Jason!
Just went through your Texture series on Veoh. Thanks for the effort.
Couple questions :
Are ‘Displacement Maps’ , ‘Bump Maps’ and ‘Height Maps’ the same thing?
If my goal is to produce character models for use as either illustrations or animations (including SSS renders) do all my models need both Normal and Displacement maps? Is a Normal map always the first map to be produced? Is a Displacement map always the second map to be produced?
Thanks!
~S.~
The maps are different in how they work but they sorta do all the same in some ways. The different is actual Displacement of geometry to tricking of light.
Displacement- Actual displacement of geometry (something you want to pop off the characters head) (horn) (nose) Also called height maps.
Normal and bump are the same But
Bump maps Tricks light in one axis (Z) using black and white
Normal Maps tricks light in all axis
You would use these as you surface addons that dont need displacements. (scares) (skins pores) (wrinkles)
You don’t need all of them all of the time.
SSS I would use bump instead of normal because normal maps are very noisy.
Its one of those things that your going to have to learn the application to the the method. (sink or swim methods) of learning.
Guys face (maybe normal map)
Girls face (NEVER normal map) use bump
Alien head with horn(displacement + normal map) horns need lighting tricks on all axis.
Alien head with skin pores (displacement with bump) Bump is very clean this way
Just don’t try to make a nose on a character using only a normal map because it will never look right.
hope that helps SNARK
let me know if there is anymore Q’s
Thanks, Jason.
I have understood more about maps from your instruction than from all the books and DVD’s I’ve studied. Thank you for your willingness to share. This is difficult for me. My life (3 decades in Hollywood) has consisted of sculpting clay figures and painting them with sable hair brushes and acrylics. Using a key-board and built-in algorithms is a stretch. So, I thank you for your patience. I am ‘Old School’ looking to the ‘New School’. I love the tools but have yet to completely grasp them. Your videos reveal much.
If I wish to construct an illustration that features a family group of Anthropomorphic Cartoon Tortoises, what full-body maps might I require? Shell maps? The faces have considerable relief in the form of scales, bumps and reptilian contour. Their fore-arms have considerable topology from the spiked nature of their natural digging apparatus. I imagine I will need a Normal Map, a Displacement Map, an Occlusion Map, a Specular Map and a special SSS Map for their claws and beaks as well as eyes. What is your opinion? Though I agree that experimentation is unavoidable I would like some general direction that might narrow my choices. Thoughts?
Thanks!
~S.~
Mush… You are definitely da - man!!
Very enlightening, precise and concise explanation of all of those maps, bumps, etc. Never saw them so well defined in one collection.
Copied and pasted into my 3d tips and things to know file.
Hey - thanks
Also, by the way, I got friendly with Veoh once I figured out how to turn off that thing that sucks up every vid it sees and plops them on your drive.
I’ve even got my own demos posted there now (not about Z-Brush, but Painter and drawing and such… //www.veoh.com/channels/natedoodles) Someday I will do some on ZBrush, but not tutorials. :lol:
he jason some of your links on this dont work well on my computor anyway
Snark if you were doing those type of illustrations. I would have to say for Illustration work a barely use any maps. Why? Because by the time I made the map i could actually paint the Illustration. The biggest thing in this new industry is to learn to produce stuff at a faster pace with the same amount of skill. You can substitute your lack or experience with maps with more about color theory, lighting and post work in photoshop. This way the maps and rendering phase can be streamlined a bit. I also hardly ever render in maya or max and try to only use Zbrush and photoshop for my Illustrations. Sure I know how to make all the maps and I show you how and what options maps have for you. But let’s take my SSS lesson for example. Would I ever use SSS in a render personally to produce an Illustration? No cause I know with a little post work in photoshop I can do the same thing and I actually get to be an artist. Once you enter map world your skills of creativity slowly become that of a cyber nerd doing a thousand render passes to get the same result.
Another thing Focus as an Illustrator on Poly Painting. You do not need UVS as an Illustrator. Instead you will need to focus on Depth Grabs from the alpha pallet and how to use them to make your polypainting pop as an illustration in photoshop.
You seen that relief painting stuff I was doing in a painting thread in the main forum.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=422868#post422868
Shoot In that case I made the illustration with no 3d model at all;)
I actually feel more proud of that stuff than any on my floating heads that will rot on my harddrive.
I just like knowing everything about this stuff. Sometimes its more like a science than an art thing with me. (how it ticks) But when it comes down to artwork. I want to forget it all and just be creative and not worry about the science stuff. I’m also torn cause I also like doing cool nerdy things like this http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=25232145#post25232145 so in order to pull that off I need to know mapping.
Hope that helps. Not sure how much traditional art paint skills you have but it isnt that hard to learn.
Nate welcome to the darkside. The guy that started veoh is a genius and is a very down to earth guy. He did a interview on veoh. He reminds me is like 10 yrs. Thats why I sort of like what veoh has done. Think about how we all communicate now. Its insane in a way. I’ll check out your site.
I agree the veoh vacuum player is a pain though.
Um club.
What links and which site. The veoh links? here?
the ones on houseoftutorials ive been trying them for a while now none of them work
Thanks, Jason.
I always appreciate your insights. Yet, even though I am creating illustrations, I want to be able to use the models (and props) in animations. Doesn’t that require maps? I’m just trying to cover (and understand) all the bases. I am so accustomed (in my analog, ‘old style’ approach) to making quick clay models, painting them and arranging them under lights in multiple compositions for the purpose of deciding on the most appropriate framing. Doesn’t that mean I must use maps now, in ‘3D Land’?
My background is not ‘2D’. I have always worked in 3D clay and 3D paint.
I wish to understand the workflow of maps that will allow both illustration and animation.
I know I don’t need maps just for illustrations but I want to use my sculptures beyond the illustrations.
Thanks!
~S.~
Lets add this to the rules
Whenever I need to animate / see all sides of the object within another 3d package other than Zbrush (maps)
Whenever I want a 2d Illustation where I only see only one side of the object And its within Zbrush (no maps)
Whenever I want a 2d Illustation where I only see only one side of the object And its outside Zbrush (maps)
of course then it goes into the types of maps per scene but thats a whole new ball game with lots of “if this”, “and if that” statements.
Wow! i’ve been using Zbrush for a few months now and I am thrilled to have found this thread!
These are very well made tutorials and well worth spending time watching! Well done sir! your a life saver for this.
I’ll certainly be pointing my friends to this thread.
EDIT:
did this get top row yet? If not, it should do and go to the blogs section of the pixologic website.
http://www.pixologic.com/blogs/ryan/
Brilliant… thanks for these tutorials! 
Thought I’d check out the build an axe one and came to a problem when you… selected a polyplain / zsphere / Rigging start adding dots etc. I don’t know what’s going on here and was wondering could you direct me to the tutorial that explains what this process is? You say the previous one, but is it part 1, 2 etc?
Thanks!
Hold shift click the middle dot (usually its red)
then Tip the plane a little to add the first dots. Its a little quirky that way.
Thanks for the Kind word guys. There is a huge change coming to the face of tutorials coming up soon.
Thats all I can say right now but you peeps will love it when it comes to web land.
That’s exciting to hear. Is there going to be anymore Blender stuff in there? I only ask as I cannot afford Maya.
THX for the very helpful videos, it must be a lot of work.
I watched your video “lesson 19 - merging models together” many times and used the technique to create my character.
one question: Whats the different between the “clone” and the “make polymesh 3d” button ?
And i read another method. http://www.pixolator.com/zbc/showpost.php?p=397564&postcount=50 Maybe you can do another video with that technique. I doesn’t tested this technique yet but it sounds more easier for combining some models.
greetz chew
Hey, I’ve been trying to get these tutorials to work. I downloaded veoh tv, but it’s not working well. I tried to go to the website, as I am VERY interested in the zsphere tutorial, as I can’t get anything resembling decent topography when I use the spheres. However, on the website, on your channel, all I can see is the same 5 minutes I can see on this thread.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m so frustrated! These look to be simply the best tutorials I’ve found, and I am so amped about working with them.
I mean, I’m so in the dark after zb2, every time I make a shape out of zspheres, the back is completely missing! I know your tuts will help, I just can’t see them!!
Anyways, thanks for the hard work. These are amazing, at least the 5 minutes I can see.
did you do this?
Nice!!
Wow. Thanks. These videos are awesome, I really was having trouble using zspheres in zb3.
Only one issue: I updated to 3.1, and I’m not sure the tweak brush is around anymore. When you first converted to polymesh from spheres, you used the tweak brush to move vertices around to match your ref images.
What would you use in 3.1?
Again, thanks for these videos and your help getting them into my library, you have some very lucky students!
It’s called the Move brush now.
cannedmushrooms, thank you for all the videos. Version 2 of lesson 2 is by far more professional than version1. Veoh TV beta has some problems as you can’t retain your libraries if you reinstall the aplication and you can’t select a photo to represent the video. I can’t wait for your new videos and i check the forum twice a day. I’m using as my main 3D apl. Blender and i would like to see more blender-zbrush tutorials. I’m new to zbrush and I’ve already learned alot from you(thank you again). The problem with zbrush is that its not obvious for a newbie where to start and the filosophie of the program. I bought Meats Meier (Introduction to ZBrush 3)videos and they are great. But so are yours! In addition they are of very good quality and free! :eek: Waching you working with the 3.1 interface doesn’t confuse me even though the main rools are the same.
Keep it up!!!
Stamatis
If you downloaded the videos then they should be in my documents\videos\Veoh\
you can then import them into Veoh if you re-install.