ZBrushCentral

-Creating a Alpha from a tool-

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

My alphas are at extremely different Z heights.

I used the Alpha adjustments but still getting bad results.

I was wondering if someone had a good technique for creating seamless alpha’s. I’ve try the concept by Aurick http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=30406 but am not getting good results.

Here is my process:

  1. Create the single dragon scale.

  2. “Snap shot” multiple copies in a single row and expands to the edge of the canvas. I use the “move tool” and lower each dragon scale so it lies beneath the other. (Keeping them all lined up is difficult)

3 Use “~” to move canvas to fill in the blanks (which is a problem because after I move the canvas I have to redraw my object and guess on size comparison).

  1. I use the “GrabDoc” but the Alpha has extreme height and lows. I’m not getting a consistent skinning.

  2. I "Drop the object" with "color" selected and use “decobrush”-My Alpha skin/MRGB/ZCUT/Texture off/Modifiers tile texture.

  3. “Pickup object” with Colors/Material/Deformation.

  4. Crappy results -my scales look bad and my texture looks displaced.

Any idea’s?

Attachments

Scaling.jpg

scale pattern.jpg

Alpha scale.jpg

Snake scale.jpg

#2

The problem is that your scales are at very different depths. That depth grab sees the varying depths and gives you a very splotchy result.

When I did my tutorial, I was very careful in my use of the gyro. I only dragged on the right that paralleled the canvas. That allowed the scales to all be the same depth, which in turn gave a uniform depth grab.

#3

Aurick,

Thanks for the tutorial.

I see what you mean about the height.

I’m not sure how to go about layering the scales without effecting the height and still give it a 3d effect.

I tryed carefuly using the gyro and dragging parallele to the cavas. The two scales will merge together see picture.

If you have a momment could you take alook at the script file or if you have a script file I could take alook at.
-How do you factor in the two scales laying on top of one another?

-How do you figure how many or what size to make them so they meet lengthwise and widthwise. (Always seem to have to add a scale here and there to close the gaps.)

Sorry about all the questions, I have been having some trouble at creating my own texturing surfaces.
Thanks for the help

Attachments

Scale mergeing.jpg

Scale script.zip (269 KB)

#4

Coming along a little better, any suggestions on modeling the individual textures or some guide lines to creating good textures would be cool.
What I like is the ability to paint the surfaces on.

#5

I tipped my scale a little bit along the X axis so that the top of the scale has greater depth than the bottom of the scale. This allowed them to slide over top of each other rather than merging together.

#6

Aurick,
Thank you very much, I completely understand now :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

I wasn’t thinking 3d.

Zbrush is profanely an amazing program :+1: :+1: :+1:

There is a plug’ in that is perfect for setting your texture parts aligned and control the Z depth from “Muvlo-gride-snap”.

I’ll update the photo with the real texture this is a quick test, I was thinking of making an “Alpha texture pack” of 3d surfaces.

Thank you again

-Maxx