Advanced 3d Modeling and Texturing with Andrew Klein

Pixels Vs Pixols:

While traditional pixels contain only colo information RGB, and potentially alpha information (see the black area on the lite-brite), Zbrush-pixols can store depth as well, just like we see in the bed-o-nails toy above. The Pixol of course can also store color.

In its standard configuration, the ZBrush window is mostly taken up by the canvas. This area is where you will do your painting and modeling.The Palette (Menu) List near the top of the window provides ZBrush's menus, and Trays on either side of the window can be used to dock the menus. The Title Bar at the top of the window provides information and a few miscellaneous controls.

In ZBrush, points on the canvas also have depth, material and orientation and are called pixols.
Pixols are not drawn just as color on the canvas. They are rendered using their distance, orientation and material information. A change in position of the scene lights will affect their shading on the canvas.

An example workflow is as follows:
Import a low-resolution base mesh.
Subdivide it several times, possible taking the polygon count into the millions.
Sculpt in fine details at the highest level of subdivision.
You may then decide that some of the base geometry is unsatisfactory; for example, your hero's muscles should be larger than they are.
So, switch to the lowest level of subdivision, and sculpt in those bulging biceps.
Now, when you go back to higher levels of subdivision, the throbbing veins and almost invisible muscle striations will still be visible!
Now, go back to your lowest subdivision level, generate a normal, displacement, or bump map, based on your highest-resolution version of the model.
Export the modified lowest-resolution model to preserve the sculpts you've made on it.
Use the modified model and the new maps in your external program.

ZBRUSH BASICS Video Tutorials from 3dTotal, CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW:

Project 1: LETS MAKE A FISH
------------USE SHADOWBOX to create a shape that resembles a fish.
------------Sculpt and Deform that shape to add detail
------------Use the transpose tool and snapshot function to create a school of fish.

Find a good Fishy Reference

In general, I approach the texturing/sculpting process in 3 distinct steps that allow me to individually focus on the needs on my project. You can see a great example of this process in action in my RUG TUTORIAL here and listed below as well as I work on this fish. In these 3 steps, I will examine different overlapping parts of the same area. A good texture (YOUR SCULPT FOR THIS PROJECT) should show evidence of a cohesive combination of all 3 of these levels of detail.

STARTING YOUR MODEL USING SHADOWBOX:

USING DYNAMESH (click for tutorial):

STARTING YOUR MODEL:

With the UV's and the topology ready you can now export the mesh from Maya. To export go to the File>Export selection option box and select the OBJ option from the drop down menu. Click Export Selection and save the model. You are now ready to import the mesh into ZBrush as a Ztool.

If GoZ is installed, you can use the GoZ Icon in the Maya Shelf to send your selected objects over to Zbrush Automatically.

Then in Zbrush, you can use GoZ to send the mesh back to Maya

GoZ Video Tutorial:

Let’s begin by opening your Ztool in ZBrush. Models in ZBrush are defined as tools. If you are beginning with a mesh that was initially modeled in another application, import it as an OBJ file by using the Import button under the Tool menu (or use GoZ as specified above).

Now, click and drag on the canvas to draw your tool (see image above). Immediately go into edit mode to allow the tool to be edited as a 3D objec. Press the ‘t’ key on the keyboard or press the Edit button on the top part of the shelf.

One of the first things I do when I am roughing out a model is to use the Move or Move Elastic Brushes to push parts closer to the form that is desired. See the video below for more information.

With the tool in edit mode you are now able to tumble, add subdivision levels, and use any of ZBrush’s sculpting tools to detail your mesh. Below you see that in the Tool--Geometry Palette, we can Divide the model (7 times as you see here) to add enough geometry for detailing:

Detail with brushes, and use reflection. To Turn on Brush Symmetry, go to Transform and hit Activate Symmetry (or use the hotkey: X).
You will now notice a second "dot" on the other side of your model which is your reflection.

Work on lower levels of detail first, and only later on higher levels.

The best workflow for sculpting is to set your mesh to the lowest level of detail first and sculpt as much as you can before dividing it again. This will ensure the retention of forms and also an optimization of your polygon count needs.
You will start with a super low poly mesh in Maya. Try your best to keep it as low as 150 quads! But as you see in the diagram below, that is well more than enough to start devolping a creature:

ZBrush offers an additional powerful feature when using subdivision with polymeshes; a polymesh retains a subdivision history. To put it another way, each time a polymesh is subdivided, the geometry from the previous polymesh is remembered, all the way back to the original polymesh. So a subdivided mesh can have multiple levels of subdivision, equal to the number of times it was subdivided plus one for the original level.
You can move back and forth between these subdivision levels as you model; if you need to make 'large-scale' changes to an object, such as raising a significant portion of the surface, you can do it at a lower subdivision level where the model's polygons are relatively large (more of a 'cage') while fine details can be sculpted at a high subdivision level. In either cases, changes will be propagated across all levels, so sculpting geometry at one level does not lose the work you've done at another level.

Subdivision levels are also used to generate bump, displacement, and normal maps. Detail is added to an object at a very high subdivision level (possibly with many millions of polygons). That detail can then be compared against a lower subdivision version of the same model to generate a displacement or similar map. Once generated, that map can be taken to an external program and applied to the lower-poly-count model to give a detail effect almost indistinguishable from the high-level sculpting in ZBrush.

Sculpting is done primarily through the funtions in the Brushes Palette. Here I have the ability (while in edit mode) to use any of the following brushes:

Here is a look at how a few of those brushes work:

Different Strokes can produce different results as well (all the images below are with just the standard brush at the same Z Intensity):

The sliders the top of the shelf (seen in image below) can control the intensity of your brush stroke.

MRGB- when pressed, you are painting Material and Color
RGB- when pressed, you are painting just color
M- when pressed, you are painting just material
RGB Intensity- the opacity of your paintbrush

Zadd- your brush sculpts outwards
Zsub- your brush sculpts inwards
Z Intensity- how deep or high your brush goes

Focal Shift- Controls the softness of your brush
Draw Size- Controls the size of your brush

We can also use alpahs (grayscale jpg, bmp, or psd files) to add detail to the sculpt. The Alpha Palette provides a wealth of already created alphas. OR you can make your own by hitting the import button:

Here I have made a scales alpha for use on the fish which I will import:

We can control the Radial Fade of the alpha to soften the edge as I draw it out:

You can also add geometry based scales by using the Mesh Insert Brush. This video from DT, explains how:

How to use the Mesh Insert brush to add details in Zbrush 3

We will also be using the transpose tool to bend the fins of our fish to give it some life before we pose it. Take a look at the timelapse video below:

You can also view other timelapse videos for this project here:

Lesson1-Zspheres
Lesson2-Reshaping
Lesson3-Sculpting
Lesson4-Detailing
Lesson5-Retoplogization
Lesson6-Masking to make teeth
Lesson7-The Transpose Tool
Lesson8-Polypainting

Use the guide below as reference when working on this project:

1	You will be responsible for reading and watching everything posted on this site during each week of the course. You may be quized on this information for any current or previous week, at any momment.
2	By now, you must be capable of understanding Maya terms, the interface and workflow elements. These basics will not be taught. The class moves fast, and you must keep up.
3	Always have reference material. If I ask to see your reference material and you can't provide it, you will be excused from class until you can.
4	Always back up your work. There will be no accomidations made for missing work, or work that is lost for any reason. This will result in an unchangable Zero for the assignment. Remember: Maya Hates You!
5	Work is due on time. No late work will be accepted for any reason. (see rule 4).
6	If I can see it, you need to model it. Tiny screws, cords, stiches, bolts... if it exists, you need to model it. This is what separates the kids from the professionals.
7	Bevel your Edges. Unless it's a knife blade, The edges of your model are going to be rounded to some degree. (see rule 6).
8	Build everything to scale! Measure everything that you model, build in the correct working units (inches, cm, etc...), and scale your orthos accordingly. This will make sure that your renders are appropraite looking.
9	Ask Questions.
10	Model Fast and Model Accurately. This course will look at ways to increase your speed as a modeler and texture artist, give you a forum for practicing more detailed models, and give you feedback on how to optimize your polycounts.
11	Organize Everything. Follow my naming convention guide for rules on how to organize your files when submitting them. Inside each file, make sure to name and group every node, and freeze your transformations and center your pivot points where appropriate. Clean out all scene files of un-needed data.

Image by Robin King	Image by Stephanie Barnes	Image by Alex Bosserman
Image by Brandon Jones	Image by Anders Howard	Image by Priscillia Pun
Image by Ryan Dunne	Image by Matthew Jue	Image by Ravi Giraputra
Image by Vance Wu	Image by Addison Delaney	Image by Chris Stewart

Image by Ashley Raj	Image by Scott Stevens	Image by Mario Salazar
Image by Dylan Atari	Image by Stirling Dimitrius	Image by Alix Banegas
Image by Kial Croom	Image by Denis Osmanbegovic	Image by Chris Latolais
Image by Sean Ross	Image by Catherine Thomason	Image by Luis Lopez
Image by Stephanie Barnes	Image by Jordan Gabriel	Image by Kevin Ng
Image by Regan Mucha	Image by Andrew Slade

BACK TO TEACHING HOMEPAGE BACK TO COURSE HOMEPAGE

MAA 4435: Advanced 3d Modeling and Texturing The Purpose of this course is to introduce advance concepts for modeling and rendering through the combination of Maya, Photoshop and Zbrush. Focusing on various pipelines, this course covers concepts such as displacement mapping, normal mapping, Zspheres and their skinning processes, and 2.5 illustration.