ZBrush Hard Surface sculpt: Help w/ a small practice piece

Brian "Panda" Choi

So, I decided to once again tackle attempting to do hard surfaces in ZBrush, a work process that is still vexing me.

Did a small practice piece, a piece of shoulder armor, just concentrating on making the form, taking notice of what I was doing to get to this point.



Am I doing this right? What could I be doing to make this better in regards to how I approach this? Right now, it still looks too wavy/soft and doesn't look as literally sharp and clean as I want it to be.

I only used Clay Buildup, Clay Tube, Dam Standard, Trim Dynamic, and Flatten with Clay Polish / Dynamesh during this whole process.

Friends keep saying there's effective resources online, but I'm tempted to just throw money at eat3D for one of their DVDs on this topic. This whole concept of doing armor pieces, etc, in ZBrush is frustrating the crap out of me.

SlyRipper

Well, I don't use ZBrush atm, but I guess it's kinda the same with MudBox.. You need to flatten and Scrape the Edges more, you could also use some kinda pinch tool to make them even sharper. If you've set up the correct shape with sharp edges you can make them look used and add some scratches..

For now your Corners/Edges look way too soft, try pinching them a bit together and use a flatten tool from both sides to make the sides more clean, atm it looks more like a deformed arc, it's way too round, straighten those parts more will help.

JohnnyRaptor

try Polish and hPolish and Trim Dynamic with the alt key helt down. Smaller brush sizes close to the edges.

Bertmac

yes that and customize your brush setting. specially the flatten brush.

cryrid

Is that one single/solid shape at the moment? I find hard surface sculpts easier to work with when you break things into individual pieces. For example you could work on just the main shape (the big piece seen in the bottom left), and then once you have that trimmed and polished a bit just use some form of thickness extraction to create the other pieces (mask extraction+thickness, zsphere retopo+thickness, retopobrush + thickness...). Those options will give you some good looking plates that have a consistent thickness and follow the underlaying surface.

I find this makes it easier to work with dynamesh too. If you need more geometry to add in something like those 6 circles, you'll be able to focus on just that area instead of having to redynamesh the entire shape. Also important for dynamesh booleans.

And while not directly related to the particular sculpt, becoming familiar with the crease options can also be a big help for this sort of stuff.

Will Faucher

Try using the "dam standard" to get a nice fine sharp edge too. Trim brushes, clay polish tool, and dynamesh polish. It'll get you those clean, crisp hard edges.