This is a prepping technique i use before i start an asset. It allows me to build my brushes and make sure that they fit together. Will post a video later on what these assets were used to make:)
Pretty impressive stuff so far, Nick. It looks like your normals are looking a little doughy around the cracks though. Probably won't be noticeable from far away, but once you get to the close-up assets it may be something to watch out for.
Wow that turned out pretty sweet!! Like how the texture turned out. My only complaint would be to tone down the noise on some parts of the asset (the bottom part for example). Other than that, sweet mang!
Geeze Nick, you're a zbrush machine! I'm particularly loving the chair and the wall assets you have done (minus the muddy/squishy side of the wall). Thanks for the videos!
EatenbyBats: nice name:) yes u right. I will fix on closer assets. Thanks for the compliment.
GL3: yah...it is always a battle with this process for getting the noise level just right.glad u digging on it.
Bulls_eye: We kick it everyday...but if you mean kick it...kick it...like how u kicked it before class and then i almost kicked you out of my class. Then that ain't ever going to happen. We ain't kicking it eva. Makes me to paranoid.
RadioActiveMachine: haha. Yes..i am a F@#$# zbrush monster. Glad the vids are helping. Expect more tomorrow.
Apeltheory: thanks man:)
So here is a rubble pile i did. I went ahead and bought that computer i posted up a few days ago. for 1200 it is AMAZING. I really feel like I got away with something. It has 9 gigs of ram. Tonight i was able to subdivide the dog model in zbrush to 32 mil faces....and that isn't even using HD. That is just normal subs. So to celebrate I did this oile of rocks. This is zbrush render by the way
I assumed you made the parts in zbrush as seperate tools, then duplicated and arranged them in 2.5D for projection or something? Or did you make each part individually, bake 'em out and arrange them in max?
Great stuff so far! I've been following your thread but haven't taken the time to stop in and give you the deserved props!
I notice on this asset that the grout looks like its sticking out due to the normal map. Have you flipped the green-channel/y-axis in Photoshop? That should fix the illusion, if I'm not mistaken.
(PS: It's usually the green channel. >.>)
Best of luck, the rubble is looking solid so far, too!
Yeah Prof, Dan is right. Flip the green channel in photoshop or theres also a checkbox under the materials tab in max.
Edit: BTW, you have some nice assets going here. I'm a little concerned with the computer monitor (i think thats what it is?). It looks extremely soft and doughy.
Best of luck in the challenge! cant wait to see more.
cman2k : Thanks...yes I used the 2.5 d to make it. Unfortunately the movie crashed when recording...so not tutorial on technique just yet. I will use it again though
danpv: glad you stopped by! Yes..that would fix it if I would have done it right way. The render is a cheat for now. I stuck my diffuse in my extra bump slot on my normal. still need to overlay it and add it to my proper normal
NoltaN: The computer monitor is crap:) I know it. Just a throw away piece for background. Will be like 10 pixels in the end.
Thanks for the luck
Here is a low poly of the rubble:) Have movie on this one coming.
Orgoth02: Yes...the rubble was all projection master;) gotta love it
Here is a quick variation modeling pass on walls. Needed a door and a broken wall. INstead of doing them all from scratch...trying to save time and texture space. Will try to cover up the repeating details with other assets.
BlvdNights: I agree with crazyfingers...that is one messed up picture...is it photoshopped or for reals? Is it one of your scientology buddies?
I just used cut tool in max and remapped the polys with existing texture. Simple...took a few minutes.
Crazyfingers: Agreed...you should see what Blvdnights looks like in real life though.
Glad you digging the vids...got some more cooking.
So...here is the low poly for the chair. Probably could have and should have gone lower. Really wanted to spend today doing low polys of all these assets. Needed to make sure i could get my stuff looking good in max. I am primarily zbrush and don't hardly ever have to make low poly versions of my stuff in real life. So been just doing tests mostly today.
and yes...that is poop on the chair. If you had a front seat for an nuclear bomb...you would poop too. end game...whoop whoop
Hah! poop in the chair, I love finding unique touches like this in an environment when playing a game. Shows the person who built the environment was thinking about detail. Nice touch. Oh and the chair itself looks great!
LOL Echo. I agree I think a good environment artist takes the time to put that little bit of personality in their work. In my case.....i find covering everything in feces just feels right. Like i am leaving a little bit of myself for the player to find:)
Worked on a background image tonight...will be sticking out building sides etc. Will just be on a flat card. Need to start assembling the scene and doing some serious realtime render tests tomorrow
Did you take some high poly models, bake normals with a plane as the low poly, and paint over the render in photoshop? Just wondering if that's how ya did it? Keep rockin!
Did you take some high poly models, bake normals with a plane as the low poly, and paint over the render in photoshop? Just wondering if that's how ya did it? Keep rockin!
I think all you need to do it apply the normals material in zb to get the effect he got. then just do a screengrab.
Organized Chaos: Thanks man! I am feeling it too. Feel like i have a good direction to move for End Game.
Orb: Yes...the normal map shader in zbrush is da best! A friend of mine at Naughty Dog showed me how they use it . Really opened my eyes.
oobersli: u right:)
crazyfingers: ROFL...
Cody: used the 2.5d drawing tools in zbrush. Really easy technique...will post video on it:)
Here is a test i put together for the flat card rubble i did. wanted to see how it all tied together. Also testing out what my mighting might end up looking like:) Really hope i can keep up this level of quality throughout the whole piece.
Minor suggestion: as perfect as the destruction is on the outside of the house silhouette, it would be nice to see some very geometric bricks around the base of it. Should be easy to pump out. Those building refuse alphas came out bitchen.
Looks great, however I'm not buying the illusion the building was destroyed. This is probably just a test for you so its fine. But it needs more formed building rubble. However I love the look (looks kinda claylike/cartoony/vivid) its neat!
Crazyfingers: yah you are right. I could chop out a block of wall andhave that as a debris on the the ground. Some geo bricks would be good. Thanks...yah the background alphas really worked out nice:) going to try to figure out where else i can use that:)
Monkeymhz: Thanks....yes...it is just a test to see how my background rubble planes will work out. I wasn't sure how would light. When I compile it all together I will make the building look more believable:)
Wasn't planning on doing this piece tonight. I just sat down and was doodling...trying to figure out the new 3.5 brush system in zbrush. Then this thing kinds happened. I made this really cool extrude brush that i used to push into the plane. Made digging in the big holes easy.
This is going to be center part of me street...split up th middle. I plan on adding debris in the bottom. And pipes sticking out the sides.
wow that looks really sweet, i really love the way the rubble turned out.
What kind of brushes do you use for the rocky effect or do you hand paint the hard egded style?
Thank you so much for these tuts. The are helping so much, ive modeled in max for a while but always struggled with high poly to low or vice versa. These are helping alot keep them comming :-)
nick2730: So glad you are liking the tutorials. I am doing them for my students primarily. I have switched the whole game art dept over zbrush as our primary tool. But it is taking kids a while to get the hang of it. So i am trying to document as much of my techniques as possible for them to learn and use. And...well I figured i wouldn't be stingy and also release them online for you guys:)
Envelope: I wish i could attach files in there. I would put up the brush i made to do the rock walls...it is a really cool extruding brush i figured out with all the new 3.5 flatten/planar features
Spitfire: Thanks:) I am using all of 3.5 new hard surface brushed mainly. So yes...all handpainted but using zbrush new coolness.
ParoXum: thanks:) I hope i have enough tpage space left over to make it look good:)
divi: The quad distribution is pulled but i was able to res this piece up to 16 million so...even in the REALLY bad spots I still had enough polys to make it not look like crap. The new comp i got has 9GB of ram and it makes all the difference when using zbrush. I would have never been able to do a piece like this without it.
Glad you liking my entry:) Mainly doing to put my money where my mouth is and try to inspire my students by doing the competition too. I made it mandatory in all of our demo classes for students to do.
Crazy: Yah...i agree...i was trying to make dirt inside earth but it did turn out a bit to saturated. I will desaturate once i have texture baked out. It is really hard to do that in zbrush. There is no...like desaturate or color balance in poly paint:(
Blvd: ROFL! I really liked your other one u posted somewhere. " I find your lack of composition disturbing" haha. I wanna use that at school
Replies
This is a prepping technique i use before i start an asset. It allows me to build my brushes and make sure that they fit together. Will post a video later on what these assets were used to make:)
http://www.vimeo.com/7069646
Here is the asset I ended up making with the dirt cube. This is the high poly zbrush render
Other than that, looks really good mang. mmmmmmm.
divi: Thanks! well this dosen't have texture on it yet...that is polypainting is zbrush...no uv map. That is just tinted polys.
P.S. when we going to kick it
GL3: yah...it is always a battle with this process for getting the noise level just right.glad u digging on it.
Bulls_eye: We kick it everyday...but if you mean kick it...kick it...like how u kicked it before class and then i almost kicked you out of my class. Then that ain't ever going to happen. We ain't kicking it eva. Makes me to paranoid.
RadioActiveMachine: haha. Yes..i am a F@#$# zbrush monster. Glad the vids are helping. Expect more tomorrow.
Apeltheory: thanks man:)
So here is a rubble pile i did. I went ahead and bought that computer i posted up a few days ago. for 1200 it is AMAZING. I really feel like I got away with something. It has 9 gigs of ram. Tonight i was able to subdivide the dog model in zbrush to 32 mil faces....and that isn't even using HD. That is just normal subs. So to celebrate I did this oile of rocks. This is zbrush render by the way
I assumed you made the parts in zbrush as seperate tools, then duplicated and arranged them in 2.5D for projection or something? Or did you make each part individually, bake 'em out and arrange them in max?
Great stuff so far! I've been following your thread but haven't taken the time to stop in and give you the deserved props!
I notice on this asset that the grout looks like its sticking out due to the normal map. Have you flipped the green-channel/y-axis in Photoshop? That should fix the illusion, if I'm not mistaken.
(PS: It's usually the green channel. >.>)
Best of luck, the rubble is looking solid so far, too!
Edit: BTW, you have some nice assets going here. I'm a little concerned with the computer monitor (i think thats what it is?). It looks extremely soft and doughy.
Best of luck in the challenge! cant wait to see more.
danpv: glad you stopped by! Yes..that would fix it if I would have done it right way. The render is a cheat for now. I stuck my diffuse in my extra bump slot on my normal. still need to overlay it and add it to my proper normal
NoltaN: The computer monitor is crap:) I know it. Just a throw away piece for background. Will be like 10 pixels in the end.
Thanks for the luck
Here is a low poly of the rubble:) Have movie on this one coming.
Orgoth02: Yes...the rubble was all projection master;) gotta love it
Here is a quick variation modeling pass on walls. Needed a door and a broken wall. INstead of doing them all from scratch...trying to save time and texture space. Will try to cover up the repeating details with other assets.
http://www.vimeo.com/7087604
So for the destroyed wall piece, did you just modify your original zbrush model and decimate a low poly version?
Thanks for another great video professor
I just used cut tool in max and remapped the polys with existing texture. Simple...took a few minutes.
Crazyfingers: Agreed...you should see what Blvdnights looks like in real life though.
Glad you digging the vids...got some more cooking.
So...here is the low poly for the chair. Probably could have and should have gone lower. Really wanted to spend today doing low polys of all these assets. Needed to make sure i could get my stuff looking good in max. I am primarily zbrush and don't hardly ever have to make low poly versions of my stuff in real life. So been just doing tests mostly today.
and yes...that is poop on the chair. If you had a front seat for an nuclear bomb...you would poop too. end game...whoop whoop
Worked on a background image tonight...will be sticking out building sides etc. Will just be on a flat card. Need to start assembling the scene and doing some serious realtime render tests tomorrow
Did you take some high poly models, bake normals with a plane as the low poly, and paint over the render in photoshop? Just wondering if that's how ya did it? Keep rockin!
I think all you need to do it apply the normals material in zb to get the effect he got. then just do a screengrab.
Orb: Yes...the normal map shader in zbrush is da best! A friend of mine at Naughty Dog showed me how they use it . Really opened my eyes.
oobersli: u right:)
crazyfingers: ROFL...
Cody: used the 2.5d drawing tools in zbrush. Really easy technique...will post video on it:)
Here is a test i put together for the flat card rubble i did. wanted to see how it all tied together. Also testing out what my mighting might end up looking like:) Really hope i can keep up this level of quality throughout the whole piece.
Minor suggestion: as perfect as the destruction is on the outside of the house silhouette, it would be nice to see some very geometric bricks around the base of it. Should be easy to pump out. Those building refuse alphas came out bitchen.
Monkeymhz: Thanks....yes...it is just a test to see how my background rubble planes will work out. I wasn't sure how would light. When I compile it all together I will make the building look more believable:)
This is going to be center part of me street...split up th middle. I plan on adding debris in the bottom. And pipes sticking out the sides.
Okay:) now to color it up!
Go game wizards!
you got a really great entry here and it's amazing that you share everything with the community.
What kind of brushes do you use for the rocky effect or do you hand paint the hard egded style?
Envelope: I wish i could attach files in there. I would put up the brush i made to do the rock walls...it is a really cool extruding brush i figured out with all the new 3.5 flatten/planar features
Spitfire: Thanks:) I am using all of 3.5 new hard surface brushed mainly. So yes...all handpainted but using zbrush new coolness.
ParoXum: thanks:) I hope i have enough tpage space left over to make it look good:)
divi: The quad distribution is pulled but i was able to res this piece up to 16 million so...even in the REALLY bad spots I still had enough polys to make it not look like crap. The new comp i got has 9GB of ram and it makes all the difference when using zbrush. I would have never been able to do a piece like this without it.
Glad you liking my entry:) Mainly doing to put my money where my mouth is and try to inspire my students by doing the competition too. I made it mandatory in all of our demo classes for students to do.
Here is the texture pass for the street:) Enjoy
Blvd: ROFL! I really liked your other one u posted somewhere. " I find your lack of composition disturbing" haha. I wanna use that at school
Here is stop sign did for background.
Here is a billboard for my scene;) little shout out to Game Wizards. And created in the spirit of the competition:)
Looks cool, but that edge....
At least its a background piece right?