ZBrushCentral

*** Book Covers ***

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hey Everyone!

I’ve been working on some book covers in zbrush, and wanted to share them with you guys!
First of all, thanks to all of you who commented on my previous posts with tips on lighting/coloring/materials for this project.

The idea for the book covers were symbols that changed throughout the series. These symbols ended up being shapes that have a significant tie to each book (not going to spoil any of the goods by going into further detail).

So… No fancy zbrush’n here… No crazy alien warlock ninja… Just some clean ol’ zbrush’n.

This copy of Reborn’s cover is actually different than the original (You can see the original by clicking either link below).
They will be doing a relaunch of Reborn’s cover when Savior is made available to the public. This will be the basic template for the future covers, of course, with different shapes, and maybe some other fun stuff…

Feel free to pick up a copy of Reborn for your Kindle.
Savior is due to release shortly…
And stay tuned for future releases in The Entity Series!

Thank you for taking the time to check out this post.

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Attachments

Reborn_12711_2.jpg

Savior_121411_2.jpg

#2

Wow yet another area for ZBrush!! Talk about ‘in your face’ design. So simple, yet effective! I have a friend that is a designer and he once told me that the hardest thing for him to design was ‘simplicity’. But, when you folks hit the mark, you really know how to do it. I do like how the symbols change from book to book (and colours).

#3

Hey Dragon,

Thanks for the comments!
I agree, we live in an age where simplicity is the key to effectiveness.
Hopefully these cover designs will make this guy some $$$$$ in sales.
We’ll see… So far so good, he has nothing but 5 star reviews through Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon.

Be sure to check the book out, if you haven’t done so already…
Very cool read.

Corey

#4

Well, the $$$$$$ and the five star reviews can be nothing but good news for you. I truely hope you reap the benefits of all this as well.

I have so much on my plate right now, that I am not going to lie to you, no time right now to read anything else. Butttt, if my own time permits, for sure I will pick up a copy.

Best and much continued success.

#5

Hi Corey,

Very nice work! Congratulations! Cheers, David :smiley:

#6

Everyone - thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate you all taking the time to check these covers out!

I’m proud to announce, the second book - Savior, was released yesterday!

If you are looking for an INTENSE read, download it today!

Ha, now past all of the promotional hype - :slight_smile:

I’ve been toying around with the idea of changing the binary in the background… Perhaps to rerelease on all covers, upon the launch of the third book in the series. Right now, its embossed into a metal plate… What if, the numbers were carved (in relief) on a stone wall… Cracks, dust, and other age related imperfections… ?
Of course, this would all have to be done at the approval of the Author/Publisher, but, I think it would look kick@$$…

Anyways, I will keep you guys in the loop, as book three’s cover comes out soon…
Keep on Zbrush’n!
Corey

#7

So… I just decided to sculpt out my rough idea for the binary stone wall…
Let me know what you think!
Corey

BinaryWall.jpg

#8

:idea: What about letting each brick reprecent a byte, 8bits= one byte

#9

Hi Corey, they look too “carved in stone” for me … it seems like a dated metaphor IMHO. Perhaps a more ephemeral look, some transparency as in zeros and ones in the ether … some distortion or motion blur etc. Just my take on this. I did a book cover similar to this concept more than a dozen years ago for William Morrow! Cheers, David :smiley:

#10

I’m new to ZBrush and shure would like to know how to get text into the program.

Alan

#11

Everyone - Thank you all so much for the kind words and ideas! Cant wait to show you all the next cover!

4MalZ - Text, as far as I know, cannot natively be done within zbrush - meaning, there isn’t a text tool within zbrush itself.
Many people who create lettering in 3D space, will actually create alphas of the text in photoshop, mask it onto the model in zbrush, and use deformations to pull out (or push in) the lettering from the mask.

In these covers, this is exactly how the binary was created. I made a document in photoshop, found the font I wanted and filled in the entire page with random 1s and 0s. Saved that as a psd. In zbrush, imported that psd as an alpha for a drag-rect mask. I used that mask on the background plane, with a bit of inflate, to get the lettering to come out just enough to cast a slight shadow. The book title, and author lettering, were all done in post, in photoshop.

Sorry to turn that into a novel - just trying to be as descriptive as possible :slight_smile:
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Corey

#12

Don’t make it random. Change the binary to something meaningful that changes for each book.

As for the carving I would keep it simple to keep with the theme of the first two. Good work though.