ZBrushCentral

ReplicA's workflow walkthrough for game models

ZBrush Artworks
#1

I’ve been asked to make a tutorial on how I get things done when it comes to certain aspects of character creation. I don’t know about a tutorial, but a workflow walkthrough sounds good to me. :wink: While this part is short, I’ll be writing this as I work, so I’ll be pausing work for milestones, and posting the results as I go.

Before I get too far, I should mention the software I use for everything. I use 3DS Max, Polyboost, ZBrush, and Photoshop. This model will be a normal mapped, low poly game model, but I will not be going nuts with trying to get the polycount super low. He’s a kind of big character, so I’m gonna go ahead and just keep the polycount semi-decent, not super low.

Here's a shot of the creature I'll be creating. I have dubbed him a Blade Worm Lot's of work to go, obviously, and probably not so obviously is the fact that while this will be the base for the high res mesh, it's not gonna be the base for the low poly. When the high res is done, I'll go back, and re-topologize the low poly. After these edits, I got his UV's done, and exported to ZB for the high res sculpting.

I know this is kinda short for a walkthrough, but I will be continuing this till the model is finished. Also, I’m gonna try and make a video for the begining of the first ZB pass. Thanks for looking, and there’ll be much more to come.

[EDIT] I just noticed an incredibly killer milestone for me here. My second tutorial here also marks my 666th post!!! How awesome is that!? This is gonna be good. :D
#2

I’m looking forward to see your videos.
You have six six six:evil: (posts):slight_smile:

#3

This looks like its going to be good! And its an evil post for you too! Eee AAA, Damien!

#4

Nice concept. I am slowly getting into drawing a concept first myself as I caught myself twice recently starting something while loosing it completely midway… A nice concept drawing is worth a million. Regardless how crappy (in my case) it is… It’s a plan and one has to stick to it. Otherwise you get lost. Your concept looks great!
Lemo

#5

Thanks guys, I’ll be firing up the screencap software, and starting that vid very shortly. God, I hope it works out, I’ve never made anything like this before. :slight_smile:

godlike27, womball, Yeeeeeeeeeeessssssss!! When I saw that, laughed like a loon. The very start of my tutorial, and it’s my 666th post… I hope that isn’t a bad sign. :slight_smile:

Lemo, thanks, bro, I normally don’t color my sketches, nor do I ever do them in Photoshop, but this time, I couldn’t find my pencil, so I had to draw him in photoshop, and I just felt a little color treatment would be nice. I might not be sticking to that color when it’s texture time, though, we’ll have to see what happens.

Ok, vid making time!! Don’t expect it anytime today, as I’ll probably have to re do a lot of it, and re-encode it to a decent file size, and find a place to up it to… you get the idea. :wink:

#6

Cool. I’ve always been curious about the process you game jockeys go through. Although this will be just one variation, I look forward to seeing what you do. :wink:

#7

That’s right, I should have prefaced this whole thing with this; This is just the way I do it, not the way it has to be, or should be, done. For just about every artist, there is a different workflow. So if you don’t like something I do in this, find a better way, it’s not a big deal. This is just a guide for how I do things. Don’t do something just because someone else said they do it that way. That drives me nuts.

I can’t tell you how many times I get comments like, “why don’t you make this model like Zack Petroc”, or “it’s neat, but Kolby Jukes does it a different way”. The answer to those types of comments is this, I don’t model like Zack Petroc, cause I’m NOT Zack Petroc. I don’t model like Kolby Jukes, cause I’m NOT Kolby jukes. Nothing against those guys, we all know they are great, but I’m not them, nor do I want to be them, I’m me, and that’s who I’ll always be…

Anyway, rant over, move along, nothing to see here… Well, maybe there’s something to see, but you get the idea. :wink:

I’m encoding the video now, it’s the first part of the first ZB pass. I had to stop recording for a bit cause of technical issues, but those’ll get sorted out, and I’ll post more vids (I hope).

#8

hehe rep! this concept looks really good! you keep impressing me every time you post !
very interesting concept, looks like lots of fun to work on! looking forward to see the final result, and the vids (curious on your workflow, as im usingdifferent softs :wink:

#9

The video encode finally finished, but it’s still too big for only about 15 minutes. 118mb. Sorry it’s taking so long, like I said, I’ve never done anything like a vid tut before, so it’s gonna take some time.

#10

Thats a VERY cool concept man,looking forward to the vid tut

#11

hey good job :slight_smile: keep posting, looks promising.

#12

It looks like the 666th post was a curse. I can not get the video to work right, and the one time I did get it to work, it was too big for a 15 minute video… Sorry.

I’m just gonna continue with the written stuff, and if keep trying to get that vid to work.

#13

Hi, thank you very much for this tutorial. Can you show a little before and after that would show which ones you removed? Even if it’s not for this model specifically.

Thanks again!

#14

I added this edge to the claw/foot of the model, it’s a pretty close thing to the edges I was talking about.

[attach=45426]zsphereedgeremove01ko5.jpg[/attach]

There’s 2-3 edgeloops around the ends of zsphere’s that are normally unwanted, and useless.

I’m getting close to finishing the first ZB pass. I had to start again, cause there was a gaping hole under his chin, caused by 2 verts not welding when the symmetry modifier was applied in Max, and the collapsed. I’ll post progress, and a bit more of the tutorial soon

#15

Ok, here goes.

[attach=45337]BladeWorm-ZB-Pass_01.jpg[/attach]

I finished the first ZB pass, which is blocking out the forms of the creature. The base mesh has most of the idea of the creature, but not the forms it needs to be the creature. By that I mean, it doesn’t have muscles of any kind, the bone structure is merely hinted at, and a lot of the shapes like elbows, and knees, are just bends in the mesh. We need more than that, so I went in and made sure the knees and elbows (?) made more sense, by pulling them out, and making the angles sharper. I’m not looking for gentle curves, but obvious angles there.

I also added some muscle definition, and placed them where they need to be (more or less. They’ll still get edited as I work). There’s no real muscle “definition” per se, but you can clearly see where most of the obvious muscle groups, shoulder, forearms, etc. will be, and the general size and shape of them.

This first pass is baically prep work for the rest of him. I needed to get the flow of the creature, as well as ideas, going in the right direction. Later, I’ll divide, and conquer the second pass.

[EDIT] I’m tired, and hit submit reply, rather than upload image, sorry.

#16

Here’s what the second pass looks like. I added more muscle descriptions, started the armor-like idea on the claws, changed up some of the muscle flow, defined more of the bones, and tendons, added place holders for the eyes, and did some various other anatomical stuff.

[attach=45346]BladeWorm-ZB-Pass_02.jpg[/attach]

Normally, I’ll do several of these types of passes, till I’m happy with the overall feel of the mesh. Going straight in for the details is rarely ever a good idea. Building the basic forms layer by layer is the way I do things. It allows me time to get a better feel for the creature/character, and understand it’s anatomy better.

{My theory on modeling Part 1}

Taking time to sculpt every division level allows me to bring more to the creature/character, than I would have been able to if I had just jumped in, and gone straight to a 5-6 division level, and went from there. A lot of character designers say, that they’re not always sure what they’re gonna be designing when they first put pen to paper, but as they work on it, the design starts to tell a story. The same goes for me on my models. Even if I already have a design sketch, working on the mesh level by level, allows me to work up the story of the creature in my head, and make the creature that much more believeable.

#17

Looking good! even this early. will be good to see how you get it from zbrush to a working model in maya/max. Ive seen loads of different techniques.

I sometimes get too stuck with my model at high levels instead of working in the detail at low res. good tip to take it through all division levels thanks.

#18

Thanks for the comments, daniel_c, it’s great to know I might have helped at least one person with this thing so far. :slight_smile:

Here’s the 3rd pass. Still more work to do on him, but I got a call from real life, and gotta take off for a bit, so I thought I’d go ahead and post this.

I’ll be starting some of the costume elements soon, and that’s the subject of most questions. Well, that and how I get the low poly, but that parts a bit into the future. :wink:

See ya soon, and thanks for looking.

#19

Hey Rep this is looking really good man. I’m particularly interested in your normal mapping process. Btw, have you ever worked much with generating displacement maps in zbrush?

#20

There’s apparently not a lot of interest in how I sculpt right now, so I’m gonna skip that part, get the model to higher res state, and start the tutorial back with the low poly parts. It shouldn’t take much longer, as I’m at 1.2 mil poly’s right now.

Eboy, I’ve done a bit of disp map generating in ZB, but it’s been a while. You got something you need to know? I’ll help if I can.