How would I go about sculpting this jungle branch in zbrush?

frankthetank007

Hi. I'm just starting to learn zbrush so only know the basics. I came across this picture and thought I would try and recreate it. I was wondering what would be the best way to go about sculpting this branch the parrots are perched on?

I want the final result to look as close as possible to the reference picture. If you could offer me advice on the process, examples of brushes, alphas or other techniques I could use to do it, that would be great.

Thanks for your time!

Alex_J

I wouldn't sculpt that. I'd use fin and shells technique (Google Ryse moss tutirial) for moss on a cylinder and alpha cards for hanging moss.

m4dcow

If you really want to try to do this all with zBrush I would suggest checking out fibermesh (especially for the hanging moss).
However I agree with @BIGTIMEMASTER that it would be easier not to sculpt this and look into other techniques.

frankthetank007

Thank you for the replies, I really appreciate it.

I should probably explain I am not looking to do a game asset, but a high poly render in blender.

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

I wouldn't sculpt that. I'd use fin and shells technique (Google Ryse moss tutirial) for moss on a cylinder and alpha cards for hanging moss.

I just googled what you said. Was an interesting read, thank you. It doesn't look exactly like I want but I will definitely try to do it that way if I can't get the look I want. I love in the reference pic the way the leaves / moss sticks out and appears to have volume to it, if you get me?

m4dcow said:

If you really want to try to do this all with zBrush I would suggest checking out fibermesh (especially for the hanging moss).
However I agree with @BIGTIMEMASTER that it would be easier not to sculpt this and look into other techniques.

Any idea how I could replicate that look using fibermesh? Is there any particular settings or things I need to do?

m4dcow

Towards the end of this video has some fibermesh usage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfOXGT0zbDA

When I get home I'll see if i can give some more specific advice.

Alex_J

Fibermesh has preset  that will get close. In lightbox. Really just got to play with it is all. 

Most important thing is to thoroughly study moss - much easier to find best method when you understand exactly what you are trying to make.

m4dcow

So I've found to get good results with fibermesh for moss you to want to layer stuff, one instance of fibermesh won't really do it (or will probably look too uniform).

So in the below image, I masked out some areas on the bottom of a sphere so I could have a bit of control where fibers would come out. Click preview on the fibermesh tab and start messing with the modifiers, you want the max fibers pretty low initially to get the clumpy look of the hanging moss. when you like what you have so far, click accept and it creates the geo as a subtool. Then select that subtool and preview another fibermesh, I didn't do any masking at this step but you can to have more control. I ended up doing 3 fibermesh operations in total the last with much shorter and many more fibers to fill it out. 

For the moss at the top I think you could use similar techniques just tweaked a bit (less gravity, more fibers, shorter strands etc...)

frankthetank007

m4dcow said:

Towards the end of this video has some fibermesh usage

Thanks! Working through it just now.

m4dcow said:

So I've found to get good results with fibermesh for moss you to want to layer stuff, one instance of fibermesh won't really do it (or will probably look too uniform).

That looks fantastic. I will use that technique once I've managed to get the branch looking good. Thanks you for taking the time to test that out, very nice of you!

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Fibermesh has preset  that will get close. In lightbox. Really just got to play with it is all.

Do you mean for the hanging moss like m4dcow did? Or for the actual look of the moss on the log / branch?

Alex_J

Either. Just know I've seen some moss looking stuff in there.  And full agreement about working with a few layers to get realistic moss. Just be sure to know what it looks like up close because it may be a surprise if you've never looked at it carefully before.