Trying out TVeyes multiple-layer technique:
Different ‘front’ materials, with gold as the back layer. Pulled out the gold in some places with ZAdd, and pushed down the front material in some places with ZSub.
great job on that jay!!!cool bolt heads 
I couldn’t resist having another go at it 
Just one layer+one material+one color. Used the Depth Brush with different alphas+stencils and varying draw depths to “roughen” the surface. Three sun lights and render adjustments did the rest. The first pic is a bit misleading as it is actually a light brown color. I use Colorize Diffuse in the material properties when I am to lazy to paint the color on the canvas
"the little round thing"™ on top of the central skull is just the DepthBrush with too much draw depth.
Another pleasure for the eyes 
What is the little round thing on the top of the central skull ?
Pilou
TVeyes ,
you’re getting very close, i’m enjoying this thread
This is the effect I am after. I hope Pix doesn’t mind my posting of his image here for reference. I have been looking closely at the “strokes” on the image. The overall look suggests to me that there is indeed some sort of brush work going on here…perhaps the Paintbrush or single layer brush…I am still looking at the possibilities. The last image I did above took advantage of multiple lights with adjustment in the light graphs which gave the white spots on the edges of the material.
all amazing
You may want to look into the Z tolerance control of the Single layer brush (Under Draw>Channels). A low setting may do what you want. This works in conjuction thith the brush size. You may be able to paint on the surface without affecting the cracks…
If I can create a model worth a darn, I might try it myself…
Here is a quick test… After I painted with the single brush, I found an interesting effect by adding Color bump to the material…
Kaz, please do an AAHalf render of that same pic…
It might just be extremely close…
Hey Jay,
Can you explain what AAHalf means? . Not sure if it is a render setting or not, but I use the Demo and did not see it anywhere.
-kaz
Kaz can you explain more in depth what it is that you did?
Mentat,
I remembered this thread.
For the image above, I set my models and background using Basic Material and a base color (Dark). Then I grabbed teh Single Layer Brush and a light color. Went to Draw>Channels and set the Z Tolorance to .02. Then grabbed an interensting Alpha brush and set my draw size to about 30. Then started painting.
The Z Tolorance kinda resticts your brush strokes and follows a pattern of sorts. I played with the material settings till I was satisfied, adding a color bunmp. Intersting effect… I think I had ZSub on when using the Single Layer brush but did not mean to… :rolleyes:
Wow, Kaz, the above pic is really cool.
In the Zoom Palette, there is a setting called AAHalf. It automatically zooms out 50%, making your picture half its original size, and it also performs a very strong Anti-alias routine. The keyboard shortcut, which I use constantly, is Control+Zero. The keyboard shortcut to go back to full screen is just Zero. So if you would reopen the document of the pic above, hit Control Zero and render to see what it looks like. I work mostly in AAHalf mode. Usually when something looks good in AAHalf, it will look pretty rough in full size.
Here is my final version of my Pixolator Rock Experiment… I basically failed to come close, getting completely side-tracked with the neat technique demonstrated by TVeyes earlier in this thread:
You can see from the picture above that we have a littering problem on our beaches in Texas. 
KAZ, the above picture was done with AAHalf on, meaning the original is four times as big. Below is a portion of the picture at full zoom:
Jay! Did you paint that caustic in there???
Hi Jay
About The AA mode
If I have all understood :)(I am slow minding :rolleyes: )
With AA enable You work at 1/2 resolution but the prog compute at the double : right ?
So you don’t realy see the final work before pressing “0” right ?
In your example in wich screen works you ? In the little I suppose so
I have seen that the good way for eliminate jaggies is :
Size your canvas at the double
and at the end reduce at half
Is this for that AAhalf made for ?
I am a little confused
Can you just make a little diagram of the process ?
Pilou
I can explain it for you… but you’re right on track with your understanding
If you want a final picture to be (for example) 640x480, you double the size to 1024x768, create the picture, and then go to the zoom panel. Hit the anti aliased option. When you export the picture, it will then be at 640x480 (half 1024x768) yet anti aliased.
Pictures require more planning (especially if you’re working at producing a 1024x768 AA picture (meaning your working size will be 2048x1536) because it can chew up a LOT of memory.
–> Watch for Zbrush rounding errors that can occur when hitting the double-size canvas button, also (it isn’t always accurate, in my experience) Best to type in the values you want.
On a side note, It’s best to work complex models at the lower resolutions, and even place them in the positions you want with markers. Then scale the positions up to the new canvas size, and recreate the models.
Your double size picture should look as good as it possibly can, so it isn’t a good idea to draw a small picture and scale it up to double the size. It’ll just wind up looking chunky, and no one wants that
I hope all this makes sence. Have a play around!
Also, I’m going to get in on this rock thing
OK, I see now. Thanks. Demo only allows 640x480, so that zoom mode makes for some pretty small images. But I can see how that should be standard practice. Your images look great!
Well, I know this is not quite the effect we’re after here. I tried, but could not get it to look just right. But I still like what can be done.
All the images in this thread are very inspiring. Great work!
-kaz
Thx Reactor
I shall go meditate on this
Pilou
Hey Kaz, even though the picture is smaller, I think the results often make the smaller picture preferable. Your picture above is great!!
Pilou: I can’t believe that so many ZBrushers don’t know about AAHalf. It’s the key to the really smooth renders. In my opinion, I would rather see a 320x240 picture that has been anti-aliased, than a 640-480 picture that hasn’t been anti-aliased, every time! (Not to mention that it would be easier on modem-users.) 
You can switch to AAHalf (50% zoom), and leave it in this mode while working. I only zoom back in to 100% or more when I need to work on fine details or need more control of placement and drawing. Then I quickly switch back to AAHalf with the Control-Zero keys. (I constantly use Control-Zero, Zero for going back to 100% zoom, and the + and - keys for quickly zooming in and out.)
Mike: I would love to tell you it was a secret option that was for me to know and you to find out, but I’m not that cruel. I painted them with the colorizer and HighlighterII brushes, which was a tip from TVeyes in his Genetic Experiment thread.
Thanks for the implied compliment! (you couldn’t tell that I had just painted in the caustics?)