Thanks again Corey! The forcefields were done in zbrush. Just transparency and a very vivid color applied to the rectangles I extracted before cutting the holes for the hangers. If and when I do some post in photoshop they’ll have a glow effect around them.
Gary-
I cant get transparency to work for me…
I select the icon in the subtool palette, and bpr, but it never works…?
Perhaps I’m missing a step… I always get frustrated, and just end up doing it in post.
…and for a great intro on Lightcaps - Ryan Kingslien explains it best…
Keep it real
Corey
Thanks for the link, Corey!
As for transparency, have you enabled it in the display properties in the tool pallet? You have to enable it there on a per-subtool basis. And in render properties, too, but I think you said you did that already.
small_orange_diamond your havin too much fun with this one - good for you - beam me up scotty ! keep on !
Thanks, Gary! I’ve finally gotten to the point where this feels like fun as opposed to a chore. I guess something finally clicked in two or three weeks ago and I just started to “get” it. Letting my imagination run free feels so good! 
Oh wow, Gary, this looks totally cool. When I left to work this AM, it was still smooth, now, it’s looking more like it’s ready for Battle Star Galactica or something (or a new version of it or ship that goes along with the Enterprise). I agree with Corey, nice forcefield. Keep em coming.
I was wondering how you and EZRA52 were doing with the file sizes. So it’s just not me… cool beans. I decimated some subtools in the file, and now the file is saving with no probs. Man, again, this project is teaching me a thing or two.
Ya, it sucks growing up at times-
Oh well.
Dragon, glad you’re enjoying this as much as I am. And really glad you got your hot rod back on the road, so to speak. As described above, I found a semi-easy and fast(er) way of putting those random little fiddley bits on and once I figured that out, it really flew. I’ve got this one sitting at 27m polys and should hold there since I don’t plan on making any drastic changes in the construction. The only thing I haven’t decimated yet is the main body, and once I do that I should come down to a comfortable 15m or so hopefully.
After a night of digging up all I could on lightcaps, this is what I have. Still gonna tweak some of the lights.
Umm… I usually try to avoid posting an update less than half an hour after the last one but I couldn’t help it in this case. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a “holy crap” moment regarding one of my own sculpts, but right after my last post I dared to push the button labeled “create environment”. I did this with some trepidation due to not being sure how zbrush would react. Let me preface the reveal by saying that my plan was to take the image into photoshop and place a star/sun behind and to the right of the model. Well, it seems as if Zbrush has suddenly become self-aware and psychic all at the same time.
Let me just say, “GET OUTTA MY HEAD, ZBRUSH!!!”
Hey…VoodooDad…LOL…Push them buttons…You never know…
It’s Looking Great small_orange_diamond:)
Glenn
I’m really glad you like it Glenn. This one has turned into a labor of love for me. That button wasn’t really as hard to push as I thought it was gonna be. I always make sure to save my project BEFORE I try something new. One of the first lessons I learned about Zbrush.
I did a quick and dirty paste job in photoshop. I’m probably going to go with a higher resolution background from the hubble telescope, but this was the first one I found. I’m still pretty weak on my PS skills, so any advice is welcome as always.
Hi VoodooDad 
You might be able to keep it in ZBRUSH by going into the SpotLight feature with your model and then get the photo or photo’s you want as a brackgroud and bring it or them into SpotLight also…That SpotLight feature is not that hard to work with…pretty easy actually, and a whole lot of fun also…Pure Magic in fact…
Glenn
P.S. I can never get the SpotLight tutorial in the ZBRUSH Classroom section to work…Must be disconnected or something:qu:,…But you can get tutorials on the internet, …just google ZBRUSH Tutorials I think…If you haven’t already checked them out that is…
Nice to see someone doing spaceships!
Eric; Thanks man! Like I said before, I’m totally enjoying myself on this one.
Glenn; Thanks for the tips. For the moment I’m going to stick with Photoshop because I know just the tiniest bit more about it than I do spotlight. Once I have some time to experiment with spotlight I’m sure I’ll use it all the time.
Update; took a couple of hours to re-familiarize myself with PS. Not the most professional composite, but I don’t think it looks too bad.
C&C welcome as always.
Lovin the spaceship!!!
I love the compositing you’ve done on this one.
You are really starting to step out of the box a bit with your sculptures, and as stated before, it is really starting to show.
Keep up the great work!
A few things to add/change/think about…
(Mind you, these are purely my thoughts, and I’m far from pro)
-The hangar forcefields are AMAZING! However, It looks strange that the electric glow is blue, with the forcefield itself being purlplish/pink.
-Your work with lightcaps is a great start! I think the shadows should be a little more in your face in places, with the background being so bright.
-Add some tiny little lights throughout the model, make it look like the various floors of the ship are occupied.
-Add a fighter flying by the ship on patrol, or taking off from the hangar.
Again, just a few ideas for you to think about.
GREAT GREAT work on this one!
I cant wait to see what it evolves into.
Corey
Very cool spaceship voodoodad.
Hi VoodooDad
I wonder what would happen if you overlapped those last two or three versions in Layers…Might end up with getting the best from each background showing through, and happening in the piece…Who Knows
Glenn
Corey; Thanks! I’ll address your tips here
-
The color of the forcefields. /sigh That’s my color blindness showing through, once again. I’ll fix that soon in either the original model or in Photoshop. Thanks for pointing that out cuz I never would’ve spotted it myself.
-
I didn’t have a lot of time yesterday due to a family emergency, but I did try messing around with the lightcap strength and shadow settings and kept either ending up with pretty much what you see or a totally washed out model with no shadows on top at all. I’m going to study up more on lightcap shadows and in the meantime I’ll just darken them a little in PS.
-
Those pinlights are something I definitely want to do and I really wish there were a way to do that directly in Zbrush. But I’ll figure out how to do it in PS for sure and post here as soon as possible. Thanks for bringing this up, as that’s one of the details I originally wanted and totally forgot about.
-
The fighter idea is great. I’ll play around with that one too!
Ericshawn and Ezra; Thanks guys!
Glenn; Thank you so much, man! That’s another thing I didn’t even think about! See below.
Took Glenn’s IDEA (caps intentional for the awesomeness of the tip) and ran with it! It created a (in my opinion) much more subtle but at the same time more dramatic backgound. Five total minutes in PS and this is what I have now:
Testing the addition of some navigation type lights. Not sure if I’m satisfied with them. Tell me what you guys think.
