How would you use Zmodeler for medieval / fantasy armor?

moraff

Hey fellas, I know Zmodeler's been used a lot for robots, props and other stuff. When I was cruising the 2014 recap collection I came across some really killer concept work from Daven for Smite and I was wondering if Zmodeler could be put to use to create some 'clean' geo for this style of armor.

I know before 4r7 I'd just tackle this the usual way, messily. Concept sculpt > extract clean mesh & Edgeloop > sculpt away with Trim Dynamic, hPolish, Clip Brushes, etc. I've never gotten a superb result this way because frankly I'm still a bit of a noob and have yet to get a good retopo on hard surfaces with this method (let alone good UV's / Normals).

So for the more experienced folks out there: do you think it's worthwhile to try using Zmodeler to bust up this style of armor into a ton of bits and get 'clean' results? Or would you just perhaps use it sparingly for the base pieces and dynamesh from there? (Excluding the intricate details of course, I guess you'd bake them into a normal map).

Here's the concept art I was looking at in particular:

cryrid

If you want to use it as a project to try and learn zmodeler more, go for it.

Personally I'd stick with getting the main curved shapes down first by sculpting, create some clean geometry with zspheres+thickness, and then maybe use zmodeler for any additional edgeloops, bevels, insets, and general cleaning.

moraff

Yeah that sounds like a better idea. One of those 'duh, use the other aspects of Zbrush!' moments. When I get some time I'll try both ways but I'm sure it'd be more of a headache sticking exclusively to the box-style modeling approach. Thanks for the input Cryrid.