SCI-FI Helmet

hectorsdors

It's been a log time since my last post on Polycount... so here we go again!!!

This is a 3D real time helmet I made trying to improve my hard surface skills and find new ways to texture in Substance Painter. 

I've used the awesome concept from Soufiane Idrassi as a reference.

Love the mix between the curves and lines in the helmet. He creates a perfect balance among organic shapes and hard surfaces. That's why I tried to transport these contours to a 3D model.

The model was done in Zbrush, retopo in 3D Max, baked in Susbtance 

Artstation pics HERE    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aAQy9

The model was done in Zbrush, retopo in 3D Max, baked in Susbtance Designer and texture created in Painter. Marmoset was used to get the final renders.


This was the first steps and blocking in Zbrush using Dynamesh, then I started to polish every piece of the helmet till get the final result.

Sbcas74

really awesome work !! very clean 

hectorsdors

Thanks, Sebastian! That's what was trying to achieve, be cleaner and sharper while I'm modelling hard surface, that's one of my weakest points at the moment, so I'm trying to improve! : D

Ashervisalis

Trying to figure out how you did such great hard surface modelling in ZBrush is perplexing. Good job, looks amazing.

PeterK

I really enjoy the balance between materials. Nice work.

slosh

Would love to see ur breakdown and how u are using Polish to get ur surfaces so clean in zbrush.  Awesome final result btw!

BradMyers82

Great work!

hectorsdors

PeterK said:

I really enjoy the balance between materials. Nice work.

Thanks, it was a hard battle, I had a lot of doubts about the materials but finally tried to mix metal appearance with more plastic pieces. I think the balance between them are great. The final part was the yellow paint that just makes the piece doesn't look like a dark piece of metal haha

slosh said:

Would love to see ur breakdown and how u are using Polish to get ur surfaces so clean in zbrush.  Awesome final result btw!

I'll try to make a little tut or something, maybe some pics to explain it. But to resume that I used three different methods:

1- Use 3Ds Max to create the base mesh, assign different smoothing groups to each part of the model where I wanted to have a sharp edge. Then applied a turbosmooth modifier that allows to subdivide the mesh according to the smoothing groups and make like 3 - 4 subdivisions. Finally I applied another turbosmooth to make smoother the surface of the piece. Then I just push GoZ.

2- I create the individual piece in Zbrush with Dynamesh, when I'm happy with the result just try to polish the surface with H Polish brushes, making clay polish or even making a Zremesh in a cloned tool, creating different polygroups, Applying a crease PG, that creates and edge around the polygroups and then subdivide the tool.

3- Create the hole helmet with Dynamesh and extracting the pieces creating masks. Then Dynamesh the piece, polish, Zremesh and carefully with Hpolish create the clean surfaces. Other option if you don't want to extract the mesh and have more control over the shape is to mask the part you are interested in and split with masked points. Then with the new subtool go to the Geometry menu and make a Panel loop. that way you will get a smooth and clean tool with the volume extruded. 

And I think that's all. I know that it's not a very complex workflow and there are a lot of different ways to create hard surface directly inside Zbrush, but those are, at the moment, the most efficient workflow for me. I'm constantly looking for new ways to work so maybe I'll implement new ways to create hard surface in a few weeks

Brian "Panda" Choi

Something tells me, while at a super up close level it's not absolutely clean, at appropriate distance, it is.

Ashervisalis

@hectorsdors Using this process, did you not need to add bevels or support loops while preparing for the high poly?

hectorsdors

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Something tells me, while at a super up close level it's not absolutely clean, at appropriate distance, it is.

Obviously, I'm not able to get the cleanest surface working directly in Zbrush at the moment, time to time, but if you are looking for the best results, the best way is to use 3D max or even the modeller tools inside Zbrush to create the meshes having a complete control of the topology. That's the way to have the cleanest appeal. Even using other options like Fusion 360, that's a crazy software for that purpose. Ashervisalis said:

@hectorsdors Using this process, did you not need to add bevels or support loops while preparing for the high poly?

You can add some edges to make the division between the planes more evident, but working with the smoothing groups and turbosmooth should be enough to have a very good start point. Then, when you have the tool in Zbrush, you'll have to polish with the brushes or clay polish ...

studio2a3d

Nice work.  Good shaders.  More edge highlights would make it pop.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Thanks Hector!