Week 1
Class Overview
CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will focus on the fidelity of digital sculpting using ZBrush as our main tool. We will cover the development and best practices for character and creature design with a strong emphasis on comprehensive learning of the software. We’ll continue to learn how to sculpt digitally, communicate forms, and work organically in 3d. Students will also develop a strong understanding in presentation, sculpting props, and hard surface control.
Students are required to complete assignments and have them submitted on the due dates provided. Students begin using ZBrush as a main tool for character and creature creation. Learning how to sculpt digitally, communicate forms, and work organically in 3d. Students will also develop a strong understanding in presentation, sculpting props, environment sets, and anatomy.
This course is a continuation of 3-D design 2. Students will gain further abilities to create creatures, props and objects.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To gain an understanding of ZBrush in the modern Entertainment Design pipeline. To build up sculpting skills and an understanding of rendering form through digital sculpture. Students will build their skills beyond the basic understanding of ZBrush and know all aspects to its functionality.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the conclusion of Intro to ZBrush, you will be able to meld creative decisions with concepts, skills, and techniques learned in previous classes. This goal will be achieved through the assignments that explore anatomy, subtlety, and specialized software developed for advanced character creation. Students will also be able to:
Be able to sculpt from scratch inside ZBrush
Navigating the ZBrush interface and hotkeys to speed up workflow
Gather and apply references effectively
Develop the skillsets necessary to sculpt supporting props and environment sets
Be able to render, paint, and present pieces directly in ZBrush
Explore Toy system design
Create joints and rotation system for toys.
3D Printing
COURSE SCHEDULE / TIMELINE
Project 1 | Project 2 | Project 3 | Project 4
Project 1: Creature Head bust
Week 1 - ZBrush Refresher Part 1
Week 2 - ZBrush Refresher Part 2
Week 3 - Procedural Modeling
Week 4 - Lab Day
Project 2: Hard Surface Modeling
Week 5 - Hard Surface Modeling Part 1
Week 6 - Hard Surface Modeling Part 2
Week 7 - Hard Surface Modeling Part 3
Week 8 - Lab Day (Midterm)
Project 3: Creature Full
Week 9 – Polypainting
Week 10 – Textures, Cameras, Plug-ins
Week 11 – Matcap Fundamentals
Week 12 – Lab Day
Project 4:
Week 13 – From Rendering to Presentation
Week 14 – External 3 rd party Rendering
Week 15 – Lab Day/ Final
ZBrush Review Part 1
Dynamesh is truly analogous of sculpting with traditional real-world clay. As you add volume to clay by stretching out details or laying on strips of new clay the actual consistency of the material remains exactly the same. So no matter how much volume you add, you still have the same capacity for sculpting. DynaMesh accomplishes the same thing, maintaining the uniform resolution and polygon distribution of your mesh. This is very unlike traditional sculpting methods which result in stretched polys if you push the surface too far – something that hampers your ability to do anything more with the surface in those areas. DynaMesh will truly free your sense of creativity.
When the Sculptris Pro button is enabled all brushes that are compatible with Sculptris Pro mode will add triangle tesselation with each brush stroke. This mode will also deciamte where needed as the brush is applied to the surface.
Faster automatic retopology
ZRemesher will recreate a new polygonal structure for your model, with a controlled flow of polygons and a global polycount value. In just a few seconds you can convert a 200,000 polygon DynaMesh to a 10,000 poly retopologized model with a natural flow of polygons. From there you can project all the fine details from your original sculpture, easily generate UV’s with UV Master, and ultimately create your Vector, Displacement, Normal and Diffuse maps.
ZRemesher 4.0 brings speed and other improvements giving you greater control over the new topology.
Settings: Try working with the default settings before making any adjustments.
Mesh Integrity: for any errors that you may get with using the ZRemesher, try checking the mesh integrity found under the Tools Pallet > Mesh Integrity. Select “Check Mesh Integrity” let it run the operation. Then Select “Fix Mesh”. Once that is completed, try ZRemeshing again. This usually fixes the error.
Polygroups allow you to organize the mesh with visual grouping information. Polygroups are one way to organize your mesh. Another way is to use Subtools. Where SubTools create separate pieces of geometry, Polygroups only create separate selection areas. Your mesh is still one contiguous surface.
Polygroups are an extremely powerful way of working with your mesh. Various functions, such as the Insert Mesh brushes, use Polygroups.
There are many options for creating Polygroups. The controls are in the Tool > Polygroups sub-palette.
Grow Selection - Ctrl+Shift+x
Shrink Selection - Ctrl+Shift+s
Show All - Ctrl+Shift+a (Welded points only)
Subdivision is probably familiar to most users of modeling programs; it increases the polygon count of a model by replacing each polygon with multiple polygons. The most commonly used subdivision scheme is the Catmull-Clark method, which also moves vertices as it subdivides, so that a low-resolution cage can give a high-resolution smooth surface.
Smoothing
Edge Support
The Dynamic Subdivision system contains alternative functions to ZBrush’s Classic Subdivision Surface mode, allowing you to apply dynamic smoothing to your models without actually dividing the polygons. This feature is mainly designed to work in association with the ZModeler brush and low polygonal models.
The default Dynamic Subdivision mode is similar to the classic subdivision surfaces previously used by ZBrush. Applying a single subdivision level with Dynamic Smooth Subdivision mode active gives the same result as simply subdividing the model once in previous ZBrush versions.
Settings
Thickness
Micromesh
The Tool > Masking sub-palette provides options for masking a 3D object. Masking modifies all sculpting or painting actions, whether applied directly or adjusted in the Deformation sub-palette.
Masks can be applied in two ways:
Paint them directly on an object by holding the CTRL key and paint the mask. While holding Ctrl different masking brushes can be selected.
Project the selected Alpha onto the object by holding the CTRL key and dragging over the top of the object. (Hold Ctrl to select the Alpha you want.)
Symmetry allows you to sculpt one side of your model and have the other side update with your changes as well. There are three types of symmetry:
Symmetry across an axis
Poseable symmetry
Radial symmetry
The Symmetry controls are in the Transform palette.
Advanced controls for your sculpting and painting brush strokes. The LazyMouse v2 is an enhanced version of the original LazyMouse, giving you accurate control of your strokes. The updates bring new creative processes where you can continue from your previous stroke, as well as allowing your strokes to cross over each other without buildup.
Project All (Demo)
The Project All operation will project sculptural detail from a source mesh to a target mesh. The meshes don’t have to have similar topology but should be broadly similar in shape. Source and target meshes should be SubTools in the same list, and for best results should be the only two visible SubTools. The other settings in this section will affect the result of the projection.
Polypainting (Demo)
Polypaint allows painting on a model’s surface without first assigning a texture map. A texture map can be created at a later time, and the painted surface can be transferred to the map.
Polypainting offers significant advantages compared to standard workflow:
The resolution of the texture map does not need be decided in advance. This is particularly valuable if you find you need more detailing on an area than you thought you would. Instead of repainting a new, larger texture map, you can simply transfer the existing surface painting to a new, larger map, with no rework necessary.
Similarly, the UV unwrapping need not be fixed in advance. If one unwrapping proves unsatisfactory, simply create a different unwrapping and transfer the surface painting to that map.
Turntables (Demo)
Turntable records a turntable of your model on screen. Adjust the speed of the turntable by setting Movie:Modifiers:SpinFrames. Use Spin Cycles to increase the number of times the model turns around. Use X, Y, Z or Scrn to set the axis of the rotation.