Alright boozy top row you deserve it my friend .
Wow I come back after two years and youāve jumped to the top row!! Congratzā¦couldnāt of happen to a more imaginative artist and pretty cool person!
Very nice piece by the way!
awesome very well deservedā¦
always enjoy seeing your unique style and your art speaks for its selfā¦ please keep inspiringā¦ 
Aw, good gracious , Iām top row.
What a delight to discover this having comeback online today after some much needed eye rest.
Much appreciated - you have made my Burnās celebrations complete.
Metin , Vlad , PFC666, Lensman , Tristanartform , Pygmalion, Tonare, Troy - thank you most kindly folks. Your company and opinion greatly appreciated.
Lensman in reply to your question
to avoid comping flat elements in PS you do the inverse i.e you prepare textures or alphas in photoshop for inclusion by creation in ZBrush and/or create the tools, brushes, texture maps , alphas etc in Zbrush itself using a working scratch layer above all canvas/ scene layers ( temporarily hidden) to generate resources for creation when working in flow.
The methods for creating flat comping elements using alphas are truly numerous in Zbrush, from the Plane 3d Tool, Texture palette >Image Plane Plugin planes , Quick Sketch planes, Shadowbox and the āmake 3Dā function of the Alpha palette. Quite a thing, the visual permutations possible with ZBrush.
If you are unsure about positions of objects - creating a marker for the rough position will allow you to recall itās and perfect it as required later. Having found the better position add a further marker if required should you decide to upsize the canvas later.
Lighting? You only need one light - cheat with material settings to fake illuminations ,baking lighting to layers , dodging /burning tools as well as using texturing tonally as part of the creation of light.
Some techniques in deeper detailā¦ā¦ā¦
Accurate image cutouts for comping in to 2.5D layers or subtool scenes can be created in many ways such asā¦
1, image planes (plane 3d, Image Plane Plugin planes or Quick Sketch planes) - cutting out the shape from an applied alpha >Masking >mask by alpha >then using Geometry >Edgeloops>edgeloop masked border. Thickness can be applied quickly using an Edgeloop> panel loop extrusion (with no polish) to quickly give it thickness + retaining the uvās and thereby mapping both sides of the extrusion.
Iām a big fan of using Quick Sketch on a canvas sized to the same size or proportion as the imported texture. This gives a good starting point for mapping a texture and cutting with an alpha using the method described above (1, image planes).
To use the Quick sketch method prepare your work in a different file to your actual working file. Quick sketch is also a neat way to quickly apply a texture screen grab/ GrabDoc of your canvas and map this to the Quick Sketch image plane that fits your canvas size perfectly, particularly if you take a marker of the Quick sketch plane position in move mode for easy recall later. You can use this for all sorts of tricks such as transferring rgb texture and depth information to other canvas layers The great thing about textured planes of course is how they also allow you to also quickly tile/ repeat textures by modifying uv tiling . I use uvās often to create and generate paint effects that I transfer to the whole pixol scene rather than simply texture an object.
2, selecting an alpha and utilizing the make 3d section of the alpha palette - mesh smooth1 >resolution 512. A very quick method + gives mapped uvās to apply image texture - assuming your alpha and texture map correspond accordingly.
3, using a 512 res shadowbox extrusion created from an alpha applied to the back wall of the shadoxbox. A way to apply an alpha quickly and exactly to fit the back wall of a shadowbox for a quick extrusion is to hide all other walls >Uvās >apply auv tiles to the visible back wall plane > Masking >mask by alpha from your chosen alpha map (you may need to control click outside the shadowbox to invert the result as well as show the hidden side) - you will need to create uvās and a texture for this method. I would use the shadow box method if you wish to zremesh the results to lower poly counts as Iāve found extrusions from edgeloop mask borders polygroups cause me issue for some reason.
4,using a retopo trace over a mapped image plane subtool - uvās and map to be created after mesh creation.
5, applying mapped image planes to a canvas layers and using the 2.5D eraser to manually cut it out - move this around the canvas after dropping with the tilde key.
NB: The fastest way to create planar image texture maps to flat forms is to use the make 3d function of the alpha palette. Other quick planar mapping methods 1, create the uvās + a texture for the mesh derived from an alpha > using a marker in projection master transfer the proportionally matched rgb texture information to the mesh from a proportional image plane set to rgb . Another method is to use >Transform >3d copy . With the tool in edit mode > Texture palette> Image Plane plugin and import your chosen texture>press T to exit edit mode for the tool and w to enter move mode >set the tool to rgb and switch off zadd > Transform palette > press ā3d copyā to transfer the texture from the image plane to the mesh . Remember to turn zadd and mrgb back on for the tool so that when you redraw the newly textured tool on to the canvas you can see it .Similarly you can utilize a marker to match the mesh position to the Image plane texture or if preferred position and scale either of these two transfer methods by hand and eye.
All these methods can be used to apply image textures at various transparencies of texture rgb or with full depth/ surface at 100% zadd - all can be further adjusted by stroke methods and picker modes.
If youāve applied a stroke or tool you can press w, e, r to readjust itās position,scale or rotation. Certain strokes modes and tools will allow you to transform multiple strokes of the image too + also add more to the stroke amount by holding cntrl after the first uplift of your of your wacom pen before creating your next marks.
If you do not want pixol objects on canvas layers to shadow layers below - bake the lighting on the layer/ layers beneath making sure all layers above etc are turned off.
In closing hereās another relevant neat trick with regard moving canvas elements by copying sections of your work using the cloner toolā¦.
Example above: cloning by selected area.
> select the clone brush , set the stroke type to DragRect and choose for the alpha the white rectangular alpha > press cntrl where you would like to sample from and drag out your clone brush a little > now press e to scale around the area you wish to sample from >press w to move clone to first location - in move mode click on the canvas to change the sampled z position - change the forward and back z depths of the clone by holding down the tilde key in move mode. Create new clone area position by snapshotting ( shift +s) and moving to a new location to apply the clone . The alpha determines the shape of the clone.
NB: you cannot to my knowledge change the scale of your clone merely the area you sample from - nor can you rotate the clone - the alpha the clone brush uses represents the sample area.
The likelihood is that you will need to erase information you didnāt wish cloned in which case sampling/ cloning to a new layer may be a good idea.
Point of note:the cloner tool requires you to hold down cntrl for the sample point. This use of cntrl negates being able to transform a further series of cloner stroke beyond the first pen lift strokes i.e hold cntrl >then draw a further series of other strokes before going in to āwā move mode to transform all strokes .
Using the conic stroke, freehand stroke etc with a single stroke will allow you to transform that single stroke before pen lift and duplicate it using shift+s for snapshotting. Duplicating cloned strokes like this is very useful.
Goodness me , Iāve written a cup of tea and two biscuits worth with that blurb.
Tip of the iceberg stuff really when it comes to ZBrush.
Hope some my rambling helped and inspired
Yours etc,
Boozy
Splendidulous!!
Congratulations! for top row
small_orange_diamond
ā¦poetry the Boozy Floozie! 
Your favorite Fan forever! 
Hi Mark, congratulations on Top Row - well deserved!!!small_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond!!!
Ah good olā timesā¦ http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?24013-Mrs-McMurdo-s-Perspective-Correctional-School-for-Wayward-Gals-Finished
Book? Little Happenings - Vol I ? :):):):):)ā¦
Best,
-G
Thanks so much guys.
Isnāt it lovely when you have things in common
This image another 2.5D piece .Textures rgb mapped to simple shapes on the canvas layer , faux shadows derived from mrgbz grab of the characters filled with flat white material against black background - the texture from the mrgbz grab tool then utilized as an alpha in a Directional Brush (2.5D Tool) placed in to position and rotation using the in DragRect mode and set to rgb at with lowered opacity over the ground plane layer.
Rory - you had me at splendiculous a word that that tickled me grinniferously.
PFC666 - my best regards and thank you
Pilou - Good Sir and human dynamo that you are - your support much appreciated.
Geert - what a lovely idea and thank you for the link that took an old sap down memory lane. My thanks.
Boozy
ā¦baby!
Boozy: āGoodness me , Iāve written a cup of tea and two biscuits worth with that blurb.ā
I think probably a POT of tea and a biscuit tinās worth is more like it! Thanks, Iām going to have to go over that lot multiple times, and try to make sense of it all. I really do want to do as much of this as possible inside ZB without resorting to comping layers outside in post work. Sadly my latest effort will require me to do that since Iām just not happy with how it looks. Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to write all that.
Frenchy Pilou: "I am anxious for theā¦baby!
Haha, it wasnāt until I looked at it a second time that I saw: Pine(cone)&Apple and Pineapple! Subtle, Boozy, subtleā¦
āThe Three Houletsā
One of my favorite pieces of yours yet!
Excellent work Boozy!
I really like the balance of your piece and the way you composed its elements!
Subtle, Boozy, subtleā¦
Yes Boozzyās art has always several levels of reading!
hahahaā¦ great to see your work getting featured on the top row.
i really like the colors and mood in your stuff. keep them comingā¦
-r
boozie floozie on top row!!
For me, youāve always been top row, master of image poetry.
What a pleasure to see you on ZBC top row too.
great job as always, I would like to understand: D: El teu:
great job as always, I would like to understand: small_orange_diamond:D
Boozy love the new piece .
One question ,Do their parents approve ?