Gargoyle asset

Dim

Hey guys, definitely need some help with this one. I'm creating a gargoyle asset, starting with a sculpt in ZBrush, but I've never surfaced stone in ZB before, and I was wondering if ya'll could set me straight. All the resources I've found have been primarily for rock walls etc. rather than hewn stone. My plan as is is to scratch it and ding it a bit, then add some cracks by hand, but so far I haven't had much luck.

Other comments of course are much appreciated!

Flat Face

I'd suggest just breaking off parts and having some erosion, by memory you don't really see much else other than just fading, colour erosion and moss/bird crap etc

Dim

Got some of the surfacing done. I don't really like it, but I gotta move on anyways. Now to polypaint....

slipsius

those cracks are really good! love the texture of it. though, with all those cracks, id personally break his tongue off. and the tongue needs texture to it. but lookin good!

Sithis324

Wow the cracks do look amazing. Adding some variation like one that go deeper or different sized cracks would really bring it out.

Dunno if you were planning on this being a statue but seeing some chipped off stone along the edge of the ear or the tip of the tongue like Slipsius said would add character to it.

jordan.kocon

I agree that you should break off the tongue, it would add some character to it. But the cracks are lookin ace!

Dim

Thanks guys. I would love to break some parts off, but to be honest, I don't know how to do that with ZBrush....any insight would be much appreciated

jordan.kocon

Are you using the zBrush 4? You could just use a clipping brush. That would get rid of the end of the tongue right away, then you could just sculpt in the surface damage/noise.

Dim

Thanks man! That's wonderful, I'll do it ASAP. In the meantime, been working on the LP and bakes. Gonna shave a few polys off the tongue...

Jessica Dinh

Wow, that bake turned out really nice! I like this whole piece btw; he looks pretty gross and creepy. The only part I don't like is the back cuz I don't get why the spine is sticking out so far like that, but if he's not really gonna be seen from above, then it's ok. Are you gonna put him in a scene or something?

makecg

You should make another gargoyle behind him. =D

Dim

Thanks Jessica! The reason the back looks the way it does is that gargoyles were usually used architecturally to channel water away from the walls of a building during rainstorms to avoid eroding the mortar. I actually built mine for that purpose, so in cross section, it looks like this:



It probably won't end up in a scene since I'm making it as a standalone asset. That said, I'll probably add a base, just so that it's function is clear.

Dim

Chopped off some bits. Took me a while to figure out how to prevent the clipping brushes from destroying my mesh.

slipsius

tongue looks good, but i think over all, theres still too many smooth parts on the thing. the legs for example, and the nose. eye brows. shoulder. most the body has that rock texture to it. the rest needs it

MGrecke

I kinda like it when the parts that stand out are a little bit more smoothed than the deeper parts, kinda like how weather, rain or something like that has been shaping him!

Di$array

Loving this. I've got a little suggestion of having a bit of moss and damp patches around the area were the water is touching the stone. Other than that keep it rolling.

Dim

Pretty much done with this guy. Tris ended up at 3716, with 3x1024^2 maps. The colored spec is largely unneeded, so I'll probably stick a greyscale version of it into my normal map's alpha channel when I head into UDK. Rendered in Marmoset.

achillesian

Turned out quite passable, my only qualm being that the renders you posted make it look like you used a smaller texture than 1024, it looks to me like either you used the wrong one for the marmo render, there's some very weird filtering going on, or your uv layout is really really bad.

Your uv's could be better, but I didn't think they were that bad.

Dim

I think it probably looks that way because nothing on the asset is mirrored so it's not really fully using the space. However, it really needed to be constructed this way. Also, like you said, my UVs aren't great, but even if they were better I don't think it'd have enough impact to alleviate the issue. Perhaps the angle of my shots were poorly chosen.

Donavonyoung

I think that you have the moss haphazardly tossed about the model. Make it seem like there is a reason that it is growing on certain areas. Overall it is coming together well, you just need to put in that extra little umph! Keep going.

Visceral

I was just about to state to opposite to Donavonyoung. After some quick google serches i found that moss tends to grow that way. At least that time of white moss that attracts to stone. And it grows only facing light so placing them on the upperside makes sense. Good job on the textures !

Donavonyoung

What I was pointing out is that it is to sporadic. It has flow the way that moss does. It may be where light shines, but it has no grouping or patterning like moss normally does. It's more of a dab here and a dab there, no continuity.

Dim

These were my primary references for texturing:

Dim

New finals up. Completely redid the UVs, new bakes, rendering, etc.

Wesley

I really like this! What did you use nDo for in the end?

Dim

Thanks man, I use nDo 2 to generate extra info from the normal map, including cavity, an extra AO pass, etc.