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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.

 

 
     
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Week 7: Sculpt First Workflow


Project 3: Creature Sculpting
You will be asked to sculpt a creature, chimera, extinct or surviving animal, monster or alien, etc... using Zbrush.

REQUIREMENTS:
-Use Zspheres and the Retopologization process in either Zbrush or 3dCoat to the start the character
-Finish Modeling in Maya, add subtools for clothing/props as needed
-UV with optimization for 2x 2048 Maps (for each channel)
-Create Normal Map and or Displacement Map, fix all tangent space seams

 


CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW FOR A LARGER VERSION:

 

CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW (from student Jan Wyss) FOR A LARGER VERSION:



Watch this short video on Zsketching in Zbrush 3.5:
zbrush35_sketch

 

I also recommend these Videos from the Zclassroom (click on image for link):


 


 

Watch the Comprehensive Zbrush-Character Creation Video Series (designed for ZB 3.1):

Lesson1-Zspheres
Lesson2-Reshaping
Lesson3-Sculpting and Masking
Lesson4-Retopoligzation 1
Lesson5-Retoplogization 2
Lesson6-Adding elements from Maya
Lesson7-Subtools and the Project All Feature
Lesson8-Creating Armour with Skin Thickness

Lesson9-Creating Straps with Zspheres
Lesson10-Mirroring with Subtool Master
Lesson11-Posing with Transpose Master

It can often be helpful to plan your topology first ontop of your first round sculpt, if you are having a hard time figuring out your girdflow. You can do this planning ontop of a screenshot with Photoshop (as seen in here a Paintover on Dylan Dunbar's Giraffe-Man), or you can polypaint it right onto your model.



Click on the images below for links to Video Tutorials. This series covers creatinga Zbrush Character from scratch using Zbrush with minor additions from Maya. All images and videos are copyright Andrew Klein.

In part 1 of this 11 part series from Andrew Klein (http://www.andrewklein.net), we cover how with Zbrush's Zsphere's you can create an organic model from scratch in very little time. This video discusses creating Zsphere chains, drawing, moving and scaling spheres, and creating Adaptive Skins.

In part 2 of this 11 part series from Andrew Klein (http://www.andrewklein.net), we look at how, from the adaptive skin created in part 1, that we can start to transform the low-poly mesh with the move brush and the standard brush.

In part 3 of this 11 part series from Andrew Klein (http://www.andrewklein.net), I take a look at how, using the clay brush and the clay tubes brush that you can add secondary form the model. Then by creating a mask and using the snake-hook brush we pull out detail not easily accessed through normal sculpting alone.

In part 4 of this 11 part series from Andrew Klein (http://www.andrewklein.net), I use another Zsphere to start retopologizing the War-Sloth model so that it's underlying poly structure will be set for easy animation later on. We again cover the process of creating an adaptive skin, but new to this tutorial is casting a projection from the original sculpt, as well as use of the Rigging and Topology sub-palettes.


In part 5 of this 11 part series from Andrew Klein (http://www.andrewklein.net), we finish up the retopologization process that was begun in part 4. We make an adaptive skin, and then export an obj so that we can add on hands and feet inside maya (covered in part 6).

In part 6 of this 11 part series from Andrew Klein (http://www.andrewklein.net), we use Maya to create hands and feet and attach these to the already existing mesh. In this section we also look at extruding in the mouth opening to create a more realistic "closed" look. The video concludes with the model being exported as an obj to go back to Zbrush.

In part 7 of this 11 part series from Andrew Klein (http://www.andrewklein.net), my first step is append the new mesh from maya as a subtool with the retopologized model from video 5. I split the eyes from the maya subtool into THEIR own subtools, and we are left with 4 subtools: 1-the retopo'd mesh, 2 and 3- the eyes, and 4-the mesh with hands and feet. After turning off the visibility on the eyes, we PROJECTALL in the subtool palette (with the new mesh selected). As we will see, this will cast the original sculpt to the new model.

This video also covers storing a morph target, using the morph brush, and sculpting details in that were lost in the transfer.



Watch ZBrush Using Retopology to Combine Tools in How-To 

 

The Making of No More Wine from Zclasroom:


Using 3d Coat to retopologize surfaces:

 

 

More videos can be found at:
http://www.3d-coat.com/tutorial/retopology/

 

 



Use the guide above as a resource to creating and controlling Zspheres.

     

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