ZBrushCentral

Painting Technique question

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Greetings everyone,

I purchased ZBrush back at the beginning of the new year and began hashing my way thru the guide to the program. Everyone has been great at dealing with my at times insanity trying to figure out the program. In feb. i realized that i was hitting a wall with the program when it came to texturing and materials and painting.

I took a break from the program and started to paint warhammer 40k models to get a idea to understand painting techniques and color theory on a 3d model in real life. Ive had the great fortune to run into some amazing modelers and painters over the last several months who have shared alot of there time to help me out with getting my act together painting wise.

I am stepping back into Zbrush now and am eagerly awaiting the next release.

my problem now is one of translating my skills i learned to the Zbrush program.

in order to paint a model i learned to do the following skills with a brush:
Basic brushwork
Blending
Drybrushing
Flat color
Glazes
Guide coat
Highlights
Layering
Lining-in
Overbrushing
Staining
Stippling
Undercoats
Washes

all of the above techniques are used in some form or another to paint a medal model and get some stunning results…

Now i am running into the problem on how to translate this to Zbrush
let me give an expample…
in painting a model a technique of ink washing is used to commonly darken the cracks and creavises in a model… the model will have light colors on the highpoints and the wash will run and dry into the cracks and give a visual appearance of darker areas in the recessions or cracks of the model, showing the planer differance in color between light and dark.

as a visual example here is a 60mm model i am working on…

Model for zbrush.jpg
Model for zbrush.jpg1303×1830 106 KB

if you focus on the horns on the head area you can see some of the various shading and coloring techniques i have applied to bring the model to life. Also the gold armour on the model is roughly 5 colors… several washes and glazes to achive the effect i was after…

looking at the program now i can see by the artwork that people are using a certian technique to do this… but i am not sure how to translate my terminology to ZBrush…i am not sure if it falls under material or a texture issue on my part…

if someone could point me in the right direction id appreaciate it greatly…

thanks in advance for your patience

Shadowrunner

#2

In ZB the final look of a model will be a combination of the texture and the material together, unless you are using a material that does not really alter the look of the model (i.e. it does not affect the colour, the specular etc.). In ZB, this would be the Fastshaders.

One way that painting small figurines is different to texturing a model in 3D is that a lot of the techniques used for figurines (mentioned in your list) are designed to accentuate their features. Just as the physical detail on figurines is often exagerated (made larger than it would be relative to a life size model), so the difference /contrast between light and dark shades is exagerated.

Although you can paint dark in crevices to accentuate the form of a 3D model it is not absolutely necessary if you use lighting to achieve this. Similarly, you could paint highlights but doing so isn’t necessary if your lighting and material specular take care of this. You would definitely not want to do this for animated models where the light and dark areas would change (e.g. folds in clothing).

Some of the skills/techniques in your list aren’t applicable in the digital world because a digital paintbrush and paint on a digital model don’t follow the same physical rules. The overall goal is the same though, so I’ll attempt a rundown of how these might translate to ZB where I understand what each technique means (not necessarily comprehensive).

Basic brushwork/Flat color: to paint with solid colour set RGB intensity to 100

Blending: use the smudge brush or the blur brush (the closest you will get to blending wet-in-wet paint); use painting techniques such as crosshatching or an alpha that is broken up such that it doesn’t paint a solid block of colour (e.g. alpha 22) or a spray stroke type; use an alpha that is a gradient

Drybrushing: physically not really appropriate unless you want to go through the work of using a stencil/mask to mask off the recessed part of a model.

Glazes: paint with RGB intensity set to anything but 100 depending on the level of transparency you want in the current ‘coat’; use the colourizer brush

Highlights: use the highlighter brush (lightens all pixels) or the contrast brush (lightens and darkens pixols on a relative scale); achieve through the material by setting the specular values.

Layering: ?

Lining-in: paint around the details as you would for a figurine

Staining: if you want it, try using a material in which you can alter the cavity settings; colourizer brush; contrast brush.

Overbrushing: ?

Stippling: use an alpha such as alpha 22

Undercoats: just paint the model in an overall base colour

Washes: colourizer brush; paint at <100 RGB intensity.

To be honest, once you have a handle on painting in ZB I don’t know if it is useful to think of it in terms of figure painting techniques, but if this gives you a toehold in ZB and enables or encourages you to experiment with the different alphas, brushes, stroke types and materials, then it was worthwhile.

Good luck and get in there and have a fiddle. Try working with each different element (alphas, brushes, stroke types and materials) in isolation before mixing them together so you don’t get overwhelmed at first.

#3

like, wow insane, painting on that 60mm model, awsome.

#4

I would personnaly use those techniques for low texture resolution, for like games and all…

Just my 2 cents :wink:
Coll 60mm character you got there, very well done mate;)

#5

Thanks Bonecradle for the crossover information, that helps immensly.
I’ll grab one of the models i had been working on and give the areas you suggested a workover.

I again appreciate the help in this. my origonal problem was that Zbrush is/was so powerfull that i lacked a vocabulary or skills to ask questions with, dealing with painting, i know it seems a bit odd the route i took to get back here, but it kept things fun and interesting while i was trying to learn how to paint…

Again my thanks

Shadowrunner