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Lessons In Zbrush 3 (videos)

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#41

question 1
“- I notice at the very beginning of lesson 7 you call up a floating menu of icons, one of which is a ZBrush icon with a square around it. After pushing this, the computer’s desktop taskbar appears at the bottom of the screen. How do you do this? How do you keep the computer desktop taskbar always visible at the bottom of the screen? On my machine, ZBrush covers that taskbar, meaning extra keyboard taps to find and maximize other apps.”

This is more of a windows trick than a Zbrush trick.
While you in Zbrush hit ALT-TAB and you can hot link over to another program
To keep the task bar up in Zbursh Right hand corner click the Restore button. you can now see your task bar. (restore sorta next to the unlock button)

question 2
“- In lessons 4 & 5, instead of waiting until after the polymesh is made (to lower the resolution) why can’t I just lower the zsphere preview resolution and make a polymesh of that?”

Just another way of doing it I guess. I guess Since the goemety pallet is closer I just use it rather than digging for the adaptive skin.
Its like changing the channel on the TV with remote even if your sitting 1 foot away;)

question 3
“- Do you know about Marsyas’ Smart Divide process? He uses the Cage button to maintain volume through subdivision. Svengali made a plugin of the idea that places a ‘Smart Divide’ button at the bottom of the tool palette. Here’s the hotlink to the thread ‘Proportional Subdivision’ :”

Played with it for a whole 2 minutes I think. I should give it another spin however. Especially since im doing alot more sculpting lately.

Glad you like the videos. Great seeing some questions for once also;)

#42

Thanks, Jason! Looking forward to the next lessons. Especially Subtools and Layers.

I gotta tell ya though, no matter how many times I press that restore button, I don’t get my taskbar back.

UPDATE: Actually, if I press the Restore button and then take the extra step of moving my cursor to the bottom of the screen, I get that double-arrow cursor that means expansion is an option. Clicking here restores the taskbar.

~S.~

#43

really appreciate for your time man! Cheers!

#44

Hi Jason! Thank you for the tutorials, I find it VERY useful (as a newbie).
I’ve got one question. In the end of the fifth lesson (about UVs) you told that you’re gonna to finish the painting - maybe make a spiderman or something. Are you going to make that lesson? It would be also very useful.
Regards
Seul

#45

Thought about somthing like that I’ll go back and make extra credit videos. Like Coloring the guy. And Coloring the lizard. All the color stuff is pretty easy and is more talent based than knowledge based. Sure there is techniques but but the science is easy.
Zbrush is so huge. I was worried when I did my maya modeling videos that I would run out of material (modeling topics that is). With Zbrush Its so big that time will be the only thing I’ll run out of.

The new videos should pose some new questions and answers;)
hint hint

#46

Firstly thanx!!!

Your links to the new vids etc seem not to function just now - just to let you know.

Ciao

#47

Thanks, Jason. Great vids. Have you noticed whether the new 3.1 upgrade affects any of the techniques in your new lessons?

~S.~

#48

na its cool wish they droped a hint that they were going to Un-Fugly the interface. But other than that just means I have displacement and normal map vids to make now;) a Topic I have always enjoyed

#49

ouch no tweak tool
Cant say that i’ll miss that one!!!
I’ll have to do a recap on the interface

2 hrs into it and wow there alot of stuff!!!

#50

its the “move” brush now.

#51

Cannedmushrooms, thanks a lot for your very helpful Video Tutorial about ZBrush… a great contribution for my studies.

:+1:

#52

Well, the first four videos were fantastic, but I’ve not been able to dowload anything except the Lesson Four video since early this morning. After I got the video, I was unable to download anything else, including the file I had already downloaded. :frowning: :rolleyes:

#53

Hey, Jason.

Question about lesson 9 :

At the 23:55 mark, there is a pop in the vid (where you can glimpse the Firefox page) and then suddenly you have Pants Man set up with an IK rig. The vid (as downloaded) is 29:05 where you end the lesson - but apparently the part you did in Maya is gone. The lesson pops from the finished zsphere rig to the finished IK rig. Will the Maya part be on another vid or is it on this vid, I just need to download again?

Question about lesson 10 C-2 :

At the end, when you re-import the Maya (posed) .obj, I notice the pose is actually reversed. Instead of the left foot and right hand being forward, it is the right foot and left hand that are forward. Why?

Thanks!

~S.~

#54

Im redoing lesson 9 snark I feel I did not cover the lesson very well.
That Zbrush rigging stuff IS VERY FICKLE!!!
yes I used the word fickle!!!

Lesson ten make sure the import flip x is off under import preferences and it should not flip your pose;)
I’ll recap it later but for now use that hot fix.

Read anouncement at the top of the post I am suffering from a bit of a crisis.
Lets just say my videos have managed to fall in the world wide popularity slot.
I was happy just being pixologic wide. So I am fixing a few lose ends here at house of tutorials in the next couple days.
Its a shame too I really was doing a nice zmapper full breakdown with displacement video but it will have to wait a few days until I fix this issue.

#55

I must chime in again and thank you for the very, helpful tuts.

(btw; the link for the ztl download for lesson 10 is the same link as lesson 9).

Many hours of useful training here. Your students should be most appreciative.

(btw#2; Veoh would indeed be a good solution to your bandwidth and hotlinking problems).

#56

Hey, Jason.

No complaints. I ask questions for answers. That’s it. You da’ man. At your own speed and in your own time. I’m here.

~S.~

#57

lesson 9 and 10 files are the same it uses the crashtest dummy guy;)

np snark you guys are the greatest thats why I share here at pixologic;)

now off to fight crime!

#58

Hey Jason,

I haven’t downloaded your videos yet but after reading the first post, I thought I could help you out with the hotlinking issues (forums pointing to your videos).
Use a .htaccess file at the root of your web site to display an image or something whenever someone tries to hotlink your videos.

Write the following in a file named .htaccess (the dot at the beginning IS important):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?houseoftutorials.net/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?zbrushcentral.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*.(wmv|zip)$ /images/nohotlink.jpg [L]

This should:


  1. allow domains houseottutorials.net AND zbrushcentral.com to link directly to your videos and zip files
  2. send nohotlink.jpg (or whatever you decide to display) to anyone else.
You don’t need to change the folder name anymore. :smiley:

Hope this helps!

#59

Thanks Mcfly but I went the route of hireing a hit man;)

Read the anouncement at the top of this post for details.

After a couple days the anouncement will not be there and only the username and password will.

Snark lesson 9 is fully repaired and alot better.
(i wont mention how much i love those posing spheres)

And the next lessons will be out in a couple days. It deals with a complete breakdown of zmapper and displacement exporter. And every map I could think of and how to make them;) And how to apply both 32 and 16 bit displacements in maya correctly.
Very fun stuff

I’ll be out of town until later 08/10/07 but I wanted to make sure I did not leave you guys in the cold before I left;)

#60

I just got zbrush and this is a whole new world for me! I’m very excited, and very appreciative for the tutorials. I got through most of the first one, and looking forward to catchng up to the other ones this weekend. :+1: