[3ds max + zbrush] Ways to do this windu saber line-pattern

TheOneTrueLegit

Hello, 
I need some ideas of how to do this specific pattern,
I have already modelled it in 3ds max, smoothed out some of the hard edges using smooth in zbrush.
And will texture using substance painter, 




I used used a plane with curve, in hopes to get a tillable pattern, made a few mistakes, noise maker was not as much help as I thought it would be 

As you can see it didn't go as planed

Am off to do the retop, hope to get some useful tips or techniques.

musashidan

If you look at the refs you will see that it isn't a tiling pattern, it's made up of many unique panels. You've drawn your lines as continuous. If you're taking it to SP then you could paint the detail directly to the Normal map and skip this detailing pass in ZB. You could pick out the panel shapes from the refs, create simple alphas of each in PS, and stamp them into the height channel in SP, recreating the design on it's own layer. You would have much more control this way.

TheOneTrueLegit

musashidan said:

If you look at the refs you will see that it isn't a tiling pattern, it's made up of many unique panels. You've drawn your lines as continuous. If you're taking it to SP then you could paint the detail directly to the Normal map and skip this detailing pass in ZB. You could pick out the panel shapes from the refs, create simple alphas of each in PS, and stamp them into the height channel in SP, recreating the design on it's own layer. You would have much more control this way.

Yes this seems to be the best route, thank you.