Provides evidence of:
Sculpting in Zbrush
To create the skull, the most organic part of the Mech, I used Zbrush. I have used Zbrush for many years and i am very comfortable using the software, the main problem i had with the skull was having an actual pipeline, meaning a sequence of preparing the work so that it is in a finished state.
The entire video process of me sculpting and texturing the skull in Zbrush can be seen below. I used the standard sculpting brushes and alphas mostly for the whole process.
Sculpting brushes add and take away from the surface of whichever object your working on in the software, they make using Zbrush very much like working with real world clay, as shown in the video this skull model started out as a simple sphere and i used my knowledge of anatomy and experience with sculpting digitally to create what will be a finished asset and a main part of my Mech.
Re-topology & Zremesher
In Zbrush many hundreds of thousands of polygons ( and often even millions ) are required to make a sculpt-able surface, this amount of polygons for a single object is not at optimal for other software packages and engines. Because of this, objects need to be Retoplogised through the process of Re-topology
Re-topology is the process of creating a lower density mesh over a high density one, this can be done in Zbrush by hand, by drawing each polygon individually over the mesh using the topology brush, or it can be somewhat automated by using a feature called Zremesher.
Zremesher uses an advanced algorithm to calculate the most optimal mesh based on the curvature and form of the high polygon mesh you are working with in Zbrush.
In the second video, after the sculpting process is finished, I try both methods of re-topology, in the end i settle with the results that Zremesher gives me, i then re sculpt some of the lost detail and then move on to creating UV Maps for the model.
- Zbrush sculpting
- Zbrush 3D Texture Painting
- Retoplogy
- Semi-Automated Retopology
- Semi-Automated UV mapping.
- Normal Map Extraction
- Ambient Occlusion map extraction
- Diffuse Map Extraction
- Photoshop Texture map manipulation
- Applying maps in 3Ds Max
Sculpting in Zbrush
To create the skull, the most organic part of the Mech, I used Zbrush. I have used Zbrush for many years and i am very comfortable using the software, the main problem i had with the skull was having an actual pipeline, meaning a sequence of preparing the work so that it is in a finished state.
The entire video process of me sculpting and texturing the skull in Zbrush can be seen below. I used the standard sculpting brushes and alphas mostly for the whole process.
Sculpting brushes add and take away from the surface of whichever object your working on in the software, they make using Zbrush very much like working with real world clay, as shown in the video this skull model started out as a simple sphere and i used my knowledge of anatomy and experience with sculpting digitally to create what will be a finished asset and a main part of my Mech.
Re-topology & Zremesher
In Zbrush many hundreds of thousands of polygons ( and often even millions ) are required to make a sculpt-able surface, this amount of polygons for a single object is not at optimal for other software packages and engines. Because of this, objects need to be Retoplogised through the process of Re-topology
Re-topology is the process of creating a lower density mesh over a high density one, this can be done in Zbrush by hand, by drawing each polygon individually over the mesh using the topology brush, or it can be somewhat automated by using a feature called Zremesher.
Zremesher uses an advanced algorithm to calculate the most optimal mesh based on the curvature and form of the high polygon mesh you are working with in Zbrush.
In the second video, after the sculpting process is finished, I try both methods of re-topology, in the end i settle with the results that Zremesher gives me, i then re sculpt some of the lost detail and then move on to creating UV Maps for the model.
Generating UV Maps
A UV map is the data in a 3D model that stores the co ordinates of where textures can be applied to it. They are like a flattened version of the 3D model itself and they need to be created for any model to have industry standard textures and normal maps.
Uv maps can be generated in any 3D software package by hand, this process is very time consuming and often times quite difficult, especially when organic modes are concerned.
Zbrush offers a semi automated Uc map generation solution named UV master. With Uv master you can simple generate Uv's with the click of a button, but for more control you can paint areas that you do not wish seams to show up at.
A seam in a UV map is the edge of the 2D map that often shows up on 3d models under certain conditions, it is often ideal to hide these seams somewhere on the 3D model that will not be seen.
As seen in the images below I painted what are known as control paints on the face of the skull, in Uv master red is the paint colour that represents the area you do not wish seems to be, blue is used for areas you want seams to show up at. The orange line is the seam that exists on the map i generated after painting the control paints on the skulls surface.
A UV map is the data in a 3D model that stores the co ordinates of where textures can be applied to it. They are like a flattened version of the 3D model itself and they need to be created for any model to have industry standard textures and normal maps.
Uv maps can be generated in any 3D software package by hand, this process is very time consuming and often times quite difficult, especially when organic modes are concerned.
Zbrush offers a semi automated Uc map generation solution named UV master. With Uv master you can simple generate Uv's with the click of a button, but for more control you can paint areas that you do not wish seams to show up at.
A seam in a UV map is the edge of the 2D map that often shows up on 3d models under certain conditions, it is often ideal to hide these seams somewhere on the 3D model that will not be seen.
As seen in the images below I painted what are known as control paints on the face of the skull, in Uv master red is the paint colour that represents the area you do not wish seems to be, blue is used for areas you want seams to show up at. The orange line is the seam that exists on the map i generated after painting the control paints on the skulls surface.
Xnormal and Map Extraction
Because the skull is low resolution after re-topology, the detail from sculpting will mostly be lost in the low resolution model itself, however normal maps can be applied to low resolution models.
Normal maps are 2D textures applied to a 3D object which alter the way light reacts to the surface based on the detail in the map. Normal maps for low resolution models can be generated by high resolution versions of that model, this process is often called "baking" in the industry.
Xnormal is a freely available piece of software that can bake normal maps and also ambient occlusion maps as well as other map types. Using Xnormal is as simple as putting a low resolution mesh in one box and its high resolution mesh in another box and pressing a button to bake the maps.
For the maps of a model to be baked or to use any type of texture on a 3D model however, that model requires UVs.
Below is the final skull model in 3ds max demonstrated without normal maps and with normal maps.