Ever since ‘make 3D from alpha’ was introduced I’ve always hoped that Zbrush will one day incorporate the ability to import a path and extrude it.
Make 3D is good but sometimes I need sharp edges. Does anyone know if Zbrush has the internal architecture to be able to do this one day or am I just dreaming?
This is an example of what I usually use it for. I’m often given really poor artwork like the pale blue logo on the background of this site.
I’ll redraw it and make an alpha to get the result shown below. It’s pretty good but if I could extrude the path instead so that the edges didn’t round off a bit my miserable life would be complete and I could die happy.
I feel sure that if Zbrush architecture made it possible that it will be introduced one day. But not being a propeller head I don’t know if it is a feature that is possible to be indroduced or not. If not then I’ll have to bite the bullet and learn to do it elsewhere.
Try skinning the alpha and then using the Flatten deformation to sharpen the front and back. You might be surprised by the results.
Great idea Aurick that should work well.
I hope Zbrush will be able to raytrace hard edges some day. Or if this is not possible, then to be able to import a scene (geometry and camera position) and have ZB’s camera match it. I think what ZB is to sculpting, it could be to matte painting as well.
Thanks for the reply but I already use the flatten trick as I suggested in this thread.
http://cust13.mn1.fasturl.net/zbc/showthread.php?t=28428
It works well on many things like the above link. However somtimes I need it really sharp. Like the bossa blue edges where they go very pointy with a concave curve.
I know that I can’t achieve this at the moment even if I make gigantic images and alphas and reduce them.
My query is more a technical issue regarding how Zbrush works. I don’t know anything about the architecture of Zbrush but I suspect that importing a path and using that could be impossible or very difficult to implement. But maybe not, I really don’t know.
Aurick if you tell me, “It is not going to happen in Zbrush because the architecture is not built for working with a path” then it will put me out of my misery. But if you say “yes, it is possible and it may happen one day” then I’ll wait. Because I really don’t want to learn to use another program. I have software fatigue.
Another method is to apply your image as a black and white texture to a high-subd polymesh plane, then use the intensity button (Int) in the Tool>Masking menu to use as a mask. Hide the unmasked points (Mask>Hide Pt) and then Delete them (Geometry>Delete Hidden). You can then store a morph target, offset the plane by a small amount and create a difference mesh which you can inflate and smooth.
There are drawbacks with this method (as with the other) but if you use a high resolution texture and have enough polys in your plane you can get quite good results.
I used your image for this example but only did a quick conversion to a high res texture by using an unedited workpath in PS, hence the loss of detail.
ZBrush CAN import a scene. Here’s how:
There you go! An entire scene brought into ZBrush, with each object able to have its own texture and material. One marker is all you need.
Great idea Marcus, It has never occured to me to use the Meats technique for this sort of thing. Just did a quick test and it’s looking promising. There’s a bit of weirdness as you can see at the end of the ‘A’. And also some parts of the mesh go behind other bits. It’s hard to describe it’s strange but I can work around it.
BTW is there a difference using the intensity button and texture to mask the mesh for point deletion and using and alpha loaded in masking for the same purpose?
I don’t think there’s any real difference between the two although in some circumstances they might yield slightly different results. Perhaps a 16bit alpha would be useful sometimes but in the end a point is either masked or not. The resolution of the texture/alpha and the resolution of the plane or model will affect the smoothness of the result.
You can improve the quality of the result by unified skinning the MorphDif mesh at maximum res with SMT= 0. Flattening. Smoothing in Z Dimension (Fun to do this in edit mode using the transform brush modifiers). Then increase size in Z Dimension and Flatten again.
ZScripts seem to have trouble with morphdiff meshes.
The purpose of skinning the Dif is to create polys distributed along the z axis, flattening these allows smoothing whilst maintaining a creased edge.
Actual Rez, not AAHalf. Resultant mesh weight is also effected by ZThickness at the time of skinning.
Thanks Aurick, cool method! I never thought of using the clone button. I would import the whole scene, mark it, and hide and delete each part. This should save me alot of time! I just wish there was an easier way to reproject the final image from ZB back into my 3d app. It’s hard sometimes to match Zbrush’s perspective with my app’s perspective.
Thank’s again though!
Sorry for getting off topic.
Anti Morph, thanks for that extra info.
I run into a bit of a problem though. I’ve made a high resolution plane and converted it to a polymesh then applied a mask and hidden the points
Then I made a diff morph which looks fine. But when I tried to skin it at max res with smt at 0, I got a dialog box saying that the resulting mesh has zero points and to try again.
I’ve gone through this very slowly and cannot see why this is.
below is the morph diff that won’t take a skin.
It’s OK wouldn’t you know it after I posted I finally worked it out. I needed to have “double” activated.
DB,
I think the problem is you just did a negative extrusion, in effect creating an inside-out object. You’re looking at the inside of your heart (perhaps it’s what we all should do a little bit, this being a new year and all :)).
Try extruding in the opposite direction.
Sven
You could also fix that by flipping the normals with the Flip button in the tool display grouping.
Antimorph, I don’t think I’m ready yet for flipping normals
Sven, I see, (light bulb comes on) Now I understand why the strange preview where bits appear to go behind other bits where they shouldn’t.
I didn’t realise a negative offset creates an empty object, I thought it just offsets in the other direction. Like when you flatten.
After further mucking around I have decided that unified skinning just won’t give me the result I’m looking for. However masking a 4 million poly plane and creating a diff morph does give me the razor sharp edges that I’ve been looking for. Nice and pointy.
