panel loops and curve brushes for hard surface modeling

ShockInfinite

Hey gang,

In the process of getting ZBrush 4r6 and I was looking at videos of panel loops and the curve brushes.

How effective are they for hard surface modeling?

Take for example, this armor that I'm working on for this character:

ShockInfinite

BradMyers82

Personally, I don't think its ideal for this type of character. Armor like this looks best if it is layered (that's how it would be in reality) So actually, what you want is to make separate subtools and sculpt them individually.
there are a variety of ways to approach this, but I would avoid panel loops in this case personally.

ShockInfinite

Thanks BradMyers82.

So just mask and extract and work from there?

Lord Waffles

Hey shock,

I'm just giving you a heads up now, but it's a good rule of thumb to try to avoid:

a. creating two threads on relatively the same topic previous thread here.

b. posting just questions in the "Pimping and Previews" topic as it is generally for...well, exactly that. Showing off your work and getting feedback.

Polycount is an amazingly helpful community, but you have to show your putting forth the effort. Instead of asking a question about a tool and what you can use it for, try it out yourself first and see. If you are struggling with getting it to work, make a post in your first thread along with a picture and more than likely someone will comment.

I mean who wants to read a thread that contains only text and isn't telling a tale about a small creature running around with a ring?
We are visual people and thus we require...well...visuals

Now to answer your question.
It's hard to give you a straight answer on what is good and what isn't, because everyone works a little differently. When your just starting out you tend to just stick to what the last tutorial you saw told you, but over time you start to figure out what you like doing.

Zbrush is a hard program to just pickup and use, especially for hard surface. I truly recommend trying to model it out in another program, that way you can get nice sharp edge work without trying to fool around with trim/pinch brushes.

If your still set on only using zbrush then eat 3D has an epic tutorial on doing hard surface in Zbrush
Our wiki is also full of treasure
Thy digital tutors?
Panel loop fun?

Watch some vids, read some docs, and post some progress that way we can help you better!
Good luck!

ShockInfinite

Thanks!

I should have posted this in the tech thread. I'm really curious to see other's workflows.

I'll go ahead and post some more stuff tomorrow