WIP - Tribute to Blizzard

[hosch]

Poop Shooter - I use all of those methods now - not sure where I am going wrong or if there is some bug - going to give it a few more tries tonight - looking forward to the Industry Giants this weekend - there is a 3 hour class from Paul with Pixo on Sunday - looking forward to that:).

nerveink - thanks much - still a great deal of experimenting on this end as I learn the ins and outs of this awesome program and still displacement elludes me, but I am making progress.

I have yet to get displacement to work at all in 3ds max - well it “works” but it either shows almost no details or blows out or shrinks the model - even when I use 32 bit files and even when I use the exact gain and offset settings taken from an exported .ma file directly from Maya /shrug - and I have even tried all three types of displacement - MentalRay, VRay and standard Max displacment. Not sure where I am going wrong - I used standard displacement everyday back in 05/06 when I worked with the oil/gas industry but I have never gotten reilable results with any zbrush exported displacement maps so it is obviously operator error /heh.

Having a lot of crash issues when I render (even with Edit mode turned off) so need to get past that hurdle as well before I can really get into lighting.

Back to work …

[hosch]

Ok - the issue with the MatCap assignment is becoming a show stopper for my planned ZB renders before I head to Max / VRay so I created a little demo video in hope someone can either find something I am doing wrong or knows of a work around.

Please forgive my pauses and stumbles - had a very long day and am totally wiped out, lol.

If you view this video in the next couple of hours it will most likely be a bit fuzzy due to its still being processed by YouTube.

UPDATE: Issue resolved (see comments below), but I am leaving this video up in hopes it will save someone out there bruises to the head from frustration, heh.

[youtubehd]wJ6Q3y_K1PE&hd=1[/youtubehd]

[aurick]

Hey Hosch, I’ve edited your post to embed the video in it as described here: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=85640

[0bz]

I´ve watched your video, try putting that material that wont load into (your orc skin shaders)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Pixologic\ZBrush 3.5 R3\ZStartup\Materials

Or whatever your installation directory may be… do the paint steps as per your video, then reload to test. So long as the materials in that dir don’t change, you should be fine.

Feel free to PM me with Vray disp questions, I would be more than happy to lay down the knowledge.

[hosch]

Obz - Thanks so much for both the tip - which I will try right now - and the offer for assistance with VRay displacement - will post results in a few.

BTW - I talked to Paul with Pixo last night and he suggested the same thing and I have tried your tip before and have yet to get any custom materials to load properly if added to that directory, but maybe it is something I missed so off I go to try again … you never know … stranger things have happened, heh.

[hosch]

Obz - you rock. Even though you suggested the exact same thing that Paul from Pixo did, and I did get the same result … I read your tip a bit closer and noticed where I was going wrong.

I needed to place the material FIRST and THEN assign it rather than assign it and THEN place it before a future load.

Here is where I went wrong - I was ASSIGNING it and doing all the work I needed at the same time - I will revize my workflow accordingly - you have solved a 3 stinking day delima for me man and just became my daily hero, heh.

Aurick - I apologize for doing this incorrectly and will review the thread - thanks for the assistance with my first video upload:).

[hosch]

Aurick - Ok I reviewed the thread and compared the edit you created and understand that I need to use my video link “value” and then add the “&hd=1” between the youtube bracketed coding. Thanks much for the tip - had viewed that, but missed that additional link below the tutorial that lead to that code description:).

[0bz]

Glad I could help. word of caution I may be wrong on how, but it appears Zbrush orders the materials someway, let’s say there are 25 materials in there (I have no idea how it orders them, but lets assume alphabetically). ApplesauceShader is #1, and ZebraLeather is #25, you have something from the middle assigned to your model, you add another shader to that dir… well the ordering is all thrown out of cahoots now. Everything gets bumped a number and the wrong materials land on the wrong objects (this is why your imported shader never came in, because it wasn’t part of that data set to pull from, so it defaulted to… whatever material) and you get “material #17” instead of “awesome troll skin” or what have you… so if you add another material in there, you stand a good chance of your Zmats playing musical chairs on you.

[Crusoe_the_Painter]

They REALLY need to fix the way shaders are handled in a model, use a opaque UUID or name, not by some simple number/ordering.

[hosch]

I agree that is it not intuitive, but for now, I am just happy i have a work around - will do further testing tomorrow night if I can after Industry Giants is over.

Looking forward to Paul’s presentation tomorrow morning - 3 hours of ZBrush workflow should help me a good bit:).

[hosch]

Having another issue that I have had before and found nothing on it in any documentation so far.

This issue deals with the polygroups doing some rather odd issues on their own and so far as I can tell this might just be the first issue that I have had where it is truly not operator error, lol.

any ideas anyone?

[youtubehd]7fm8BfxxRUk&hd=1[/youtubehd]

UPDATE: After doing some further research the only thing I can find in common between the few objects that this has occured before were that they had previously assigned UVs and then the object was modified somehow - but this should not matter for two reasons:
1. They were imported as OBJ’s after the modification occurred
2. They had their UVs deleted before applying the polygroups

[0bz]

Sometimes at low levels showing and hiding polygroups can be fickle. It can assume you mean to do an edge ring, or other nonsense.

It looks like you have a verifiable bug, or possibly a corrupt subtool. Try the same thing with a division or 2 on it, and see if the show/hide issue persists.
Try making it again from scratch, and be sure that UV’s, if any, do not touch the actual borders of the 0-1 space.

That’s all I’ve got for this one, as it’s not quite like anything I have come across before.

P.D. - You pronounced “obz” perfectly :lol:

[Blaine91555]

I’ve had this happen to me with models exported from Silo with UV’s mapped in Silo. I mentioned it here once if I remember right and never got an answer. I’ve never known if it was Silo or ZBrush.

[AVBN5000]

This may sound a bit odd, but sometimes a 3D app can do odd things depending on the hardware you are using. I dont know it if would help but you could try updating your video card drivers if they are not updated.

I know that sounds a bit odd but I know for Maya, there are specific drivers recommended to use with specific cards. Most ATI cards arent recommended because they dont have an overlay setting which Maya uses for tool selection and various other tasks. Not having the right drivers installed can make it a bit out of whack.

Just a thought, in a round about way.

[hosch]

Well, stranger things have worked, lol.

I have had so many graphics card issues that I have one of each major brand and switch between them as various software’s needs change.

This is a ZB issue I am fairly certain because I have found a work around for this:

If I have higher geometry it still does not help - but if I have higher geometry and go up in those division levels it works just fine on the exact same piece of geometry that does not work on level 1 subdivision. I started exploring this further based upon Obz’s suggestion - once again thanks man:).

[hosch]

Well, for now I am considering this completed for the ZBrush side, but would still welcome crits and comments as always.

I have other projects in the wind, but when I get time I will figure out VRay displacement for this character and add the fur and feathers I have already created inside 3ds Max.

These are just ZBrush renders with default lights with a bit of layering of depth, spec and shadows inside Photoshop. The “spotlight” effect is nothing more than a mask inside of PS.

Enjoy:).

UPDATE: I received some excellent critiques from a friend in the industry and I will be addressing the following issues as soon as possible:

1. Enlarging and adding more teeth
2. Giving the moccasins additional folds so they do not look like socks so much
3. Adjusting the leg (left) further to give him additional support - this will be a bit more involved but needs to be done to strengthen the pose

Further crits welcome for sure:).

Attachments

[hosch]

Quick screen of the new teeth and gum adjustements - I was thinking that I was going for an “old - worn” look, but the critique was that they actually read as “baby” teeth. Once I heard it I totally agreed - this looks more in line with the spirit of the character.

Attachments

[0bz]

Now those are some teeth! They look much better than before.

[RawSunlight]

Teeth and gums are perfect for your character now! Great job!
Your renders are really dark though, a real shame given how much work you’re putting in to the textures! Great work dude small_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamondsmall_orange_diamond

[hosch]

Thanks guys for the feedback - I plan to do no more renders in ZB on this guy - was just experimenting as this is my first go round and wanted to do some testing - the real renders will be from VR tomorrow or Friday. Will post an updated pose on his stand in a few.