I have been thinking about making a video, problem is my sculpting isn't really planned out and I do a lot of useless sculpting, go back etc, sculpt over, so It's not really a process I want to show off haha, but I will give it some thought.
the layering is very easy if you use the trim smooth boarder brush,
I have been thinking about making a video, problem is my sculpting isn't really planned out and I do a lot of useless sculpting, go back etc, sculpt over, so It's not really a process I want to show off haha,
I think that's something we all do, doubt there's a lot of people who can just work on one area once and it's instantly amazing. The going back, refining and fixing things is what makes the final result the best.
I'm definitely jealous of your sharp edges, that's really something I would need for my current project.
Yeah I get what you mean , I'm probably releasing a Rock pack for unity soon, so might as well get the timing right and create a tutorial as promotion.
Quick rawk made for a scene Im currently working on in my spare time. I intend to bake out some macro normals from this to get the big forms before I create a nice tiling stone texture to give me the mid - fine details.
Really nice rock, Logan. How do you approach it? You have very planar planes, mine tend to get very wobbly, or 100% perfectly straightl.
Also. what matcap is that?
@Spoon - Thnx man, the approach is really nothing new, I had a good read through the posts in here the other day and picked up a fair few tips I started with a simple box in ZBrush and started hammering away at it with the good old TrimSmoothBorder + a square alpha (this should give you the nice planar surfaces), after I was happy with the general forms I switch to Trim Adaptive to get rid of some of the obvious brush strokes and just tidy up the sculpt. I actually made 2 rocks and then just Dynameshed them together and sculpted the seams a bit to make it look more cohesive. Hope that helps!! Not sure what the matcap is called exactly as I downloaded loads of them and I tend to just browse them until I find one I like
@grimsonfart - Ive personally never used Mudbox but Im 100% sure you can get just as good results with it. I dont for one minute believe that one is better than the other, there are strengths and weaknesses to both programs and Im sure theres some tuts out there that can help you get the results your after! Check out Sascha Heinrichs webpage he uses Mudbox alot and has some awesome vids on there!
Thanks a lot for your explanation, Logan.
I never got the difference between all those brushes, to be honest. Even when I try them out. Fx, Flatten, Trym Dynamic and now Trim Smooth Border, etc.
I guess it requires more than my experience to be "aah, this is the perfect spot to use the new Trim Dynamic Smooth Border Like a Baws Brush!"
Haha yeah the differences are pretty subtle sometimes. I think you kinda have to just bash away at some geo with it to see how it deforms the mesh. I mean it totally comes down to what sort of rocks your making too!
Greetings....Monsoon here. I'm a content creator for Vue Infinite and I use Zbrush for modeling environmental objects.
I've been working for some time now on rocks with the trim smooth border brush both positive and negative and with square alphas and I can not for the life of me get the planar cleavage I see on the rocks above. I would love to see someone video just a little bit of that process in action......Thanks...M
Just a quick tutorial following (zshperes > zsketch > planar/flatten > surface noise) to get my first ever 'just' rock. I think it turned out alright, but part of me knows that you can put surface noise on anything and make it look like a rock. It only took like 15 minutes though, when I've got more time I want to try and get some really clean, more stylized rocks, like Logan5's a few posts up.
Made some rocks and stepping stones, as well as bricks on my bridge, for my Japanese Garden scene a while back. Was so easy and fun to make rocks. Mixing the organic with hard-surface in nature is actually my favorite type of art to do... =]
Bit of rock practice from me. For some reason I can't manage to get that super clean surfaces like Logan5 for example. Anyone got some tip's on that maybe?
EDIT:
Holy crap Jonas Ronnegardthis looks awesome! How did you go about creating those rocks?
I was inspired by Crazyeyes idea of using 123DCatch to scan real rocks. I used the scanned rock as high poly and baked it on a decimated low poly rock.
I tweaked the texture (which is based on the photographs) in Photoshop in order to remove shadows and get the whole thing PBR in marmoset.
I'm happy with the result, at least for a first try. However I can't rely on the sculpt or normal only, it looks way too "blobby" (I did not rework the high poly in Zbrush), the albedo helps a bit getting the whole thing crisper (and it should not actually).
I guess I could get something sharper by taking more photographs (I made 34 pictures).
My final goal is to make custom alphas for Zbrush.
Here is the real rock :
And here's the 3d model in marmoset :
I don't think it's a viable way of making 3d art for games, at least not in 2014 nor with apps like 123dcatch (I am still to try agisoft Photoscan). Considering the result is "only okay" and that I scanned the easiest object (read: organic, without reflection, and fully opaque).
Awesome work everyone, hope I can add some of my own over the coming weeks, just thought you should know the thread was featured on Kotaku today and it shows some of the great work from here!
Here's some work I recently did for EverQuest Next: Landmark.
Forgive the upside down Obsidian Roof tiles, there was a bug when the shot was taken :P All made from scratch in zbrush. No Photo sourcing.
Hi I saw this thread on Kotaku. I'm trained as a geologist \ gamer so needless to say I pay very close attention to the rocks that occur in video games to see what you guys notice about them :P. I just thought I would clue you into some visual details that most people walk right by that would increase the realism of some of your rocks, things that I've never seen in any game. One you look for them though you see them everywhere.
First off all rocks break apart in very specific ways. Fine grained rocks tend to show what are called "plumose structures" the propagate from where the initial break in a rock started when it came off. They wear away quickly though so you would see them in places out of the weather like overhangs or rocks that have freshly broken off. They look like this, google image search will show you lots and lots of examples. You see it a lot in the sandy kinds of stones you'd see in like the grand canyon for examply
Where one rock rubs against another such as near a fault you'll have another surface that occurs called "slicken lines" or "slicken sides". The two surfaces create so much friction along the break they leave a smooth glassy surface with scratched that indicate the direction of movement of the fault. One flat part of a cave wall might show something like this:
A surface like this is called "cross-bedding" this could be something like a fossilized sand dune, or a place that a sandy river ran through at one point.
Then you have "en echelon" fracturing which is a little harder to explain how it happens because it happens deep underground (like where it's almost molten but not quite), but it looks like this.
This is quickly turning into a textbook so I'll end there. There are many many other structures like that, the those ones I've outlined are the most common.
Just thought you guys would like some food for thought when making your rocks use it or don't. Just know there is one guy out there who appreciates the work you guys put into your rocks :P.
@Emoticon thanks for taking the time to do this! its really interesting. If you have any more bits of information like this (especially with pictures) i'm sure the group would appreciate it
You guys are amazing, I only got those rocks I did for last year's little escape challenge... They're kind of average~ some of the rocks here are just crazy!
Replies
the layering is very easy if you use the trim smooth boarder brush,
thanks for all the nice comments.
I'm definitely jealous of your sharp edges, that's really something I would need for my current project.
Woah! Nice rock Jonas!
But still, people wants a video, even with recreating, resculpting, etc. You should just try to do one
:poly142: :poly142: :poly142:
Also. what matcap is that?
@grimsonfart - Ive personally never used Mudbox but Im 100% sure you can get just as good results with it. I dont for one minute believe that one is better than the other, there are strengths and weaknesses to both programs and Im sure theres some tuts out there that can help you get the results your after! Check out Sascha Heinrichs webpage he uses Mudbox alot and has some awesome vids on there!
http://saschahenrichs.blogspot.de/p/tutorials.html
I never got the difference between all those brushes, to be honest. Even when I try them out. Fx, Flatten, Trym Dynamic and now Trim Smooth Border, etc.
I guess it requires more than my experience to be "aah, this is the perfect spot to use the new Trim Dynamic Smooth Border Like a Baws Brush!"
Proces: Modellling: Zbrush > Low poly unwrapping: Headus uv layout > Baking maps: Xnormal > Textures: Photoshop. Render: Marmoset Toolbag
Tris: 900
Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/AyMU
Quick test in Unity:
I've been working for some time now on rocks with the trim smooth border brush both positive and negative and with square alphas and I can not for the life of me get the planar cleavage I see on the rocks above. I would love to see someone video just a little bit of that process in action......Thanks...M
580 Tris, rendered in Unity (default shaders)
EDIT:
Holy crap Jonas Ronnegard this looks awesome! How did you go about creating those rocks?
I tweaked the texture (which is based on the photographs) in Photoshop in order to remove shadows and get the whole thing PBR in marmoset.
I'm happy with the result, at least for a first try. However I can't rely on the sculpt or normal only, it looks way too "blobby" (I did not rework the high poly in Zbrush), the albedo helps a bit getting the whole thing crisper (and it should not actually).
I guess I could get something sharper by taking more photographs (I made 34 pictures).
My final goal is to make custom alphas for Zbrush.
Here is the real rock :
And here's the 3d model in marmoset :
I don't think it's a viable way of making 3d art for games, at least not in 2014 nor with apps like 123dcatch (I am still to try agisoft Photoscan). Considering the result is "only okay" and that I scanned the easiest object (read: organic, without reflection, and fully opaque).
I'll try to do some more in the upcoming days !
http://kotaku.com/these-virtual-rocks-look-damn-good-1605163696?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow
I found using hPolish with inbed set to 0 and alpha 28 gives some nice results
You guys are the best! I love this thread
Here's some work I recently did for EverQuest Next: Landmark.
Forgive the upside down Obsidian Roof tiles, there was a bug when the shot was taken :P All made from scratch in zbrush. No Photo sourcing.
Amazing as always Jonas. Not to put anyone else's down, but yours should have been up on that Kotaku article.
This looks great!
Here is my practice for today.
First off all rocks break apart in very specific ways. Fine grained rocks tend to show what are called "plumose structures" the propagate from where the initial break in a rock started when it came off. They wear away quickly though so you would see them in places out of the weather like overhangs or rocks that have freshly broken off. They look like this, google image search will show you lots and lots of examples. You see it a lot in the sandy kinds of stones you'd see in like the grand canyon for examply
Where one rock rubs against another such as near a fault you'll have another surface that occurs called "slicken lines" or "slicken sides". The two surfaces create so much friction along the break they leave a smooth glassy surface with scratched that indicate the direction of movement of the fault. One flat part of a cave wall might show something like this:
A surface like this is called "cross-bedding" this could be something like a fossilized sand dune, or a place that a sandy river ran through at one point.
Then you have "en echelon" fracturing which is a little harder to explain how it happens because it happens deep underground (like where it's almost molten but not quite), but it looks like this.
This is quickly turning into a textbook so I'll end there. There are many many other structures like that, the those ones I've outlined are the most common.
Just thought you guys would like some food for thought when making your rocks