ZBrushCentral

Anglo-Saxon Helm

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all, I’m new to Zbrush and I now understand the basics, zspheres, texture etc but I’m stumped on how I’d go about making a Saxon Helmet.

I used to use Cinema 4D and the Boolean operators made it easy to cut holes into an object etc, but I have no idea how to do this in Zbrush. I know you can delete hidden masks, but I can’t shape the mask correctly to cut the eye holes in the helm etc.

To see what I mean have a look at this:

Helm
Front View

If anyone could give me some help I would appreciate it, I just don’t know how to go about the basic shape. I would prefer to do it out of one object rather than loads of small ones.

Thanks in advance.

#2

Hi. If you can’t wait until ZB3 is released in just over two weeks (woohoo!), then you want to investigate the famous ‘Meats Meier Wire Method’. There are a number of threads on the subject here. Basically, you make a head shaped object (not too high poly count), and carefully hide and delete polys you don’t want. Once you’re left with your helmet shape, you save a MT (Morph Target), increase the size of the helmet slightly to give it thickness, then use the Create Difference command in the MT sub-palette. This makes a helmet with thickness.

Good luck.

#3

Here you go … I was in the mood. Make your basic shape. It’s often helpful to create polygroups for the major areas, as there will be a lot of hiding and regrouping required (depending on the level of complexity you want to create). You want to get to a stage where all of the polygons that will be deleted and become holes in the mesh, are hidden at the same time. Then use the Delete Hidden command in the Tools > Geometry palette.

This is a good time to get the holes the shape you want and maybe sub-divide once or twice to give yourself more edges to play with. Once happy, store the helmet as a Morph Target, use the Size control in the Deformations list to give the helmet thickness, then hit CreateDiff. Clear your screen, load your new tool, Bob’s your uncle.

Incidentally, there are a number of ways of creating thickened objects like this, but this method is pretty easy and appears most appropriate to the particular project you have in mind.
[attach=55132]helmet.jpg[/attach]

Attachments

helmet.jpg

#4

Ok, I will have a mess about with that thanks. You’ve given me some more ideas to play with now, thanks a lot!