awesome.
Simply, Awesome.
Thanks 
Nice, When you deform the bricks into several different shapes and forms how do you go about doing that? Are you using FFD boxes for that?
Thanks for the work flow excellent simple steps…Love the final outcome,awsome detail.Look forward too using your meshes in the editor :):):).
Just gotta say this, would LOVE to see these models in CryEngine 3! 
:lol:
Thank you very much Kevin for sharing your kung-fu!
I cannot add anything very useful; I just wanted to say that these images are breath-taking. Thank you for sharing! Thank you for shedding some light on the process. Very inspirational & appreciated.
~Rhonda
Hey folks,
Here’s some Locust stuff, it was a fun theme. It’s the theme I first started using Zbrush more and my work improved a lot because of it.
Early on I was coming at the set the wrong way, unsure what it was meant to be, whether it was something to hold back on or go nuts with.
Eventually Jordan Walker figured it out, he did a kickass pillar totally from alpha brushes, our Art Director Chris Perna loved it and once he had something to point to and say ‘LIKE THAT!!!’ it was clear we all needed to relearn the way we worked, and how we worked in Zbrush3.
It was a great experience, each game has one theme that I really feel passionate about, the Locust theme was it for me in Gears2.
Ok, a lot of questions, I’m going to summarise if thats ok?
The Grid -
Everything the level designers build is built upon a grid in UE3, to ensure we create useable assets for them. The center point in max, the origin point, it defines the pivot point of the asset when it is exported to UE3 as as ASE file.
So if for instance, you are in a hurry and you make a blockpillar thats 64 units to the left on the X axis from the origin point, then the center of that object’s base, the pivot point, will be defined as 64 units to the left of it in the UE3 editor and that makes the level designers angry.
So we respect the allmighty Grid, the Grid is God if you are an environment artist 
It’s a challenging thing the grid, it can obscure or prevent art, thats sort of the wonderful thing about Zbrush, theres no grid, its meant to create art
Instancing -
Each Brick has its origin point automatically assigned to the middle of it’s self, thats fine when you are mechanically createing them on the grid, but once they have been taken into zbrush and brought back they are organic forms truly and their centers are off balance, so I return the pivots back to a mechanically central pivot point relative to the grid.
It just aids further manipulation, when you work in a studio with many other artists at some point down the line they are going to have to be modifying your work, keeping things clean and organized like this makes it easier for them and, for you!
Videos / Tutorials / WIP -
I am working toward a more comprehensive tutorial in the future, I will do mini vids inbetween now and then. There are some things I can’t show or don’t have anymore, generally I delete my WIP stuff, my pre Zbrush files often get deleted after confirmation that everything turned out right and is ready for processing. I’ll look though.
Mythology -
Aye, a whole Pan-European Celtic culture, shame they only took back the money the Romans owed them once the took the city, but they hated Empires so it just wasn’t in their nature to try to control so many.
Yeah, London was LugDunNum , from Lug of the Long Arm, Celtic sun god in a way, Hawksmoor built further temples on top of the Celt ones, funded by the Christians, but in worship, unknowing to them, to previous gods again
You see that influence here in the states too, the Mason’s being big and all, look for 4 sided church spires and you’ll see his mark, still reaching out over the years.
I didn’t do college, but leaving Scotland in '98, travelling to other countries, well it made me real interested in learning more about Scotland, its past, and then an interest in Celtic Mythology got hold of me and didn’t let go until I was 50 books deep in to the stuff.
It was the same stuff that got hold of Robert E. Howard and let him hear Conan’s voice. I’m glad it did, no one writes sword and sandal stories like REH.
Texturing -
I don’t do it. I used to do it but stopped at the end of Unreal Championship2 when I had to learn how to do HIpoly modelling. When I got fast enough at modelling and capable enough with modular design, it made sense to just keep me modelling.
The joke here is that the reward for doing something well is you get to do it again… and again hahaha
Well , let me know what questions I missed, thanks again for the feedback, much appreciated.
Attachments
I’d just like to SEE what your alphas look like, I wouldn’t presume to ask for some of them for the community…but seeing one or two of them would help us go a long way toward knowing how to make similar ones.
Your rock textures are marvelous!!!
When I was a kid I used to play SuperNintendo in my cousin´s home… I never had a videogame of my own besides de pc games…
My first encounter with the new era videogames was with “Gears of War”, I had to learn how to use almost 20 buttons in a pad instead of 10… but that game was “Real stuff” for me… all the textures, the shadows, the action, the tactics… I fell in love with it (playing it in my girlfriend’s hdtv).
The obsession for the game led me to learn about the UE3, and Zbrush, so I gived it a try… and started zbrushing.
I don’t own a xbox360 console… and i haven’t had de oportunity to play the gears of war 2, but all this thread, and the interviews here at zbcentral, had made me feel an urge to play it… just to pay a tribute for you artists, to stand in awe and say “Now i know how they did all this… and maybe someday I will be able to do so”
abosulutley bad ass works.
love it all. especially that creppy looking arch design. really good stuff through out. thanks for sharing 
Hey Kevin,
Thanks a lot for taking the time and sharing all of this! You have some very good insights on the workflow and the creative process. This shows how much thought is put into every piece to create something at this quality.
Ditto Ditto…
You do such an amazing work man
. You really rock.
WOW!!
Thank you for taking the time to share your work and for answering questions and demonstrating your workflow. I think the brilliance of Gears is due to a combination of incredibly talented artists and a very well thought out, intelligent pipeline. Everyone who was involved in this process - creative and technical artists - deserve a huge amount of credit.
Wow,It’s awesome…I played the first release…It was so cool…and I think with all these perfect work and sculpt…this new release will be Increadible…Great job
cools stuff and the details are really impressing…btw the game rocks too :), thanks for sharing.
Interesting Stuff thanks for the step by step
Man you´re a great inspiration, I love your work and this thread is amazing. I just can´t close the browser, hahaha i´m mesmerized.
Thanks a lot for the workflow stuff you’ve already posted and all your work - very impressive, and I look forward to the tutorials you plan on doing!
so how would you exactly take the one brick you make and then set up several different versions of it in the formation you’ve made? I’m sorry but I just love hearing little details like all this.
I think some other guy asked this too, but what is your process when detailing all those little cracks and gouges on the surfaces? What kinds of brushes do you use?
also, I’d love to hear some more about more of the machined-type objects like all the details you have on the medical staff and the door - how do you go about doing those type of details?
I know we all have our own ways of doing these things.
keep it up! 