Carousel | ZBrush Exercise

[BlueApple]

This is a personal piece I am working on to get familiar with ZBrush. The problem I've run in to is that there is no useful way that I can find to get displacement or normal maps out of ZBrush 3.1 Mac, so I need to export very dense meshes. I actually ran out of memory trying to render one attempt.

Anyway, there are other spots I am still working on (glass on the neon needs adjustment, some sub-patch levels need to be increased, etc,) but it's close to wrapped.

C&C are welcome.

*The carousel concept was inspired by some great illustrations I saw in a recent issue of Computer Arts. Can't remember the artist's name but it was very nice work.

[Sekhar]

No aliens and no scars? Can't be ZBrush! :D Seriously, what part of this did you create with ZBrush? Just curious.

[BlueApple]

The rabbit was sculpted in ZBrush, everything else is 100% LightWave. I don't have the level of detail I'd like on the rabbit as I'm having trouble getting any kind of normal/displacement solution out of ZBrush. Apparently it's a problem with the Mac version only.

If you'd like, I can beat up the rabbits and give them loads of scars and burned tissue to prove I used ZBrush :).

[Giacomo99]

The rabbit looks great but —ugh, that's really bad news if you can't export displacements from ZBrush. Heavy meshes are one thing, but if the model has to deform that's a major, major problem.

[cresshead]

two things that may help you

model your base mesh with z sphere's as they will be lowerpoly than what your using to start off the model which i suspect was a poly sphere.

retopologise your sculpt afterward and then reproject the sculpt onto the new retopo surfaced model.

i don't have the mac version of z brush but these should help you even if displacement/normals are not working in the mac version..

[TeZzy]

Looks cool :thumbsup:

unfortunately the mac version, zbrush 3.12 has a few but major limitations. that's why people are really annoyed with the delay of 3.5. Doesn't bother me though since 3.1 on the pc is working fine.

as cresshead said, retopologising the model would be a good idea. The rabbit is too dense for the amount of detail there imo. But like you say, this is to get familiar with zbrush then I guess that is something you can look into later. To save yourself from doing retopologising though, zsphere model(already mentioned) or you could just model a base mesh from LW with organised poly flow.

[BlueApple]

Giacomo99: Thanks for the kind words.

cresshead & TeZzy: The rabbit was started with a low-poly mesh from Lightwave, but I added polys rather recklessly. I agree that the poly density is not justified by the amount of detail currently there. I will look into the retopo tools, and may also model the saddle separately.

@ all: Thanks for your input.

[Giacomo99]

Also, for whatever it's worth: I've used 3DCoat a lot lately, and it *does* export displacement maps more or less successfully (and also has some great retopo tools). I suspect its displacement painting can't hold a candle to ZBrush (don't have ZBrush so I don't know) but, on the other hand, 3DCoat works on a Mac and is super-cheap (I think US$120 or so.) Might be worth looking into as a stopgap measure.

[BlueApple]

I agree, Giacomo99, 3DCoat is awesome. I bought ZBrush because it is a more robust program, but if it can't deliver on what it advertises (on the Mac side) then I may just pick up 3D coat as well. It just kills me to start buying what seems to be semi-redundant applications. But, I guess if ZBrush on the Mac can't do what 3DCoat can, then it isn't really redundant. :(

[Giacomo99]

Yeah--compared to ZBrush, 3DCoat is definitely limited in terms of what it can do (and the interface is awkward and uggggly). My point is that it might be worth getting just to use until the ZBrush people get their act together.

[geothefaust]

...Which may be never, they are already late with 3.5, as they have been with every release.

3DCoat is nearing what ZBrush can currently do, on every level. It even surpasses on some levels. I completely agree on the interface though, but hey, at least you don't have to fumble around it like Zbrush. It's pretty straight forward. :D

Anyway, your carousel looks really nice. I like it a lot. Nice detail and feeling to it. Great job!

The rabbit looks good, but as others pointed out it has a lot of geometry. Hit up some of those retopology tools and you should be good to go.