Dumbledore's Pensieve

cptqwark

Hi all,

First time poster, long time lurker.

I've been working on Dumbledore's Pensieve over the last few days and now I'm beginning to struggle with the Celtic style patterns along the exterior of the basin. See here for reference:
http://db2.stb.s-msn.com/i/FA/B9755DCDEAAEDEEF43D908162EF7.jpg

I've initially sculpted in the patterns, then grabbed their height maps, using that as an alpha on the basin. I'm now struggling with poly density, I can't get the detail I need from such small areas and it's also beginning to look extremely noisy.

Any advice or techniques are welcome, the rest of the sculpt is currently very wip.

- Lucy

Texelion

Ah yes, that's always something hard to do ( or maybe there is an easy way I don't know ). Last time I had to do something like that, I just modelized the patterns in Max and made them fit the objet with an FFDbox. You don't have resolution problems as they are separated objects. And if you want, once the patterns are in place and duplicated all over the objects, you can merge both in zbrush and dynamesh them into a single object ( but it's a bit useless ).

WesleyArthur

I agree with Texelion. I've been working on some ornate stuff lately (because it's something I'm not very good at), but modelling the details in Max produces a much nicer result.

If you spend a lot of time making the Max models really nice, you can duplicate them all over your mesh (with the help of FFD), then take the whole lot into ZBrush to add tiny details. You'll also have a lot more resolution where you need it for sculpting.

I wouldn't attach them all before taking it into ZBrush. Leave them separate and it's easier to detail each piece individually. I've not been using Dynamesh because I'm not that ZBrush-savvy, but I didn't find I needed it anyway.

I like your subject matter though, I'm sure it'll look awesome once you've finished it!

Dave Jr

^ This 100%!

Modelling in max will give you a lot more control, allow you to change it at any point and in general look a lot neater. There's also a few brushes in zbrush like the Matchmaker brush that'll warp them to a surface for you! Keep it up!

Sunn

being polycount, I expected something much more phallic.

cptqwark

Thanks Texelion, WesleyArthur and Dave Jr!

This, taught me a very valuable lesson. Often I find myself wrapped up in Zbrush, feeling as though I need to create everything in there when instead I should be jumping between software if it means I have better control.

I recreated the designs in Maya, re-exported back to Zbrush and I was able to subdivide at a lot higher rate and it adds a lot more definition between the basin and the patterns. I also reduced the number of patterns and enlarged the shape of the basin to remove some of the noise.

Still a wip, the patterns a need a lot more work and shaping and they need embedding into the surface of the basin a little more, but I am definitely happier with the results from this technique.

WesleyArthur

Wow! That's such an improvement, it looks great! I'm glad I could help, it sounds like you've developed a much more efficient workflow.

I look forward to seeing more progress on this!

cptqwark

I have yet to touch the pensieve since the last update as I'm currently blocking in other assets from the scene (may have got a little more than carried away with the Elder Wand as it was varr fun).

I'm undecided about the floor. In my mind, I see something not too dissimilar to Scott Homer's 'Destruction Diorama's'. As though the scene has been lifted straight from the office; a patchwork of paving slabs on the top, supported by a large chunky piece of rugged stone on the underside.

While it's very clearly block-in/wip, any feedback, crits or direction is more than welcome.

:-)

WesleyArthur

Oo very nice. Some nice crisp edges to that wall section.

The wand looks great! Very recognisable, I knew it was the Elder Wand before I read the post. Not much else to say about it at the moment unfortunately! I look forward to seeing more of it - the texturing in particular.

cptqwark

Merry Christmas, all! I've come bearing gifts of an extremely belated update.

At its current stage I have created a base/floor for the pensieve (which maybe needs big time tweaking so I'll post pictures on that shortly). I've retopped and UV'd the pensieve. Elder Wand and mirrors yet to come.

I've quickly rendered the pensieve in Marmoset 2 to share its progress. It was pretty interesting revisiting this thread and seeing that it does bear a large similarity to the high poly mesh. I'm hoping that Painter goes on super sale before the Steam Sale is out so I can paint out an albedo for this. Currently w/ normal, AO and, well I assume I plugged the metalness and roughness maps into the correct slots.

cptqwark

So I didn't manage to get hold of Painter, but I did manage to get my hands on Quixel Suite in the Black Friday sale. I'm in love. It gives super quality results and it's super easy to use. It isn't without its flaws, but it was very well-suited for what I needed for this project.

Oh my days, it did take me a very long time to get this presentable. I messed up. A lot. I used silly, long-winded workflows, re-did things more times than I can count, had crashes and errors and file reading issues, and the best part is, this still isn't even quite finished yet. :poly121:

But. I've learned a lot from this. Stuff I won't be doing again. I'll be making sure to model my high poly with the shapes and designs appropriate for a low poly. I WILL NOT FEATURE CREEP (I only planned to do the pensieve bowl when this project first started out). I had a lot of baking issues, missed ray casts, normal waviness, which, after researching the Polycount Wiki, I managed to solve (after a lot of re-bakes).

I really like 3Do for rendering. Once again, it's quick to get nice results, but I feel like I should try this out in another renderer, where most of the work isn't disguised behind heavy DoF (but that's my fault).

Is there a way to append more meshes into dDo/3Do as I have a few more meshes I'd like to retrofit into this scene a little later on?

Here are some screenies:

cptqwark

I've had a bit of time to work on the elder wand, once again, using Quixel Suite.

I really want to do the memory vials, too (see reference http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081122212323/harrypotter/images/7/7b/Memories_about_Riddle.jpg), but I'm really struggling with a way to create that thick, warped glass. Not to mention a way to create them without an unreasonable amount of alpha overdraw.