How do you make chain mail in Zbrush?

manilamerc

Basically what the title says. I want to make chain mail for my character

Bartalon

Depends on how you want to approach it. There is Micro Mesh and then there is NoiseMaker.

http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/lesson/micromesh/
http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/lesson/noisemaker/

manilamerc

what would be best for videogames? Or can it be both?

iniside

I would not use zbrush for it in the first place.
Create chainmail in you fav 3d app:
http://www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/3d_studio_max/chain_mail_displacement/chain_mail_displacement_01.php (here is for max).
2. Bake tileable texture out of it.
3. Texture it.

Now just use it as tileable texture on your character (you can also use it along with alpha map!).
If you don't want to use it as tileable texture, you can add it while texturing to your texture.

Other possibility is to bake out displacement map, and add it to mesh in zbrush. I can't tell more about it, as I can't find tutorial that showed how to do it, but I'm sure someone will know about it.

cryrid

Surface Noise:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?161159-ZBrush-4R2-Betatesting-By-Geert-Melis
(the alpha he created can be found here)

This particular method (alpha/surface noise) is good for chainmail that is tucked underneath plate and cloth, where you don't necessarily see the ends. Otherwise, you might need to go in and add some kind of trim (Loki in Ultimate Alliance, possibly Link from Twilight Princess, etc), or go for a folded look.


Micromesh
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117562
http://www.digitaltutors.com/lesson/26308-Creating-a-tiled-mesh

From my experience this is considerably trickier to work with compared to surface noise and it can lead to a large polygon count very quickly, but when it works the results are very nice. Because the rings are modeled individually this way, it can work out well for areas where you see the ends of the armor.

Insert Mesh:
http://cryrid.com/art/?p=635

Insert brushes are good for flatter areas, or parts of chainmail that might dangle into view (I might use it for a bit of chainmail visible underneath a surcoat, but I wouldn't use this to create a full shirt of armor). Insert brushes also have built in randomization features as well, which can also be used to remove random links.