I am wanting to make a 3D object from an alpha to be as crisp as possible. I know I need to have the resolution of the mesh up but I was wondering if the size of the Alpha used makes any difference seeing as once the mesh is made it is resolution independent, as it were.
If I make an alpha that is say 1024 x 1024 is it going to give me a better ‘Make 3D’ result than if the Alpha is 512 x 512?
I would think so, yes. I higher res alpha will more than likely generate a more accurate mesh based off the alpha.
Is this an educated guess abyx or is it an absolute fact?
it’s an educated guess and a rather logical one as well. the higher res the alpha, the more texture/depth information is present, and the better the mesh generated from the alpha will be because of that information.
If you’d like me to, i’ll go ahead and just run some test myself and post the results if you don’t have the time or can’t really afford to be expirementing at the moment.
Don’t misunderstand me Abxy, I’m not asking anyone to test things that I can test myself.
I am only concerned with black and white alphas without shades of grey.
I know that it seems logical that a higher resolution Alpha will make a better 3D but in the tests that I’ve done I haven’t noticed a difference. Which is why I asked. Maybe there is a difference but it only shows on particular types of shapes.
I suppose I could test a whole bunch of different shapes but I thought that someone might know the answer without me having to waste my time making all sorts of variations of shapes each one at different sizes.
If someone knows the answer already then that will save me a lot of time.
Opps Didn’t see the make 3d thing at first to answer that question first I would Draw/Paint on a 4096X4096 canvas what you want to make 3d then after you have made it 3d. New document and double then redraw the 3d object on a smaller canvas. I wish zbrush would actually allow you to change DPI of the document but sadly I have yet to find away. Sure you can make the picture the size of a poster but a DPI change would lead to a smaller rendered document with crisper looking results.
I’ll Leave the below babble just incase it helps others;)
Alphas Base themselves on 2 things
2.Base Geometry has to have enough polys to support the crisp edge when you apply the alpha.
And not to forget Bits 8 , 16, 32
Which alows depth of the alpha
I’m still no nearer to understanding this at all.
Here is a sample I’ve done. I’ve used the letter T. I prepared two alphas one was 4096x4096 pixels and one was 512x512 pixels.
I brought the big one into a Zbrush of size 4096x4096 and made an alpha with max resolution of 256 made 3D and filled the canvas. Added a material and exported to psd.
In for the small alpha T I brought it into a 1024x1024 Zbrush document and made the Alpha 3D using the same maximum setting and fill the canvas and exported to psd.
I then opened both in photoshop and reduced the big one till it was about the same size as the small one and put them side by side in the same document.
As you can see although the small one has some aliased edges it still seems to have the same level of detail regarding corner sharpness and bumpiness.
