The tutorial was split into two sections we had the morning part and the afternoon part with lunch in between. We first covered ZBrush's user interface, we learnt about some of the brushes and alphas that you can use. We also learnt about the different buttons that allowed you to change your brush size, your brushes intensity and your brushes focal shift. We got to experiment with all of these techniques along the way. We then learnt about how to add a tool to the canvas and enter edit mode, and then sculpt onto that tool. We learnt how to change the material of your tool or 3D object and how to add subdivisions and then work up and down those subdivisions. The tutorial also covered more ZBrush basic's but I won't list them all as my previous blog posts cover them. Unfortunately this was all information that I had currently learnt from the previous tutorials that I have followed. I think that it was still worthwhile listening to this part of the tutorial because the more you go over something the better you know it.
The afternoon session on the other hand taught me a lot of new information. One of the most useful things that I learnt was how to sculpt using layers. Sculpting in layers in ZBrush means that you can work in a non-linear fashion, it allows you to work on a model at many different stages of development at the same time. So for example if you added scales to you model, by using layers you can turn those details off and work on the structure of the model underneath those scales. Layers can be used to test out ideas for a model without actually permanently editing the model. You create layers by clicking the 'New Layer' button which is located in the 'Layers' sub palette which is found in the 'Tool' palette. The images below show where the 'Tool' palette is located.
To open up the Layers sub palette you click on 'Layers' and the 'Layers' sub palette will drop down. The image below shows where the 'Layers' sub palette is located in the tool palette.
The image below shows what the 'Layers' sub palette looks like.
Now that the 'Layers' sub palette is open you can click on the 'New Layer' button to create a new layer. You can see the 'New Layer' button in the image above. Its looks like a white rectangle standing up with a plus sign in the middle. It is located directly above the button that says 'Bake All'. The image below shows what the 'New Layer' button looks like.
If you click on the 'New Layer' button you will have created a new layer. You will know you have created a new layer because the first layer slider which is located at the top of the 'Layers' sub palette will now have lit up and become selectable, the name will have also changed from 'layer' to 'Untitled Layer 1'. The image below shows what your 'Layers' sub palette will look like once you have clicked the 'New Layer' button.
Now that a new layer has been created what ever you now sculpt onto you model will be stored in this layer, it will not be added to your model. You can add as many layers as you want, you do this by clicking the 'New Layer' button, each time you click the 'New Layer' button a new layer will be created.
There are also some things that I needed to aware of when working with Layers. There is a little button in the layer section that looks like a circle, it is located next to the slider. If this button is active it is brighter, larger and says the words 'REC' underneath. This stands for record, for as long as this button is active what ever information you sculpt onto your model will be stored in that Layer. If this button is not active in the current layer that you are working with then you will be sculpting onto your model permanently. The first image below shows what the layer will look like if you the circle 'REC' button is not active. The second image below shows what your layer will look like if the circle 'REC' button is active.
The next thing that I needed to be aware of is that you can turn the visibility of the information that your current layer holds on and off. You can not do this while the 'REC' button is active so you need to turn it off, you do this by clicking on it. You can then turn the visibility of your layers information on and off by clicking on the button that is located next to the 'REC' button. This button looks like an eye. The images below show where the 'Layer Visibility' button is located and what it looks like.
The button in the image above gives you the power to view what the model looks like with your current changes and what your model looks like without your current changes, this allows you decide whether you want to permanently add these changes to you model.
The slider in your current layer changes the effects the information of your sculpt in that currently layer. For example if you have the 'REC' button active and you then sculpt a line onto your model using 'Zadd' (so your adding to the surface of your model) if you then slide your slider down to its lowest value then that line will do the opposite of what you first did. So that line that you added to the surface of the model will then be engraved into the model. So effectively it will look like you sculpted using 'Zsub'. The image below shows where the layer slider is located.
You can rename the layer by clicking on the 'Name' button in the 'Layer' sub palette. The 'Name' button says 'Name' on it. The images below show where the 'Name' button is located in the 'Layers' sub palette and what the 'Name' button looks like.
When you click the 'Name' button a box will appear and you simply type what you want the layer to be called and then hit the enter key on the keyboard. The image below shows the box that appears when you click the 'Name' button.
Another button that you need to know about when working with layers is how to delete layers. This is very simple you simply select the layer that you want to delete. You select a layer by clicking on it, you know if the layers is selected because it will have a white outline around it. You then click the 'Delete' button which is located to the right of the 'Name' button and is next to the 'Duplicate Layer' button. Your layer will have now been deleted. The 'Duplicate Layer' button which is located next to the 'Delete' button will create a copy of the selected layer. The images below show where you can find the 'Delete' button and the 'Duplicate Layer' button.
The image below shows the 'Delete' layer button.
The image below shows the 'Duplicate Layer' button.
If you have made changes to your model in your layers that you want to make permanent, you simply make sure that the 'REC' button is not active on any of your layers, you then delete the layers that contain information that you do not want to be applied to your model. You then click the button in the 'Layers' sub palette that is called 'Bake All'. This will 'Bake' all of the information that your layers hold and apply them to the model. As you will notice once you have clicked the 'Bake All' button your layers will have disappeared and the information that your layers held will have now been applied to your model. The images below show where the 'Bake All' button is located and what it looks like.
We then got given some files that we needed in order to follow the tutorial. We got given a .obj which contained a 3D model of a base of a coin, we also got an JPEG image of the coin design and a JPEG image that contained the coin's texture. Firstly we imported the Coin model into ZBrush and added some subdivisions to it, this was information that I already knew. The image below shows the imported coin model in ZBrush.
We then had to add the coin design to one one side of the coin. The coin design needed to be imported as an Alpha so it can be applied to the surface of the model. However we only wanted to apply the coin design to one side of the coin, for this we used the 'Projection Master' feature in ZBrush. I knew nothing about the 'Projection Master' what so ever so this part of the tutorial was very useful and I learnt a lot. The 'Projection Master' is a feature within ZBrush that allows you to use all of the 2.5D brushes for sculpting, texturing, and otherwise working on your 3D model. Pixologic offers a very good explanation of how the 'Projection Master' works. It states " The Projection Master works by converting the part of your model that is currently visible on the screen into pixols. It adjusts each corresponding pixol to reflect the depth, color and material of that part of the model.The model is then temporarily removed from the canvas, leaving you to work with the pixol-based representation of the model. This process is referred to as dropping the model to the screen. Once you've done your painting and sculpting you then use 'Projection Master' to "pick up" the model. This process transfers the altered pixols back to the original model, and in the process transfers the changes in depth and color. The 'Projection Master' gives you the ability to use any paintbrush that ZBrush offers to affect the final geometry of the model, this opens up a huge number of possibilities. Projection Master is normally used by dropping the model, working on the parts of it most directly facing you, picking it up and rotating it a small amount and then dropping it again, and so on. This allows you to transfer the maximum amount of details between the model and the canvas pixols."
The 'Projection Master' button is located in the top left hand corner of ZBrush's user interface. The 'Projection Master' button says 'Projection Master' on it. The images below show where the 'Projection Master' button is located and what the 'Projection Master' button looks like.
When you click on the projection master button a projection master box appears you then select your settings for what you want the projection master to do. The image below shows the projection master box that appears and the settings that we used in the tutorial.
You then click the 'Drop Now' button to drop your model to the screen. The image above shows where the 'Drop Now' button is located in the Projection Master box. The image below shows the 'Drop Now' button more clearly.
We then imported the coin design as an Alpha. We did this by opening the Alpha palette, clicking the import button, locating the coin design and clicking open. I already knew this information from following other tutorials but this tutorial gave me the opportunity to put this knowledge to the test. The images below show where you find the Alpha palette and where the 'import' button is located.
We then changed the stroke to 'DragRect', changed the brush intensity and dragged the coin design alpha onto the coin, we then scaled and moved it into position. Once we were happy with how the alpha looked we clicked the 'Projection Master' button again. The projection master box then appears again. You then click on the 'PICKUP Now' button. Which means your model will then be transferred back to a 3D object and the alpha will be applied. You will now be back in edit mode and will be able to edit and sculpt the whole model. The more drastic the changes to the model in the projection master mode the longer it will take to load your model back to a 3D object. The images below show the 'Projection Master' box that appears and the 'PICKUP NOW' button.
The coin is now a 3D object again. The image below shows what the coin looks like with the coin design alpha applied and the coin back in edit mode.
The task was to then sculpt on the coin to make it look like an ancient coin. For this I experimented with some different brushes and different strokes. I also experimented with the brush intensity, brush size and focal shift of my brush. When doing this we were also taught about masking 3D object's. I had already learnt this information from tutorials that I had followed before. We masked the back face of the coin so that it did not receive the same effects as the front face. The image below shows the back face of coin is masked.
I then continued to use different brushes to try and make the coin look ancient. I tried to make it look dented and slightly corroded.
I think that I have made the coin look slightly ancient but I think that it still needs a lot of work and I think that I have over done certain areas. I clearly have a lot to learn but this exercise gave me the opportunity to learn some of the brushes and strokes better. A brush that I thought was very good for making things look slightly corroded is the brush called 'Noise'. I then changed the material of the coin to make it look more realistic. I used a custom material in ZBrush. The name of the material that I changed to is called 'MatCap Metal04'. The images below show where you find the material palette and what the material palette looks like.
I then applied the texture that I was given for the coin. I had never done this before so I was learning something completely new. I had a ruff idea of how to do this but the tutorial taught me the exact process. It is very simple process, you simply open up the texture palette, then click import, you then find your file and click open. Once your texture has been imported you then go to the 'Texture Map' sub palette which is located in the 'Tool' palette. You then click the 'New Txtr' Button, make sure the 'Texture On' button is active, you know it is active if it is orange. You then click on the 'Image' box and select the texture, it is then applied to the model. Of course in order for all of this to work your model needs to have it UV's laid out. The images below show where the 'Texture' Palette is located, what the 'Texture' Palette looks like, where the 'Import' button is located in the 'Texture' palette and what the 'Import' button looks like.
The images below show where the 'Texture Map' sub palette is located and what it looks like.
As you can see from the image above you simply click on the 'Image' square thats at the top left hand corner of the 'Texture Map' sub palette. The image below shows what happens when you click on the 'Image' square. You then select your imported texture and it is applied to your model.
The image below shows what the coin looked like once I had imported the texture to it.
I think that the texture adds a lot more life to the coin and makes some of my bad sculpting look better than it actually is, however the purpose of the tutorial was to learn the process of importing a tool, using the projection master, importing an alpha,applying that alpha to the model, adding detail through sculpting and then adding a texture. Overall I think that I successfully learnt this process.
The next and final task of the tutorial was to add some detail to a basic human head. We were provided with the basic human head model. We had the model as a .obj file format so we had to 'Import' the model into ZBrush. The image below shows the basic head that we were given imported into ZBrush.
I then added some sub divisions to the head, this gave me some more polys to work with, I then began sculpting. This gave me the chance again to experiment with the different brushes and brush strokes that ZBrush has to offer. Other techniques that I used were changing the brush size, the Z intensity, the focal shift, and smoothing. I found this task extremely challenging but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed experimenting and seeing some of the different results that I could get. Unfortunately I think my main downfall was the fact that I know nothing about the bone or muscle structure of a human face. This meant that I found it very difficult to try and recreate a realistic human head. The human head that I managed to create looked very cartoony however I was quite impressed with how it ended up looking. It still needs an awful amount of work for it to even be accepted in the cartoon world, but it was only a quick sculpt so maybe with some more time and some research on the bone and muscle structure of a human face I could create a decent looking human head. I think that this task taught me the most, I really enjoyed it and will definitely try to carry out this task again as I thought that it is a very good way of learning about sculpting. The images below show the results of sculpted human head that I did.
Overall I am very happy that I attended this tutorial as I picked up a lot of new information and it gave me the opportunity to attempt sculpting a higher level of detail than I had ever done or tried before. Before this tutorial I had only sculpted a few faces into spheres and basic things like that whilst following basic ZBrush tutorials. This tutorial on the other hand had me sculpting a coin in an attempt to make it look ancient, it also had me sculpting on a basic block out of a human head in an attempt to give it some character and make it look more realistic. I think that I was fairly successful with both of these task. I still think that I have a long way to go and a lot to learn but after all I am only a beginner in ZBrush. I personally think that seeing as the efforts from the images above were my first attempts at trying to do a bit more than just the basics and the fact that I didn't have huge amounts of time to work on these models I think I did pretty well. However I will point out that both of these models (the coin and the head) still need an awful amount of work done to them. For example the nose that I sculpted on the head has a bit of an X shape in the middle of it, that definitely needs sorting out. So not only was this tutorial a step up in terms of sculpting but it also taught me some new tips and tricks such as sculpting using Layers and applying a custom made texture. Applying a texture meant that I was using the 'Texture Map' sub palette this tied in nicely with one of the last tutorials that I looked at for ZBrush which was 'Polypainting.' I had to look at and use the 'Texture Map' sub palette for 'Polypainting' as well so this tutorial allowed me to get know the 'Texture Map' sub palette better as this time I was using it in a different way so I got to learn more about the different buttons that it has to offer. So as you can see this tutorial was very beneficial, it has taught me a lot and allowed me to practice some sculpting.
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