Orb's Crack Brush

Trixx

Hey guys, I was wondering if one of you could steer me in the right direction this. I want achieve a very similar effect with cracks that are used in this sculpt. My problem is that when I try using Orb's crack brush, I get one straight, clean cut through my mesh that looks more like a knife gouging into butter. How did the sculptor achieve these clean cracks that widen at certain points? I've spent quite a while googling this myself, and I can't find any tutorials or videos that show this process. Most of the tutorials are either realistic rocks, or attempts at cartoony rocks that look very blobby and unappealing IMO.

One other question if someone knows it while they're at it. How is that "chiseled" look achieved in the lower left portion of the lower left sculpt? I'm referring to the cuts into the mesh that result in a straight, clean, angled cut with no smoothing or waviness. I've tried doing something similar with trim dynamic tools but it always results in somewhat smoothed out creases in the angle of the cut. Trim dynamic only seems to work for trimming down an extrusion in the mesh. It doesn't work well for making cuts INTO the mesh. Does anyone have a good technique for this?

Thanks,

Ostraga

While using the Orb's crack brush try to vary the amount of pressure you apply.. this added with basic knowledge of how cracks should look should net you good results. As for the chiseled look you mentioned, trim dynamic seems to work for me when creating this style of rock. Trim Dynamic will will only flatten on the angle you apply it to the mesh so in order to get that "chiseled in" look you'd have to either model that basic form into your low poly or use some kind of brush that digs into the high poly ( I know there is one but I can't remember the name). After that you can go in with trim dynamic and flatten out the faces in the "chiseled in" part to achieve that look. I'd assume that any standard brush on z sub to create the chiseled in part then a trim dynamic pass should give you what you're looking for. When starting with trim dynamic, use it on the edges first and that will give you more angles to play with (if that makes any sense).

AtticusMars

I have no idea how Orb does it but does but I would just make a second pass over the crack brush with a trim brush and a hard edged alpha.

Quick thing made to illustrate:



Left is just a sphere with the orb crack brush.

Right is a second pass over it with trim dynamic and the hard edged square alpha (backface masking turned on)

This is just a quick example but the point is that Orb's crack brush is not meant to be an instant crack solution, it just generates the major shapes. You still have to do stuff to it.