Wrapping weapons

JoshWilkinson

Having weapons wrapped by tape, ribbon and whatever else is super popular right now. I like the aesthetic because it adds visual interest but I don't know the best way to create the effect. Particularly, I'm trying to create the effect with real topology; not just normals.



Should I just create simple geometry in maya and move the topology around in maya/ zbrush? How do I create the tearing effects within the tape; is there a way I can just cut away at the tape in zbrush? I'm fairly new to zbrush, and particularly organic surfaces, so any help is appreciated.

Bartalon

I would duplicate the handle and use the Interactive Cut Faces Tool (Edit Mesh > Cut Faces) to slice some edge loops that follow the tape. From there I can extrude strips outward, delete any unwanted polygons, and clean up the edge flow of what's left behind.

JoshWilkinson

Thanks an awesome tool, and one I've never used before. Thank you.

Michael Knubben

extrude along a spline, it makes it much easier to have the tape actually wrap over/under itself.

Dantert

If you want to make it in zbrush you can play with the dynamesh and the boolean subtractions but yeah it's better to have a lowpoly base if you don't want to freak out on the retopology, the other tecniques from Bartalon and MightyPea are really good you can also try with the retopology, creating straps of polygons on the handle and then edit them cutting out all the torn parts

Rumkugel

I just use ring splines and rotate them and then just work with that as a HPO
You wont be able to tell if its a wrap around or just a fake..

Mark Dygert

The quick way:
Create cylindrical piece of fat tape/wrap, apply the skew modifier maybe some noise. Then copy, rotate and tweak them as needed, probably use a FFD modifier to push and pull parts in and out so they look like they overlap. Some of the tools in the graphite modeling tools might be helpful too, like the shift and push/pull brushes. Or maybe just take it into a sculpting app and have some fun?

You want it to be fat for a few reasons:
1) so it bakes well.
2) so it covers up the overlap easily. You don't have to worry too much about it conforming perfectly but you do want to keep it from penetrating.



It won't be one continuous piece of tape but you'll get something pretty close to the wrapping effect, close enough that most people won't pick up on it. Besides if they look close enough they'll see it's not tape at all but polys and pixels, oh no! hahaha, then their world probably implodes...