Zbrush/Hi Poly Learning - WAR Chaos Shield

HellMark

Not really a pimp but me learning high poly and Zbrush. Sorry if this post gets long.

I haven't done much Zbrush or high poly work so I'm still banging around learning a work flow. I'm hoping to get some feedback on ways to approach building this.

The concept for the shield is taken from Warhammer Online. Right now my approach is:
1. Create the low poly in Max, use turbosmooth to see how it will divide in Zbrush then bring it into Zbrush.
2. Create all the details of the shield in Zbrush using things like the layer brush to paint in the details like the spikes and trims. I would use alphas to get detail for the blood splatter.

My initial thinking was I could just create an alpha based off of the concept art to give me a head start but I don't think I would learning anything by taking that route. I've included a couple of early WIP shots from Max showing the low next to the high w/ the concept I'm working from and from Zbrush showing the low divided to 1.8 million polys.

Thanks for any help.



Latest

torontoanimator

good start man i modelled a shield once but it turned out horribly lol, maybe ill do another one day...all i can say is that you picked a pretty simple poject to practice hi poly work on, maybe try tweaking the model to make it more unique? and definitely try some battle damage!

Killaball

Hm, is this for a class project? Because I find it easier to do organic sculpting in zbrush/mudbox while hard surface high poly modeling seems to be easier to do in max/maya.

The reason I ask if its for a class project is because if you have to use zbrush to make the shield... its not the easiest way to do it (in my opinion) but very do able. First make sure your low poly object matches the silhouette of your concept art, and give it a half sphere on the front. That would take care of your low poly.

Use a lot of masks while sculpting, and use the flatten brush that helps out the best when doing hard surface objects.

Hope I helped a little.

Oh almost forgot, depending on how high rez the concept art is you could apply it to your model as a texture then under masking options, click mask by intensity. That will put a mask down on your sculpt via black and white from the texture.

HellMark

Thanks for the help. This is not for a class project. I thought the shield would be a good entry to learn and start building my portfolio with high poly/sculpting work.

In this next shot I used masks for the trim. I then used size in deformation to pop it out. Looks like I got some smoothing where the trim meets the base of the shield though.

Edit - Took the shot out. I have too many images going on this thread.

HellMark

I think I see what I need to be doing so I'm going to revisit the mesh in Max and look to do more of the work there and then see what makes more sense to do in Zbrush.

ericdigital

Not a bad start, however do note that shield is not competently flat. Just like when your sculpting a character, you want to get the overall shapes first, and then move onto the detail. So make sure your getting the over all curves, shapes etc before jumping into small details like nuts and bolts.

torontoanimator

erics got a great point, logically a flat shield would break apart after being whacked a few times, it has to have a more convex shape, a bit of a curve to deflect the blows.

HellMark

Small update. Getting close with the high poly then I'll take it into Zbrush to work on the details. I modeled everything flat and used a bend modifier to test it. Credit to Artem for the cool render tutorial on his site.

ericdigital

Very cool way to bend it! Coming along really clean man!

HellMark

Latest with, without color and spikey pokey things and stuff. Need to tweak the wings and finish out the details on the middle section.

HellMark

High poly stuff is fun. Working in more details. Getting close with the high then time to take it into Zbrush to work on some details like blood splatter and what not. Then make the low, bake it, texture it, etc... Crits welcomed.

A.Kincade

Your making some sweet progress with this thing. Looking better and better each time.

Overall pretty legit shield. Keep up the good work.

PeterK

I can't wait till you zbrush and grit it up, nice max work so far.

HellMark

Still a ways to go but wanted to post a quick update. There are some geometry issues that need to be fixed before moving forward. The shield is sitting at about 600 polys at the moment. It's been great learning high poly stuff along with RTT, xNormal, Zbrush and Marmoset from doing this piece.

The first shot is taken in max with an AO and Normal map applied using Xoliul's viewport shader.

The second shot is taken from inside Marmoset again with an AO and Normal map. Marmoset is great BTW. Having a lot of fun with it. Thanks for sharing it.

misterboogie

Hey Mark! It's Elvis! The shield is coming along nicely. Can you post a wire of your highpoly? And how did you get ahold of Marmoset????

HellMark

Hey Elvis! Nice to hear from you. Here's a pic of the wireframe with Isoline Display toggled off. Marmoset is found right here on Polycount. Here's the link to the megathread in Technical Talk which has all the info you'll need to download it and get it running. http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=61346

HellMark

Here's a pic of the low poly.

HellMark

Improved my AO and Normal bakes and optimized the low poly geometry. Currently it's 668 polys. Still needs a bit more optimizing along with some UV tweaks than on to the diffuse and spec.

HellMark

It's definitely been a great learning experience working on this piece so far. I still have a ways to go. One issue I have as seen in the following shots are my trim and side geometry which are broken in the normal map. They have some odd artifacts going on. I think it has to do with my low poly model which is not one contiguous mesh. My guess now until I rework the geomtery and test it is that I need to make the low poly all one contiguous mesh. If anyone can offer some insights please do. I decided to quickly dink around working on some early drafts for the diffuse and spec maps. Please take a look. All crits are welcome. Thanks.

OBlastradiusO

Very good you hit it on the head!

Torrrtilla

that looks great!

HellMark

Made some tweaks to the diffuse and spec. Also putting up the low and high poly wireframes.

s0id3

Looks pretty good. Though I think the polys on the 'wings' could be optimized a lot, and maybe some accented edges in the texture. In terms of the normals I'm not really seeing much of it. You spent a lot of time making those intricate curvy extrude details but the bevels are not strong enough that it looks flat in the bake. But looks really nice so far.

torontoanimator

very very nice dude, i love the textures! the overall silhouette is still a bit plain i think, but the end product is looking quite nice

HellMark

Update using Marmoset (highly recommended) and optimized the wings more and tweaked my normal map to get more pop. Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

Pope Adam

Well done!!

Cubik

I like everything about this exept for the presentation. Look at the concept, especially around the eye centerpiece, a lot of the color and light differences comes from the reflections in the metal. I would suggest that you add a cubemap and a texturemask to control the amount of reflection; maybe as an alpha to the specmap, diffuse or normal if marmoset supports this.
As it is, I'm having a hard time seeing this as metal, looks more like stone due to the lack of any reflection.

sama.van

Beautiful one!