoshop, I’m actually much faster at painting hair in ZBrush.

Use the DirectionalBrush tool, Alpha ‘Brush 07’, and the Freehand Stroke. No need to make any changes of tools or alphas during the painting process.

I selected a base color (red-ish), a ‘shadow’ color, and some ‘hightlight’ colors. I painted swatches of these colors so that I could quickly change back and forth by moving the cursor over the swatch and pressing ‘c’. Of course, you can also pick colors out of the hair that you have already painted using the same method.

The only tool modification you need to make during painting is to move the Focal Shift and Draw Size back and forth a bit. I started with a negative focal shift, which is analogous to using a thick brush to block in basic values/forms. For the blocking stage, I used a Draw Size of 6 to 12 and a Focal Shift of -30.

Then for the next stage, use a Draw Size of about 25 to 35 and a high, positive Focal Shift. For fine hairs, I went up to 95, but for this stage, use something lower to start giving ‘hair texture’ to the painting. Start with the shadow color and then switch back and forth between the base color and the shadow color.

Then set Focal Shift higher and start alternating between the shadow color, the base color, and the highlights.

I went a little wild with fly-away hairs here. I’m sure it would look better with half as many, but I was testing, not trying to make the perfect coif.

#2

Wonderful!!!

Thanks for this :slight_smile:

#3

You can also use the Texture-Gradient Technique for a slight variation on the above technique:

Alpha ‘Brush 07’ was converted to a grayscale Texture, a base blonde color and a shadow color were selected in the Primary and Secondary color slots, and then the Texture:Grad button was pressed to make a colored texture out of the grayscale ‘Brush 07’ texture. (NOTE: you don’t ‘have’ to create a separate gradient texture with flipped colors. If you have the correct colors selected, you can just repeatedly press the Texture:Grad button to swap the colors in the selected gradient texture.)

Now with a ‘blonde’ gradient texture selected, you should also have an alpha selected to ‘mask’ the stroke. Focal Shift affects how the selected Alpha will mask the stroke. You can alter the Focal Shift, flip the Alpha, or use different Alphas for different effects. I used Alpha ‘Brush 07’ to paint multiple parallel strands, and the single point alpha to paint the single strands.

I think I brushed in too many dark strands, so the blond hair looks a little too coarse.

#4

great 2d hair from jaycephus and 3d hair from cwahl earlier - there’s now no excuse for baldness!! except worrying how long til z2 for mac will take!

#5

Hi Jay
You are a great hairdresser :sunglasses: :+1: :+1: :+1:
Pilou

#6

wow, this blond lock is very convincing :+1: this would take me in photoshop quite some time … thanks for sharing technique :slight_smile:

#7

Very nice examples. Don’t forget that you can also add highlights and shadows to the hair in ZBrush using the enhancement brushes (such as the Highlighter, Highlighter II, or Shading Enhancer). These work much like Photoshop’s Burn and Dodge (except, I think that with the modifiers you have even more variations than Photoshop offers). This will make your hair even more realistic.

#8

really nice Jay!!
I tried some similar way with the gradian tips of Matt, but you keep the way better than what I do.
many thx :wink:

PS: I’m trying the transparent methode posted today (or yesterday) by matt, I think we can do the same hair as Steven stehlberg methode, with both tips.

#9

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Aurick, I wish that the directional brush was actually a mode that could be turned on or off while using other brushes. It would be nice to be able to apply the Highlighter or Shading Enhancer brush with the same alpha, and “directional mode” turned on. :slight_smile:

Fouad, thank you. You have to give a link to the Steven Stahlberg method you mentioned!

#10

just using a texture hair and transparency to apply some plane on the head model.

see his site Stahlberg

#11

Yes, you too can bring dead hair to life!

(EDIT…)

Per Aurick’s tip, I tried out the Highlighter and Shading Enhancer brushes, and few other things as well.

  1. The Highlighter II Brush probably works best if you set it to Auto with Bristle Mode on. Leave RGB intensity at default (50)

  2. The Shading Enhancer Brush is probably the best value for your money. :slight_smile: I bumped its intensity up to 100 (not RGB intensity, leave it at 50). I just liked its highlighting effect a little better than the Highlighter brush. Depending on the existing color values, you may want to leave the tool intensity at 50.

Big Tip: with both of these brushes, you can bring out the highlights, and then add shadows by simply pressing the ALT button while stroking. So you can very quickly add ‘hair texture’ to the base colors.

  1. Glow Brush! Perfect for ‘softening’ the highlight areas. It works by “spreading higher intensity colors outward.” I left its modifier, Sample Size, at the default of 2, but I changed to Freehand stroke (Spacing of .02) and the Alpha to ‘Brush 07’. Stroke with the flow of the hair at the brightest highlight areas.

  2. Blur Brush: It may be desirable to hide defects by laying down a little blur, or you can use it to further soften the highlight areas.

#12

really really nice Mister Jay ! :slight_smile:

#13

wowzer there is no end to this rain of good luck,I just came back and boy was I like in heaven again. this is a wonderful tut… thanks

#14

impressive… I really like this! :slight_smile: can I mention to use the Mouse average slider… it makes a big difference and gives u a perfect flow… thanks for sharing ur technique :slight_smile:

#15

When I try this technique I get (mostly) lots of dots, i.e., like a stipple effect; but then, I’m a newbie and haven’t got a clue … :frowning:

#16

rdf, You probably need to set the Spacing on the Freehand Stroke to .05 or less (defaults to .25), a fact I failed to mention above. The finer the lines, the smaller the Spacing needs to be.

#17

Beardless is not yet a malediction :smiley:
Pilou :+1: :+1:

#18

Jaycephus, thanks for taking the time out to put this fine tutorial together. :+1:

#19

Thanks for the tutorial, Jay. I’m looking forward to trying out the technique. :+1:

#20

Thanks for the tip, Jaycephus!