Zbrush Alphas from 3D Scans - New gallery site

fisj

I've finally launched my new site featuring alphas/stamps made from 3d scans, its called Surface Mimic. Back in August 2011 I posted examples of some of my experiments to ZBC and here at polycount, and thanks to the feedback and encouragement from you guys, this is the result. Special thanks to all the beta testers who helped in the development process.

If you think of something you'd like to see scanned, let me know. I can't guarantee anything, but I'm scanning a lot of stuff, so I may be able to bump a scan up in priority for the highest requested surfaces.

Let me know what you think. I'm excited to see what you guys can do with these.

Go to the gallery site - www.surfacemimic.com

Disclaimer: The alpha 3d scans are for sale, but, if you register, you'll get a promotion code to download any 2 free. Also, all scans have full resolution (watermarked) versions, so you can try out every scan first in zbrush/mudbox/mari if you register.

Seirei

This reminds me of cgtextures, just with ZBrush stamps. Sounds like a coold idea, I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

gauss

Going to try out the samples but already I like the look of this. Quality detailing assets like this can really make the difference on a zb sculpt, they look so clean and read so well. Very good work, I expect to be spending some money on your site soon

Orangeknight

I have to say I think if you want to compete with Cgtextures it should be free, but you have ad's on the page.

Sculptaur

I think the market for this is a bit more niche then CG textures, so I don't know if the same method of payment/being free will really work.

In saying that, these look fantastic. I will surely be purchasing some

And I'm sure they are on there way, but I think some more human face skin stamps would be awesome!

I would offer to model for you, but I doubt your in New Zealand. :poly124:

Keep up the great work :thumbup:

LRoy

Very very cool

Sako

Awesome! Do you plan to scan some hair?)

pior

Simple feedback : make sure to have a "show all" button. This enables creative uses of the stamps, since more often that not, something can be used to great effect for something it wasn't intended for.

You might also want to include the corresponding normalmaps to download - these can be extremely useful.

gauss

pior's right, i kept wanting to just browse all the stamps together, as it is browsing the site can be a bit stymieing since you are navigating up and down hierarchies a lot

fisj

This is great feedback, thanks everyone!

Seirei and Orangeknight - In some ways I think of surfacemimic as the cgtextures of 3d scans, but I'm not competing with them directly. I debated a lot with artist friends over the business model, but ultimately came to the conclusion that because its so niche, there isn't going to be traffic or numbers to support that (yet). I'd like to move to subscriptions when I have enough scans (500-1000?) and then artists and studios can pay once, and download all they like. More like 3d.sk (fyi 3d.sk is NSFW)

Gauss - Really glad you like them! Quality and resolution will improve as camera equipment improves.

Hboybowen - Fish scales, thats a good one. They're shiny/reflective/transparent, but I can use silicone, then scan the imprint. I've been eyeing some snake skins on ebay, might take a few weeks, but I def. want to scan some.

Sculptaur - With regards to skin ... a friend graciously offered to be a guinea pig tomorrow (in return for pizza), and allow me to take silicone skin casts (lifecasting). I was recently told that Weta did something similar for avatar and TinTin, and there's even a short paper describing the method:

"An Accurate Method for Acquiring High Resolution Skin Displacement Maps" - Gino Acevedo, Sergei Nevshupov, Jess Cowely, Kevin Norris, Weta Digital

I've been doing something similar in practice, different in method, and hear that VFX guys using Mari would be quite happy with larger non-tiling high resolution depthmaps of pore details. So, I'm tackling that soon, and zbrush/mudbox users should benefit from that also. It's exciting stuff.

PS. I lived in NZ for 20 years (now in New York). Chch, Welly, and Auk. My family is in chch Good to see a kiwi here!

Sako - Hair is tough because its not a contiguous surface, and its prone to surface reflectance, self shadowing and lots of other nasty photometric errors. Short or stubbly hair might be OK, but I think 3d models are just better served with geometric hair, like what ZBrush 4R2b introduced with their FiberMesh addition, or something like Shave and a Haircut.

Pior and Gauss - Excellent point, and I agree. Here's temporary way ... type "alpha" into the search bar on the right hand side. That will show every alpha on the site in a single long page up to 96 images per page. I'll make a side bar button that links to display all alphas, much like the "New Additions" or "Most Popular". I'm not entirely satisfied with the UI layout, and google analytics is giving me some ideas on what the most important content is.

View All Alphas at Surface Mimic

Again, thanks for the great comments everyone. I'm glad this stuff is striking a chord, can't wait to see how people use them.

Chimp

This is great, thanks so much! I hope you do well with it. going to sign up a little later.