really nice. love the skin texture! nice touches of color. I have been playing with the material editor trying to get different skins: reptiles, wrinkly, bumpy…but your alien skin is pretty darn good, especially with the variations in different parts (its not all uniform, which is good). maybe we can have a link or a thread in the FAQ quicklink area for people to put their own skin textures and hair textures in as to have a bank of them… 
just a suggestion. I am trying to see how much I can get out of zbrush with creature designs and organic stuff. It seems once you get the hang of the app, you can do a great deal. can you by any chance show us how you created the skin textures?
nice skin! very realistic.
Good job!
I have to add my agreement…That is outstanding skin texture!
I don’t know about the fuzzed focus at the top, but that’s just me…I congratulate you on a fine model, and wonderful texture.
And what do you mean silly stories…I love those stories!
One of the key power features in ZB, (IMHO) is learning to use alphas. With them, you can make an endless variety of brushes–that can be used for color and/or texture.
ZB comes with many alphas, but you should look into making your own as well. That will help you break out of just using what the program comes with.
Making a custom alpha is easy. Find a texture image off the web or photo cd, or go around your house and look for interesting textures to photograph. A close-up of the wrinkled leather of a couch or patterns on a brief case make for an excellent skin texture. Try to make images that don’t have too much shadow direction. Turn them into grayscale images and to help make a nice “blending edge”, paint a black circle around the edges of the image. I rarely make my alpha images larger than 256X256
This alpha was used to quickly create the texture on this ball:
These potential great texture sources are all around us, so view your world with a new eye towards capturing them. You can quickly build up a good libray that way.
The images can then be imported into ZB as alphas and used with Zadd or Zsub and various stroke types to quickly build up texture on your models. And don’t forget to try out the stencil tool (click on make st) to use your custom texuture with the stencil feature.
Stencils and alphas can be rotated and scaled to avoid a repeating pattern, so you can get quite a lot of mileage out of one simple texture.
I love having a detailed model but hate spending a whole lot of time hand tooling it all, so mastering the alpha features are the way to go.
nice pic ken.
speaking of Making your OWN custom alpha or texture i remember a while back a dude took a slice of HAM out of the Frig and put it on his scannar to make skin texture lol
thank you, Ken! i feel much better alpha-betized now, & it is a great feeling!!! :D) and: kudos!!! this is an excellent alien and example of what you just taught us! …
- juandel
“alpha-betized”, good one, hansl =D
Ken, your texturing is always immaculate =D evidently, it can turn a good modelling session into a photo-realistic rendering. many many s
P.S. I wouldn’t sit on a leather couch looking like THIS, just my cliche humour.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Mommy, are you a boy or a squirrel? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
thats a really cool trick there ken… thanks for the insight… love the image and texture on this one… i just have one question for you how big is your doc…size when your start texturing … thanks for showing your image to us.
Hey, looks a bit like species 8472.
Could that have inspired you?
The original image size is 800 X 1400. I usually do the initial modeling at a lower size such as the default, then size up the canvas and re-insert the model and begin the 2.5D painting.
This model started as a doodle with no particular idea in mind. I do vaguely recall the Species alien, but wasn’t thinking about it. I do see the resemblence now.
Great stuff Ken. Zbrush doodling can produce some good models. Having nothing in mind, at the start, is somewhat liberating. Imagination takes over.
Superb! A wonderful picture (I really love the bumps and wrinkles on the skin!), along with sage advice. That Alpha palette is probably the most powerful part of the whole program, since it can be used in so many different ways. Thank you for both the picture and the instruction!
Hey Ken B,
A texture is a success when you can imagine how it would feel - this is most tactile 
jd
Great modeling and textures
Stargo
I agree with stargo
Great job modeling - and texturing!
-ZuZu
Ken I can’t think of anything that hasn’t already been said. I always enjoy seeing your work. 
Thanks ken. appreciate the tips! 
Not a lot left to say. But I still have to remark on the skin anyway. The little viens and the variation in different part. Superlative do not do it justice. Realistic.
Thanx for the Alpha tips
Just?? Hmmm maybe one day I can make "Just an alien " 
With some awesome textures, colors, and creative modeling! He came out great, no just about it ! :).
Thanks for posting this tip. I was doing something similar, so it is nice for me to know that I am on the right tract.