looks like clay tubes for building up volume and trimdynmic but i dont know for sure since he dosnt say and the video is too low res to make out whats in his brushes pallet.
Yeah I used clay tubes to build up the big shapes and to get a texture for the Trim Smooth Border to grip onto. I use the alt key to build up where I want. So I don't just cut cut cut all the time.
(I had to re-write that like 5 times because of browser farting)
Video is simple though I plan on doing a better vid later. This was more of a test.
I use Clay Tubes,Clay,Flatten with a modifier to -100, and Hpolish with intensity to 100. Flatten is a good brush to break down edges and create new flat faces to finish off with Hpolish. http://youtu.be/L1wHKxLeK6I?hd=1
OP here. I'm really impressed with how a good a resource this thread has become, beginning with my initial whinge . I'll be editing my original post soon to summaries the resources found in this thread (links to each page with peoples contributions), to save people having to hunt through the thread.
Thanks Vanity and Anuxinamoon for your contributions, that's exactly what I was looking for in the first place!!
How about just making simple shapes in 3dsmax , and subdivde them there , then make the textures just in crazybump or the like , ... this is how I did those that you can see in the scroller of my site ...
Thanks so much for bumping this! I'm just starting to get back into Zbrush after doing hand painted stuff and wanted to tackle rocks. Here's my first attempt using a combo of the methods used in Vanity and Anuxinamoon's videos. Started out with a rough zsphere/zsketch, then used the clay tubes brush (both zsub and zadd) with a square alpha. Then went over everything with TrimSmoothBorder. Took a total of about 40 mins.
I find that noise makes quite a difference but I frequently run into this situation that when I apply the noise it looks very different from the preview, often blobby/tiny spheres scattered all over. Its not to do with amount of poly's as I've divided it up really well, sometimes even dynameshed before applying noise incase it was topology. Does anyone else experience this?
I think its due to the strength, while it looks good in preview before application in addition to the blobbing it tends to either grow in size or decrease, how much will be dependant on the strength.
For surface stuff morph target can be invaluable.. Just saying.. And I've found that if you do big chunky rock forms and feels it's a bit generic, go bananas with crumble. Well, small bananas, one at the time. It really helps break it up and make it look more segmented on the surface.
I used to use crumple but I found in the end it produced needless noise that actually didn't enhance the rock's flow and direction. Hard to explain.
I found better results with clean rock surface with proper forms and structure at let the texture do the rest. (Though I typically use a blending normal texture, where I could have detail normals in place.)
You need to make sure there are rest spots on a rock just like on a character. If you cover the whole things in noise, the whole rock will lose much of its character.
I will try to explain with a rock I knocked up last year.
Notice that the rock on the end is over detailed, with no rest spots and because of that, has lost all its form. Up close it's not as bad but many rocks are viewed from far away. You need to make sure you have areas of low noise to help break up the rock and distribute its forms.
This image is of the same rock at different stages of its development, the middle rock is where I was about to move onto detailing phase, which is why it still looks very blob like. But what I did on the last rock was I zoomed in and just went to town on rock details without viewing the larger image. So when I zoomed out I had realised what I had done was wrong.
You just have to make sure you get the balance right, and of course always use reference!
Yeah, the times I've used crumble I do it in the very last step. I've been thinking of doing a "non-destructive" crumble stamp, I started doing that just now but did this instead :P
It's not very good cause it got some nasty lines in it. But if I redo it it could be a pretty cool thing to use. I was thinking about the stone stamp that mudbox got, this have a little bit more detail though. Could be use in a similar fashion. Tried it on a random mesh I had.
On the second image the stamp it self is presented. I also used the other one for detailing. But as Anuxinamoon said, it might me better to do that in the normal. Either way, fun little test.
hey, i started working on some very sharp, spikey rocks like on that concepts.
I don't really know how to do that kind of shapes, maybe someone can help me out. Especially the spikelike structures are killing me -.-
That's what i got so far. I will merge similar rocks like the one here to larger formations later, in order to get a better layered effect.
btw the concepts are not mine i found them on the web, no strings attached.
Sorry for posting in quite old (but awesome) thread, but maybe somehow can find this useful.
The script that "bugo" posted, works if you create folder in c/users/hugobeyer.
Then you have to create new folder inside it, and called it "Desktop", and put his rock obj file inside it.
Then you have to move "TrimSmoothBorder" brush from Lightbox to your default brush folder.
That means go to zbrush install folder, then go to "zbrushes" and go to "trim".
Select and Copy "TrimSmoothBorder".
Now go to Zbrush main folder, /zData/BrushPresets/, and paste that brush here.
When i did all this, i could finally play the script with 4r4.
I'm having another stab at rock sculpting. Would appreciate any feedback. Someone suggested I break the seperate rocks apart with subtools or polygroups instead of one big mesh?
Yeah, for something like this which is constructed out of multiple distinct shapes lumped together, I'd certainly start it out as seperate pieces, and merge it later to work on the shape as a whole. It's just so much easier to work on the planes of each seperate bit, without running the risk of moving points on neighbouring rocks.
Dynamesh is pretty amazing for this type of thing as well. If you find you've gone into too much detail, just dial back the resolution and dynamesh again.
Note that if you're changing resolution two times in a row, you'll need to make an alteration to the mesh before the second resolution-change or it won't take. I tend to just click somewhere with the Smooth brush with very low pressure, that's enough.
Look into all the flatten-ish brushes as well. trim dynamic, flatten...
Those can be very useful for shapes like this.
This thank you goes out to everyone who has posted their technique and what brushed they use for rock sculpting. It has helped me out tremendously and so I thought I'd show what I have started working on. I did multiple practive sculpts before this one, and this one is by no means complete so I would love to hear everyone feedback on it!
Replies
(I had to re-write that like 5 times because of browser farting)
Video is simple though I plan on doing a better vid later. This was more of a test.
http://youtu.be/L1wHKxLeK6I?hd=1
Thanks Vanity and Anuxinamoon for your contributions, that's exactly what I was looking for in the first place!!
The techniques and discussion here is beyond helpful. Cheers Polycount!
Thanks to @dustinbrown for bringing this to my attention
http://www.n-a-i-m-a.com/
With and without noise:
Some rocks do need more finesse than others. But as long as you keep the rock form down pat, the extra details on top should only set to enhance it.
I think its due to the strength, while it looks good in preview before application in addition to the blobbing it tends to either grow in size or decrease, how much will be dependant on the strength.
I found better results with clean rock surface with proper forms and structure at let the texture do the rest. (Though I typically use a blending normal texture, where I could have detail normals in place.)
You need to make sure there are rest spots on a rock just like on a character. If you cover the whole things in noise, the whole rock will lose much of its character.
I will try to explain with a rock I knocked up last year.
Notice that the rock on the end is over detailed, with no rest spots and because of that, has lost all its form. Up close it's not as bad but many rocks are viewed from far away. You need to make sure you have areas of low noise to help break up the rock and distribute its forms.
This image is of the same rock at different stages of its development, the middle rock is where I was about to move onto detailing phase, which is why it still looks very blob like. But what I did on the last rock was I zoomed in and just went to town on rock details without viewing the larger image. So when I zoomed out I had realised what I had done was wrong.
You just have to make sure you get the balance right, and of course always use reference!
It's not very good cause it got some nasty lines in it. But if I redo it it could be a pretty cool thing to use. I was thinking about the stone stamp that mudbox got, this have a little bit more detail though. Could be use in a similar fashion. Tried it on a random mesh I had.
On the second image the stamp it self is presented. I also used the other one for detailing. But as Anuxinamoon said, it might me better to do that in the normal. Either way, fun little test.
I don't really know how to do that kind of shapes, maybe someone can help me out. Especially the spikelike structures are killing me -.-
That's what i got so far. I will merge similar rocks like the one here to larger formations later, in order to get a better layered effect.
btw the concepts are not mine i found them on the web, no strings attached.
The script that "bugo" posted, works if you create folder in c/users/hugobeyer.
Then you have to create new folder inside it, and called it "Desktop", and put his rock obj file inside it.
Then you have to move "TrimSmoothBorder" brush from Lightbox to your default brush folder.
That means go to zbrush install folder, then go to "zbrushes" and go to "trim".
Select and Copy "TrimSmoothBorder".
Now go to Zbrush main folder, /zData/BrushPresets/, and paste that brush here.
When i did all this, i could finally play the script with 4r4.
Hope it helps.
Yeah, for something like this which is constructed out of multiple distinct shapes lumped together, I'd certainly start it out as seperate pieces, and merge it later to work on the shape as a whole. It's just so much easier to work on the planes of each seperate bit, without running the risk of moving points on neighbouring rocks.
Dynamesh is pretty amazing for this type of thing as well. If you find you've gone into too much detail, just dial back the resolution and dynamesh again.
Note that if you're changing resolution two times in a row, you'll need to make an alteration to the mesh before the second resolution-change or it won't take. I tend to just click somewhere with the Smooth brush with very low pressure, that's enough.
Look into all the flatten-ish brushes as well. trim dynamic, flatten...
Those can be very useful for shapes like this.
Class: Weathered Metamorphic Rock
[IMG][/img]