Thread of Madness - Joseph Drust

[Piggyson]

Hey All,

So I am going to start a thread of various images of items I have been creating. I end up using ZBrush for all sorts of randomness so this will be where these items get uploaded Some of these will probably never reach show quality and will remain forever as works in progress.

To start off here are some WIP images of the drone model I created for the Webinar.

Here are some WIP images of the initial drone mock-up I created. This was scrapped for the other design

BPR test render of the drone (color testing)

Some other shots of the drone

Polygroups and wires for the drone

The final renders

-Joseph

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[Piggyson]

Here is another random example of what I use ZBrush for. A few weekends ago I decided to build an extension off of a porch. Before I started cutting any lumber or screwing anything together I mapped out the design I was thinking about inside of ZBrush.

To start off I went and took about 60 photos of the area where I wanted to add the addition. I then loaded these photos into Agisoft Photoscan and generated 3D data. I then imported the 3D data into ZBrush

Once inside of ZBrush I appended a QCube and started modeling a design with the ZModeler brush. I tried out a few designs one with three steps and another with two steps.

I continued using ZBrush and ZModeler to flush out how I wanted the boards to be generated. This ended up saving me a lot of time in the long run. I originally was going to do three steps and have the boards going lengthwise. After mocking this up inside of ZBrush I didn’t like how it was looking (it was also going to be a pain to cross cut all the boards longways.)

In the end I went with the two step version and the boards going straight. Here is a picture of the final result

See ZBrush randomness. Anyone else using ZBrush for outside projects?

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[Pangea]

Dayum.

Love the drone, looks very realistic. Have you thought about using Cad Data and trying to make a DIY Drone? There are plenty over at grabcad. It would be a real challenge to see if you could print it out and fly it :D. Maybe you could sell it. anyways greaat work.

The Steps designs are great and minimalistic. Did you find the photogrammetry helped when visualizing and designing the shapes for the steps?

I been using zbrush to clean up 3D scans of limestone rocks. You can find them in my sketchbook (link). I think being able to use Morph targets makes the job real easy. I wish there was a way to project camera data from the exported cameras from agisoft, directly in zbrush, could save on some extra steps (like projecting in mari etc).

Also I cant remember where i found this from but there is a site where they use zbrush to sculpt 3D printed prosthetics. Here is the site: Enabling The Future I cant think of a better use (atm ;)) for zbrush. Real heartwarming stuff.

Great work, cannot wait to see more of these ideas.

[Piggyson]

@Pangea: Thanks! The idea of converting it on an actual flying drone has crossed my mind but it didn’t get much further then that. The model is entirely watertight at its current stage so I could print it out and strap some electronics on it and see what happens
(With my luck it would probably crash in a ball of fire )

Yeah I have been experimenting with Photogrammetry for a while now especially to figure out yearly back yard projects. For any of these projects I tend to model everything out in 3D first to flush out designs and figure out how much lumber I would need. I built a pergola a few years ago the same way. The scan data helps a lot; I have messed up far less projects since I started using it.

For the Agisoft stuff (you may already be aware of this) you can clean up the model, add UVs, and then send it back to Agisoft and re-project back the camera data from there too. If a project required the use of scandata I always try to get
the raw camera images if possible. I can then regenerate the data in Agisoft, export the model out to ZBrush clean it up, create better UVs, then shoot it back and reproject the camera data back to the new model/uvs.

Lee Perry Smith has a great tutorial covering the entire process he uses: https://vimeo.com/83686409 (about 10 minutes in he sends the cleaned model from ZBrush back to Agisoft for re-projecting.)

The whole 3D Prosthetics stuff is awesome for sure; great use of technology!

Here’s some randomness for today; little BPR lighting test on a quick sculpted orc(ish?) model.

-Joseph

[Piggyson]

Hey All,

Here is some more randomness So I end up automating a lot of processes inside of ZBrush through ZScripting. I was going to release this as a plugin but decided to do it as a series of Macros (this allows for the functionality of these to be installed ‘a la cart’, and it also allows for the code to be shared so that others can learn/use these for other Macros or ZScripts.)

Here is information on the first pack of these Macros. I am calling these ZUtilities Packs They are unofficial and I am far from an experienced coder; so if you run into any bugs post them here and ill try to fix them

Overview of the features:

Installation video:

Usage Video:
https://youtu.be/S-ZGnlMZ2fE

These Macros are free to use (please watch the installation video on how to install!) The *.zip file is linked below (The file can also be obtained on my Gumroad for free as well https://gumroad.com/piggyson. )

Hope this helps!

-JosephZUtilitiesMacros_Pack_01.zip (53.3 KB)

[Pangea]

How do you find using the reprojection inside Agisoft photoscan? I find their correcting algorithm kinda messses up the texture a bit makes it too blurry for my liking. I prefer to use nuke to convert the RAW files to EXR format and then phototexture in mari using the cameras exported from agisoft.

cool macros, the quick extract in particular might be useful :D.

EDIT: Great stylized orc bust btw, reminds me of no mans sky.

[boozy_floozie]

“Converts the selected Zsphere SubTool to Adaptive skin and appends it”
Well alright!!

Thanks Joseph!!

[joolsh]

Thanks you lovin the mirror and weld tools and the dynamesh slice tool, hell all of it is good thank you sir.

[Erik_Heyninck]

Thanks for sharing, Joseph.
More than much appreciated, very useful and very handy.

[MarioBlanco]

thanks for sharing!
awesome work!

[airbrush]

thanks for the scripts…

[Piggyson]

Thanks All! Hope the script helps!

So for today’s Madness; here are some other random things I have been experimenting with using ZBrush. So in December I built a CNC machine (and by built I mean built, it was a kit that contained a thousand pieces )

I have been experimenting with CNC milling; I am mostly going to be using the machine to mill foam for Cosplay items (No more printing out patterns and breaking out an exacto knife.) Before I got to the foam thou I have been milling some things out of wood. Here are a few examples of mostly quick sculpts inside of ZBrush. I have started working on a ZBrush Plugin for CNCing but it’s still a work in progress; most of my basic coding happens late at night after everyone in my house is asleep.

Soo anyhow! On to the images!

Here was an inital Escher test using the Nanotile texture plugin I created. I sculpted one lizard then created the tiling pattern. The alpha was then dragged on a flat plane using the Standard Brush with Focal Shift set to 0. Part was milled with a 1/4in bit so it’s not super detailed (When CNCing bit size will determine speed and detail you will get carved.)

Next here is another set of quick sculpts. Using a lot of extract and just simple sculpting. The pattern that was carved took ~1hr to sculpt and process before I milled it out of wood.

Finally here is a better quality example. This was created off of a 2D Pattern I grabbed out of a book. I loaded the pattern and sculpted the Dogwood flowers. The branch was then created with ZSpheres and sculpted on. After this was created I generated an alpha and fed that into the CNC program to mill. This was carved with a 1/8in bit.

Should have some CNC milled armor out of EVA foam soon!

-Joseph

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[sadicus]

oh, that CNC work is so cool! Look forward to seeing the foam work.

[airbrush]

nice…I also have a home CNC machine, would love some script utilities for that…

foam can be nasty stuff(along with mdf)…wear a mask…

[Bob_S]

Joseph;
Very nice organic shapes with a CNC.
How are you making the transition to the CNC? Are you exporting an STL and then toolpathing in Vectric? I have done a lot with Vectric Aspire on a 48 x96 cnc, but found it too frustrating to sculpt with. Great for signs and moldings, but not organic looking art. That is why I am attempting to learn Zbrush. I will have my new 2 x 3 foot machine up and running in a month and hope to find the right process to make organic low relief cuts in a reasonable amount of time. I’m hoping to get it to about 2 hours per sq foot with a 1/8 Ball nose @ 10% stepover. That may be too optimistic, but I’m hopeful. I’m also looking into using Meshacam as it is reported to be able to handle very large STL files. Any tips on the Zbrush to CNC path would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Piggyson]

@Bob_S: For Vectric I have been sculpting the models entirely inside of ZBrush using DynaMesh (the images I posted above are all done in ZBrush.) After the sculpt is done I have been decimating them down (to reduce the polycount) then exporting them out as an OBJ. I then just have been importing the OBJ into Vectric (where it will convert the sculpt into a height map basically. I really am using probably .05% of the Vectric VCarve program for the process.) Then I have been doing my rough and finishing passes from there.

I am getting close to completing the ZBrush ZPlugin for the process; once that is done I will have a few videos of the process as well

For sending I am just using the UGS v1.0.9 (Universal GCode Sender) to send the Vectric Toolpaths to the machine. It’s been working pretty well. I now just need to find some time to create some items to carve

For some more randomness here is a quick receiver I modeled in ZBrush with Slices and Panel Loops (~2hrs start to finish.) Sent it to KeyShot using the ZBrush to KeyShot bridge for rendering.

-Joseph

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[Piggyson]

Another quick sculpt using ZModeler, DynaMesh, and a lot of Panel Loops

-Joseph

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[troy1617]

Just wanted to say a huge thank you for the workflow macros… That dynamesh slicing is so awesome I’m useing it all the time… Looking forward to your next macro pack I hope you can get Pixologic to integrate them in the next update they have been extremely useful … Thanks again for you continuing contribution have been enjoying the new webinars as well … Keep up the great work look forward to the next macro pack and the future webinars…

[gabo1991]

nice job buddy.

[DannyMcGrath]

Great thread here, Joseph. The CNC work is fantastic. I have to reprimand you, though, for your carpentry work on the deck steps. It is very bad practice to show end-grain like that. The perimeter is usually done with mitred ‘picture framing’ to conceal the
grain.

And a huge thanks for those very useful macros. At least half of them are things I am constantly doing. Brilliant.