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Creating Seamless Alphas and Painting Bump Maps

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#10

this is great, I just happened to be working on a creature with scales and i’ve been wondering how to go about doing so… only one problem…

when i tried to use the deco brush in projection master on the spiral (Zadd @5) I get ‘seams’ on the edge. I tried very hard to draw with the deco brush so it’ll fit correctly, but its not really working. any tips? I noticed that in aurick’s test there really isnt any seams. Am i doing something wrong or forgot a step? (I’ve never really used the deco brush either).

scalestest.jpg

Attachments

scalestest2.jpg

#11

Have you tried turning the RadialFade (RF) to something other than zero on your alpha? perhaps that will reduce the seams for you.

#12

Radial Fade won’t work because it would turn the result into a series of dots. What you need is to use an alpha that is white in the center and fades to black at the top and bottom. When putting this tutorial together, I created one on the fly simply by using a 512x512 canvas and the Cylinder3D tool.

Here it is for you.

[[attach=21531]DirectionalFade.jpg[/attach]](javascript:zb_insimg(‘21531’,‘DirectionalFade.jpg’,1,0))

Remember that you can control the amount of fade on the fly using the Alpha Adjust curve.

Attachments

DirectionalFade.jpg

#13

Thanks for this great tutorial. Very clear and easy to follow. Can’t wait to try this one !

#14

Yeah ! An another Zplace fan User :cool:
Pilou

#15

Every day that I use ZBrush it seems that whole new features unfold. I guess that’s pretty natural, but when you add the wonderful people of this forum adding their expertise, the experience is magnified.
Thanks!

#16

wow thank you very much! so silly of me to not thought of that. I’ll post my creature on here once i’m done! :smiley:

#17

how exactly do you use the deco brush so that what you apply is not being stretched insanely?

#18

Check out the Tool modifiers. There’s one there for tiling the texture.

#19

For italian Zarmy the key is [ò] the one used to get @ using the Alt Gr modifier :slight_smile:

#20

and italian keyboards [ò]
:slight_smile:

#21

Thanks for sharing this tutorial! I really appreciate it.

However, I do have a Question relating to creating seamless alpha.
Currently, my mesh can not be subdivided more than 5 times( at 2,2 mil.) And at that amount of tris, I cant get enough detail of the deformation from the projection master. So I decided to go with creating bump using alpha.

Im using Aaron sim’s alpha to create my detail. However, after I made the texture 50% ( for the background) , I can get the detail I want.

Problem is, the white part bumps up, which works like regular bump map. But I want the white part to actually goes inside( recess in.) I tried to invert the alpha, it creates a border.

Can anyone please help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

HB

#22

You can see the border as well in the ‘positive’ sample. Your Alpha is not 100% Black on the border. As I can see, you use it WAY to large. And with WAY to much intensity. And th Alpha is fuzzy. So you will NOT see the detail you might expect. I recommend an experiment: Make a 512x512 0,0,0 BLACK pic in PS or whtever you use, then draw lines with different edge blur. Import that and seeeeeeeee what happens. When you Alpha is not 100% Black/white around the edges you WILL end up having a step. However, if you use a radial fade (ALPHA TAB) settings, then this line will vanish as the alpha is rather integrated than slapped on… Had no coffee yet so I hope my confuse words help…
Cheers
Lemo

#23

Of all the things in the world, this is one sweet post any way we can get a zscript of it?? i tried to follow but the part that gets me is trying to place the 3d objects without having em rotate and move all over the place

#24

I am not 100% sure that this will help you in solving what your asking, but just thought that you should be aware of it, if you aren’t already.

I noticed your bump alpha, after being drawn on the canvas has lines through it, and that is it because the texture you have selected has lines through it. That is the default texture that is selected when you select the directional brush, if you change your texture to off , before you draw it out, the lines wont be there

You can see in the image you posted what I am talking about.
#25

I’m trying out this tutorial and I can’t seem to get the ~ and scroll to work as in the example. It just scrolls like normal as if the ~ doesn’t do anything. I’m using Zbrush 3.1. What am I missing here?

#26

You probably have a different keyboard layout… try the key to the left of the “L” key, ò in italy, o with two dots on top for germany & so on…

#27

DanasArt
Please note the date Aurick created the tutorial 11-10-05
This tells me the tutorial applies to a earlier version of Zbrush than 3.1
Myself I was able the other day to scroll my work space so it wrapped around horizontally.
How I did it does mystify my cg brain
Needless to say I’ve been unable to reproduce the scroll horizontal wrap around. :confused:
Note:
There is alternative tool in Zbrush that you can grab a alpha and texture from your work area.
----> MRGBZGrabber <----
You will find the know how to use it in the Pixologic :small_orange_diamond:ZClassroom
Try viewing the Creating custom alpha (Zipper) video.
:slight_smile:

#28

DanasArt

I solved our dilema You can scroll wrap around using the tilda key ~ I find it odd that the tilda key doesn't let you scroll past the edge when I click and drag on the scroll button. Just drag on the work space while holding the tilda key ~ That does allow you to scroll wrap around :D

Here is my first attempt at seamless alpha creation using the aurick technique!
Enjoy

Attachments

scales01.jpg

#29

Thank you, I tried it and now it works like you said. :slight_smile: