Environment modelling inside of zbrush

fuzzio

Hey polycounters, I wanted to share with you the project I am currently undergoing. I am going to try and create an old style European balcony within zbrush. I’m familiar with the modelling tools in maya but I wanted to do something different and to explore ways in creating environments and props in zbrush. Below is the reference I am going to be using for the balcony, I’m going to gather different elements from the photos and try to create something different. Also I have created the arch in zbrush which I will post below. I will continue to update my progress

Oniram

reminds me of that old tutorial by Sebastien Legrain. i tried that out once. prefered to model in a modeling program. good luck with it tho.

yodude87

thought the same. and tried it too, but without much success... modelling the whole thing with polies works way better for me.

anyway good luck, keep it up

sketch81

I've never tried the idea, so I will be following this closely. Looking forward to updates and keep it up!

fuzzio

OK so here is the latest progress, the main arch which i created previously didn’t work for me so I started a brand new scene. There are still some things which most certainly needs to be changed but I though I show you my progress so far.

SimonT

will be interesting how you do all that in zbrush

bgoodsell

I've tried similar and while it can be a frustratingly daunting task, you will learn a lot about zbrush. You will have to do the same piece over and over again until you find the best method of construction. Stuff like extruding and hard surface work is sort of trial by fire, but I wish you the best of luck. Keep notes on what your doing so you can teach the rest of us once you finish.

fuzzio

Thank you everyone for your comments, here is the latest

Remmers

Looking good so far keep it going!
Actually I just wrote about Legrains tutorial in my MA Thesis, interesting to see someone else applying his approach.

fuzzio

Another update here, just added the doors in. To be honest its kind of a struggle getting the shapes looking like how I want it, there is a side of me that wants to build them into maya and import back in to zbrush. But I will continue to do as much as i can in zbrush

chriszuko

I would have never made it this far in zbrush.. my mind would have said.. dude .. wtf go back into maya or something.

But its very interesting to see this being done.
keep goin (:

sltrOlsson

The windows are made out of stucco to?

eyo

hey fuzzio, I totally know where you are coming from, I have been chipping away with hardsurface in Zb and it is a bit overwhelming @ first to say the least. I find the reward in the end is getting add wear and tear to all your hard earned shapes, keep with it!

fuzzio

Sorry people for the late reply, here is the progress so far please let me know what you think

Piotr

Lookin good. I myself would get quite stressed trying to do silky smooth architectural stuff in zbrush.

fuzzio

Thanks for the comment Piotr, I just had a look at your post and may i say your work is insane, how long did the first image take to sculpt

Coridium

Will be interesting to see this develop, I did a few similar experiments but they where a bit more sci-fi. Think getting the zbrush model into another program to bake becomes the biggest hurdle that I found but decimation master helps a lot with this, but can create some strange smoothing issues, etc. Will be interesting to see what you find.

Butthair

Are you shadowboxing at all? Or mesh extracting?

If you have the time I'd appreciate some in depth to your method. It is looking really nice and just like most others, I'd save myself the frustration and start in max then do the detailing in zBrush. However, I do see this as a way to kind of force yourself to really get good with all realms of zBrush.

Kudos for making that effort, I've tried and I can say that it definitely takes some discipline to keep yourself within zBrush.

fuzzio

Thank you for the comments, Butthair what i mostly use it zbrush projection master. For each model i create a new scene and then I play around with some of the deformation settings and masking to get the shapes that I want. Once I have some bits and pieces I then used projection master to drop it right in. Hopefully I should be making a video tutorial of the whole process.

fuzzio

Hey people time for updates. ok first I’m kind of in a situation where i can’t decide on whether less is more or more is less. I don’t want to continue any further unless I’m satisfied on the results looking good. I have added to more extensions to the balcony as well as some detail, if i do continue the extension would still need more work. The thing I’m stuck on is deciding on having the extension or removing them and just having the balcony like all the images above. Below is an image with the extension and all the imaged above are without the extension. Please give me some advice me on whether I should leave the extension or remove them