Highpoly welds without ZBrush

Toasty Fresh

I want to add metal welds to a highpoly. The easiest methods obviously involve ZBrush or Mudbox but I have neither and don't really have time to get the student version of Mudbox or the money for ZBrush. Is there a decent way to create these welds that you often see on modern highpoly models for baking?

Thanks.

Sage

get a section of that model, clone it and deform using subd and a noise modifier. you can try blender as well.

BARDLER

What 3D app are you using? In Maya you can select the edges where you want the welds, and create curves based on those edges. Then model a few weld beads using whatever method you find best, then take that weld mesh and duplicate it along the curve. There is a free script that lets you do this, I forget the name of it though.

You could also try doing this in photoshop, but that would require a little bit of pre planning with how you split up your UV islands, but totally doable.

Toasty Fresh

Sorry, should have mentioned that. 3DS Max.

And the thought of Photoshop had occurred to me. But as you said sorting out UV islands would be an obstacle and I already struggle with those.

Sage

in max, select edge loop, under edge sub object mode select the create shape function. it will create a shape(spline) out of your selection. To scatter the models like bardler said you have a few options. you can use the constrain to path, path deform or snapshot tool in max. there might also be scripts for it. also you can make the splines renderable, and you can convert that to a poly and mess with it.

cptSwing

Try the Welder script from scriptspot, it'll create splines at the intersections of two meshes, and either bunches a couple of noise and TS modifiers together for quick'n dirty seams, or extrude a weld shape (though I haven't gotten it to work).

I've used the resulting curves exported as geometry to mudbox for some slightly nicer looking welds.