I want to make an animated ocean shot. I want swells (appearance of 4-6 feet swells) with just a bit of realistic foam. I would like it animated and in a continuous loop with about a 15 second scene which is repeated. Is that possible to do with ZBrush? Obviously I’m a newbie, so I don’t even know if this is possible with this program. If so, can it be viewed without a plugin? Thanks so much for any help!!! I’m actually trying to decide if I should buy this program or weather I need a different one. I like this one because it seems like I can start with a digital photo of the ocean and take it 3D. Is that true?? Thanks to all.
Well normally ZBrush only does still images, but there is a way that you can make animations, although Ive never tried it. Perhaps someone else could post with more details about the animation zscript by Digits I believe.
thanks Geron,
I did a search for animation and came up with all the info. I really appreciate your reply.
Like any other form of animation, it’s a matter of creating a series of individual pictures and then running them at about 12-15 frames per second (which is pretty much standard for most web animation). Whether a plugin will be required or not depends on the software that the individual frames are put together with. Flash could be used, or it could be an animated gif, etc.
ZBrush does not do animation directly, but it can be used to make the frames. Digits, Robotalk and EZ have all done animated gifs in this way.
Another approach would be to use an animation app such as Poser (which has wave deformers) to animate the ocean, but use ZBrush to do the texturing of the objects that would be used in the animation. Or you could use Poser to create just the animated wave (again, probably using ZBrush to do the texturing since Poser can’t be used to make textures), using ZBrush to create the sea shore, and then using another program like Photoshop to composite them.
There’s also Bryce, which is meant for landscapes and is capable of animation. But again, I’d personally use ZBrush to do the texturing and to model and texture other elements to include in the scene.
If you’re looking for one single program to do it all, you’ll have a tough time. Bryce probably comes the closest out of all of them. But you truly will get your best results from mixing ZBrush into the process – it has the advantage of being both a painting and a modeling program, even if it’s not an animation package.
Sorry Gerlon for getting your name wrong. I now realize that getting animation is really going to be a matter of using stills. That’s okay. But my bigger question is how zbrush works with photos. I will have to try it I guess. I gather that it will import psd from PS. I want to know if it can be a help modifying ocean swells (that I will save as frames). It would seem that it can sculpt really easily. Can I import a picture of the ocean and make modifications to the size of swells easily with zbrush? I will then use the modifications to save as a still and combine all the stills to produce movie of ocean. Does anyone know if that will work well? I hate to ask so many questions with so little knowledge but I am trying to make a decision regarding purchase.
Thanks so much for your help!
hi dancergirl… aurick just gave you some excellent adive… and yes you can do all kinds of stuff in zbrush with real photos,…all you have to do apply it with a flat material to a 3d plane increasing the hdivide and vdivide half that of the imported image… once you get that done you can add some bumps to the 3d plane…take in mind that you need to turn off mrgb and rgb in the draw panel so that you dont mess up your imported image… good luck and i hope this helps…
Here’s a thread that will show and explain exactly what you’re talking about with photographs, dancergirl. Fun With Photographs. It’s really amazing the things that can be done to an imported image, when you start playing around with materials and depth.
Thanka Aurick - So well written!!! You are very talented. Great advice. And thanks for the link.
Also Thanks Dr. JJwow, Also great help and advice. I am very thankful for this info.