This is a ZBrush render, and the text/jpeg compression was done in Paintshop Pro.
Cool tree. I realy like your concept, it will be fun to watch it evolve.
Oooooh, awesome looking tree Brian, love the face thrown on too, good touch, its sweet seeing the modelling stages take place, cant wait for more 
Blaine91555, and XSI Apprentice thankyou for the kind words! I’m going to hold off for now doing any poly painting of this tree, because I still need to figure out my color pallet. I am planning on trying to do this all in ZBrush though.
Hello! I just wanted to show a small test I’m working on for the ground cover of my illustration. I created a single leaf for this example. I changed the colors and used the draw rectangle and rotate dot strokes for this. The green plane in the middle was part of a shadow test for an idea I have.
The far upper left shows the sculpted leaf, and just to the right is it’s Zsphere. This was also an exercise for me to see how well the 2.5D brushes are working in ZB3.1…I need some practice to say the least! 121 most welcome!
Great techique for making leaves. Looking forward to seeing this one come together!
I need to calibrate my monitors again…:evil: :mad: this image is much darker than on my work box. The BG should be set at Zbrush’s default background gradient color of .66 not black as it’s displayed here. If anyone would be so kind…please tell me if my background is closer to black…which I assume it is, than it closer to gray. I just had to install C&C 3 Tiberium wars on my work box…now did’nt I.
On my end the bg looks around the 75-85% grey. i love the leaves you did, i still have no idea how you did it :S, even reading what you said, haha, im thinking some blueish/purple tones would be good with some hints of yellow and black. but thats me great work so far,
Thanks Mark and Michael! Here is a quick tutorial on how I created this image: (Keep in mind you can use this same technique for any objectyou use in a scene.) NOTE- If you already have an object skip to step #4.
- Create a Zsphere model of the leaf.
- Convert it to a polymesh 3D and add the detail.
- I did not use the polypaint feature on this model, but if you wanted, now would be the appropriate time.
- The final step is to select the tool you just created and then click the ,“stroke” tab, and select your stroke type. This is where I need some practice, because the stroke options I remember don’t seem to work the same as in ZB 2.0.
- Start painting!
Here is a little bit more detail…:eek:
You will essentialy be painting the leaves onto the canvas. With your object selected, open the,“Picker” pallet, it will allow you to rotate the tool in order to properly align it in your scene…but there are even better options…
The stroke pallet tab allows you to select different ways Zbrush draws the object you have selected onto the canvas. I was using the Rotatedot, Dragdot, and drag rectangle. Please keep in mind though that even though my BG scene looks similar to the default start canvas, it does contain depth info…allowing the shadows to be cast by the leaves. I hope this helps some any questions just let me know!
Looking good! Those leaves look really nice.
Thank you Marsyas! I’m just starting to start sculpting the ground for my scene. Hopefully I can have some work up soon!
darn good use of z-spheres here! I like the leaves 
Your sketch and layout is good, but since we are roughly halfway through to the end of the competition, you might want to narrow your view down a bit.
You have a lot going on in your sketch which will probably take you a lot of time and work.
Just a suggestion, but if you would narrow and crop your image to show only the most important parts of your scene, it may help you in reducing the amount of assets you would have to create and position in your final render.
Hey Brian, thanks for the tute, i will give it a whirl soon :), I agree with -WOODY- about half way thru comment, i had really better get to work too.
Hey guys! Sorry for the late replies…been busy working!
Intervain: Thanks for the comment, I still have a few more to go!
WOODY: Thank you for the advice I will keep it mind if I start running out of time! I’m not super worried about time though because way before this contest was posted I had decided to take the week of Halloween off so I will have 7 days I can work 24 hrs if I need to.
:o I more than likely will crop the image some, and move a change certain elements.
XSI Apprentice: No problemo! Your welcome! Best get to work!
Here is a small update on how my scene is progressing. I started with the plane 3D and converted it to a polymesh3D. I then positioned it in my scene using the Draw:Persp button: with focal length of 25. After getting the perspective I like, I then scaled the plane to the correct size I needed. I SubD the plane to a little over 4M polys (no HD geometry). I then simply painted a mask directly onto the plain for the walk path and used the Offset deformation to define the path.
Sculpting was straight forward using common alphas and brushes. I poly painted the terrain as well. Something that was really bothering me was how to create the grass…if I used geometry it tended to get washed out when I would show lower resolutions, so I decided to try using one of ZBrush’s fiber shaders. Some tweaking and I found myself a nice solution to my worries. Now the image I am posting is strictly a straight ZBrush render without shadows. I know the grass looks pretty uniform and green, but It will really pop when I add in other detailing painted grasses plus the leaves and everything.
Well thank’s again guys…I hope you like!
Edit: Forgot to mention I changed the perspective a little because I’m planning on changing the BG…
Wow! That grass makes all the difference! looks like this is going to be one project that’s suddenly going to come together VERY fast!
Sorry just to add to my last comment, did you do this all in ZBrush?
Hey dustbin1_uk, thankyou! Yes it’s all ZBrush.
Wow, if thats your first time doing grass i reckon you got it pretty much down pat, cos it is looking mighty sweet :D, thats a pretty cool way to create a landscape, i never thought of trying or knowing in fact of how to do that. great going so far, and im sure that week off will help 
Cool grass! Tried adding any fog to the scene?