Hm. The second one... it's hard to understand what's going on in a high speed video that doesn't explain which tool he's using, or more specifically why and how.
The first one is okay, though, though not the kind of subject matter I was considering.
Hmmm CC as a matter of fact these are the tools I personally try to avoid as much as possible when doing hardsurfaces in zbrush!!!
First thing : get as much as you can from your basemeshes using the various creasing techniques available. Max has an option to turbosmooth according to smoothing groups. Thats what sebcesoir uses. Then he simply adds details on top of that.
As for the Food technique : he uses more of a suggestion of hard surfaces, thanks to smooth shapes telling you there is a hard surface underneath (like the bulges on the sides of a stormtroopers helmet). He then uses small connection lines/details to break this out. Also bevels are made using the layer brush.
in general ... hardsurfaces in Zbrush are easier if improvised, than if planned according to a straight concept :P
Thanks! My biggest concern is actually maintaining the sharp edges of, say, the outer trim on a brestplate, or the corners of a more rectangular piece. That, and adding more techy details to stuff, like a grill. I guess those could be done mostly in Max, though...
Out of curiosity, just why is Turbosmooth better than Meshsmooth?
Max help file:
"TurboSmooth is considerably faster and more memory-efficient than MeshSmooth. TurboSmooth also has an option for Explicit Normals, unavailable in MeshSmooth. See Explicit Normals. > Lets the TurboSmooth modifier compute normals for its output, which is faster than the standard method 3ds Max uses to compute normals from the mesh object's smoothing groups. Default=off.
Consequently, if the TurboSmooth result is used directly for display or rendering, it will generally be faster with this option turned on. Also, the quality of the normals will be slightly higher. However, if you apply any topology-affecting modifiers, such as Edit Mesh, above the TurboSmooth modifier, these normals will be lost and new ones computed, potentially affecting performance adversely. So it's important to remember to turn on Explicit Normals only if no modifiers change the object topology after TurboSmooth takes effect.
Valander if you are really patient try using masks with the lazy mouse option turned on. Use that you make panels. I't probably better to use a displacement map and the displace brush though so you get the precision you want.
Yeah I like to use a Mix of Clay brush and flatten, I avoid pinch like the plague. Sometimes use layer, and masks,lazy mouse are your friend. Though I find 90% of the work can be done just hoping between clay and flatten.
Pinch is useful if you go back down to a lower subd level right after using it, smooth out the damage to the topology (easiest to see with the wireframes showing) and do a "reproject higher subdiv", possibly several times.
Ctrl-1 is the keyboard shortcut for "repeat last stroke" too. I think. I know it is on mine, but it might not have been the default. It repeats the last stroke you made. You can't rotate the view right before using it though, or it'll just rotate the view again.
edit: Holy crap! That dam_standard brush is awesome. Thanks for mentioning it, CC.
First thing : get as much as you can from your basemeshes using the various creasing techniques available. Max has an option to turbosmooth according to smoothing groups. Thats what sebcesoir uses. Then he simply adds details on top of that.
Agree with pior... and it shouldn't matter what you use for subdividing in max or any other app so long as you can maintain edge/crease hardness, which smoothing groups do. The idea here is that you are subdividing up the base mesh so that polygon density stays consistent and evenly distributed, making for an easier time when you sculpt it.
This is better than doing micro bevels everywhere the way you would for a typical hand built sub-d piece that will go straight to render or baking. You don't want long slivers of polygons to sculpt with in zbrush, which is what bevels will typically give you due to the tight grouping of edges along sharp corners etc.
What I often do is set my smooth groups in max, or in Silo use edge creasing on all my sharp corners that I want to maintain through subdivisions. Subdivide the piece a couple of times according to personal comfort with the mesh density. Sometimes I'll do that, then clear the smoothing groups or creases and add another subdivision or two just to round off the hard corners a tiny bit. Then export to zbrush to finish detailing.
I use masking heavily in zbrush for detailing. Esp on hard surfaces with intricate seam work, which the Inflate deformer is great for.
It is a fantastic brush and uses the Standard brushes ability to integrate the Pinch brush into its action.
The standard brush allows this via the Brush Mod slider in the Brush palette. Set the BrushMod slider to something like 30 and you will see that the brush pinches as it builds up form.
Also another thing. There are other advantages when subdividing with creases or similar. Subdiv level 1 or 2 on such a mesh, when converted back to raw polygons, is a fantastic base to carve simple extra details using extremely simple extrudes, bevels and such.
Instead of trying to hold details in the middle of big smoothed quads (which is what happens when working the 'everything in one subdiv way', which needs destructive double bevels to hold things in place for instance), it basically gives a nice even polygon grid to selectively tap in. It makes things very easy, and naturally readable also (detail hierarchy). The stack in 3DSMax also makes this pass non-destructible.
With all that done, the sculpting pass is really quick and easy. Sebcesoir is again a great example to follow.
Thanks for the tips. I have downloaded the standard dam brush but not sure how to load it into zbrush. I did a search in my zbrush folder for .ZBP files to give me a clue but there are no such files in my folders. For now added it to Macros/Brushes folder. There doesn't seem to be an import brush feature in Zbrush, I think there use to be when older Zbrushes showed you a window with brucsh icons but now (v3) it's just a text list. Tried typing 'install brushes into zbrush' into google but no help.
i scanned thru all the posts in here but may have missed it, when working with smoothing groups in zbrush be sure to get the smoothing group importer plugin on the pixologic dload page. total lifesaver works great.
Just click on Load Brush and pick the file after that it´s in your list.
Thanks SpeCter, seems like I have a bizarre UI setup. I have Zbrush3. How can I restore it to like how you've got it? If you look on the left I have a brush list instead of icon/window
Max has an option to turbosmooth according to smoothing groups. Thats what sebcesoir uses. Then he simply adds details on top of that.
Sorry to bump an old thread, but does anyone know how to achieve the same results in Maya? Maya's "preserve hard edges" does not behave the same way turbosmooth does. There are workarounds, but I wonder if there's an one-click solution.
Replies
http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/ZBrush_Tutorials/architectural_techniques/page01.asp
and from Food:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=69054&page=6&pp=15
The first one is okay, though, though not the kind of subject matter I was considering.
it just takes some experimenting and even making your own brushes or tweaking default brushes
First thing : get as much as you can from your basemeshes using the various creasing techniques available. Max has an option to turbosmooth according to smoothing groups. Thats what sebcesoir uses. Then he simply adds details on top of that.
As for the Food technique : he uses more of a suggestion of hard surfaces, thanks to smooth shapes telling you there is a hard surface underneath (like the bulges on the sides of a stormtroopers helmet). He then uses small connection lines/details to break this out. Also bevels are made using the layer brush.
in general ... hardsurfaces in Zbrush are easier if improvised, than if planned according to a straight concept :P
Out of curiosity, just why is Turbosmooth better than Meshsmooth?
"TurboSmooth is considerably faster and more memory-efficient than MeshSmooth. TurboSmooth also has an option for Explicit Normals, unavailable in MeshSmooth. See Explicit Normals. > Lets the TurboSmooth modifier compute normals for its output, which is faster than the standard method 3ds Max uses to compute normals from the mesh object's smoothing groups. Default=off.
Consequently, if the TurboSmooth result is used directly for display or rendering, it will generally be faster with this option turned on. Also, the quality of the normals will be slightly higher. However, if you apply any topology-affecting modifiers, such as Edit Mesh, above the TurboSmooth modifier, these normals will be lost and new ones computed, potentially affecting performance adversely. So it's important to remember to turn on Explicit Normals only if no modifiers change the object topology after TurboSmooth takes effect.
Ctrl-1 is the keyboard shortcut for "repeat last stroke" too. I think. I know it is on mine, but it might not have been the default. It repeats the last stroke you made. You can't rotate the view right before using it though, or it'll just rotate the view again.
edit: Holy crap! That dam_standard brush is awesome. Thanks for mentioning it, CC.
Agree with pior... and it shouldn't matter what you use for subdividing in max or any other app so long as you can maintain edge/crease hardness, which smoothing groups do. The idea here is that you are subdividing up the base mesh so that polygon density stays consistent and evenly distributed, making for an easier time when you sculpt it.
This is better than doing micro bevels everywhere the way you would for a typical hand built sub-d piece that will go straight to render or baking. You don't want long slivers of polygons to sculpt with in zbrush, which is what bevels will typically give you due to the tight grouping of edges along sharp corners etc.
What I often do is set my smooth groups in max, or in Silo use edge creasing on all my sharp corners that I want to maintain through subdivisions. Subdivide the piece a couple of times according to personal comfort with the mesh density. Sometimes I'll do that, then clear the smoothing groups or creases and add another subdivision or two just to round off the hard corners a tiny bit. Then export to zbrush to finish detailing.
I use masking heavily in zbrush for detailing. Esp on hard surfaces with intricate seam work, which the Inflate deformer is great for.
my search skills are failing me
Google 'dam_brush', click first link. in that thread is a link to dam_brush.zip.
This is the link: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/attachment.php?attachmentid=90419
Seriously, the first link!
Also another thing. There are other advantages when subdividing with creases or similar. Subdiv level 1 or 2 on such a mesh, when converted back to raw polygons, is a fantastic base to carve simple extra details using extremely simple extrudes, bevels and such.
Instead of trying to hold details in the middle of big smoothed quads (which is what happens when working the 'everything in one subdiv way', which needs destructive double bevels to hold things in place for instance), it basically gives a nice even polygon grid to selectively tap in. It makes things very easy, and naturally readable also (detail hierarchy). The stack in 3DSMax also makes this pass non-destructible.
With all that done, the sculpting pass is really quick and easy. Sebcesoir is again a great example to follow.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9s97j_quicktutorial
jenson shows off some hard surface chops in this thread, including a vid.
i scanned thru all the posts in here but may have missed it, when working with smoothing groups in zbrush be sure to get the smoothing group importer plugin on the pixologic dload page. total lifesaver works great.
Thanks SpeCter, seems like I have a bizarre UI setup. I have Zbrush3. How can I restore it to like how you've got it? If you look on the left I have a brush list instead of icon/window
Or could it be, that you didn´t update to Zbrush 3.1 ?
Sorry to bump an old thread, but does anyone know how to achieve the same results in Maya? Maya's "preserve hard edges" does not behave the same way turbosmooth does. There are workarounds, but I wonder if there's an one-click solution.
Thanks a lot~