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Thanks Pen :) I have taken about a month and a half off to write on my book and work on that- will be resuming Z in about a week or so. I'll have to go back and refresh my memory from scratch, but should be faster to get up to speed. :)
Good luck with the writing. : )
Don't leave it too long though or it gets harder...also r4.7 is due this month.
I find it gets a bit easier over time but that's because I've been forcing myself to use only Zbrush until I become more familiar with it. Slowly getting there though.
A question about hair sculpting got me curious, and I was shopping in Amazon this morning to see what new Zbrush books had been released in the past six months. 3DTotal came up a few times, and then when I typed in hair sculpting, this video came up and it's from their site. I don't know if this would be helpful to the other person or not, but I'm posting it here because I am keeping everything I want to possibly use on my thread and not helter skelter everywhere else. (I will also share with them.) :)
http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=1090&catDisplay=1&roPos=1&page=2#.VQxBBo7F-Sq
After much hemming and hawing, I bought 4r7 as a first-time user this week.
And this thread has magically found a home at the top of my list of bookmarks.
Thanks so much for sharing your noob experiences Novica! I'm now a couple of steps behind you.
OK, a couple of miles behind you.
Would you believe "that speck in your rearview mirror?"
Thanks!
LOL, no you're not behind me at all- I'm having to start over completely because I simply HAD to download all my Daz files and start cataloging everything (and I only began that aspect of it a couple weeks ago.) So I'll be going back to the beginning of this thread to use as a review and "start over again." You're going to have a lot of fun! :)
If you have a question, there's several knowledgeable folks who will help you (as well as over in the official Zbrush forums.) I would also take a look at the books I listed because those have been really interesting and are well written. Lots of illustrations.
Cathie
Damn...lost my notifications to this thread again.
Hey Novica, make sure you check out the new tutorials at ZClassroom on the ZModeller it's very cool and helps when you want a little more precision. A wip image of the pants and top I made using ZModeller for the new star figure.
Oh how cute! I will certainly do that. I haven't even gotten the latest edition, will have to get that and start putzing in the next week or so.
Thanks! ZModeller is certainly worth the effort...there is a new update for it also.
I just ordered the Keller book. Ordinarily I go ebook, but I think having the dead tree version's going to be very handy. (For one thing, I'm not comfortable throwing my iPad across the room in frustration, which I expect will happen at least a couple of times an hour :D)
I can see right now that the biggest challenge is going to be giving myself the ample time it takes to learn the UI. There was a very encouraging post over on the Luxology forums from someone who sounds a lot like me....older guy, definitely not the world's most gifted artist, susceptible to eyestrain...and he's been putting in some serious hours per week for the past 5-6 months doing nothing but doodling, to get comfy with the UI. And his newborn expertise is starting to show.
I just need to calm down and think in those terms for the next few months. The actual projects that my brain is trying to nag me about need to sit down and shut up until I'm good and ready.
Give a thought to going through the first posts in the thread while you're waiting on the book :) I tried to document what I was finding in the UI (User Interface) for others who hadn't tackled it previously. As I said, I'm going back and using it as a refresher myself when I get some free time. It's in the 70's here and doing yardwork is the priority as it hits the 80/90s in a week or so. (Yes, in March/April in Florida, it's already hot on some days.)
Hope you have fun as you go through it- it's like playtime with the clay brushes, tugging and pulling and watching things form!
Sounds like you're having some good weather...I still sometimes just have a play and see what happens especially when they have updates like recently. Before doing anything in the modeller I just mucked around with a cube and all the different options.
OK, I've had a life-changing experience. I think I need to be careful describing it; I may bump up against a forum rule for pimping an external Website or product.
After multiple recommendations (including one from one of the more successful PA's working with DAZ), I cruised by Gnomon Workshop's site and popped for Madeleine Scott-Spencer's brand new "Introduction to ZBrush 4r7" video series.
The woman is incredible. Her tempo, her balance of watch-me-work versus this-is-why, her enunciation, everything. She starts with a quick demo workflow sculpting a bust to show how major concepts mesh together, segues into a top-level tour of the interface (including a gratifying number of "see this whole thing here? This is legacy stuff you'll never use. Don't worry about it.") and then delivers 30+ more videos, each zeroing in on a major topic or feature.
My overall comfort level with the application has surged over the three days I've had this kit. It's some of the best and most systematic training I've ever seen in any subject area.
Don't get me wrong; I'm still a noob and I still suck at ZBrush. But now it's a matter of practice, not of puzzling out mysteries.
- dan
PS Caveats: If you spring for it, be prepared to spend the better part of an afternoon downloading the videos and assets. The Website only lets you open one download stream at a time. Also, the chapter zip files have generic sequence names. You may find it useful, as I did, to unzip each video, watch the first few seconds (she always states immediately what the chapter will cover), and then append a topical tag to the sequence number in the file name. You will want to keep the sequence number. Some of the videos are standalone, others build on topics or tools introduced in an earlier video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LDLWxsSp90
Will show what she covers in a time lapse. Looks good! Thanks for sharing the info, it's definitely work a look.
Your the second person in the last 24 hours to recommend this set of tutorials...I will have to wait for some more cash before trying it myself though.
My son bought it but hadn't gone through the videos as he is working his way through one of the books. From the youtube video I could tell a lot was repetition (the UI) and we already know how to create fingers from the spheres but that is only a sliver of what she provides. When we start going through it I'll let you know how we're doing. I haven't done it since November so I am starting over again when I get the time.
That would be great! That's the problem with stopping for a while you have to go back and refresh on the basics...especially when it's a tool you don't use much for example using fibermesh...
How many files in the package, and what's the total download size? I'm thinking about this (as if I didn't already have enough going on!) but I do my downloads on my laptop at a wi-fi hotspot. Kinda like to know up front what I'd be getting into.
TIA
I'll see if I can get the info- have to pry my son off XBox. (So proud of the other son, he won $50 tonight in a tournament. Serious business around here!)
He came in second, actually. First place was a whopping $200! But out of 14 players competing against each other, he did good for second place. It's an invitation only type thing and lasts all evening. Halo. My other son was out the first round, he hardly plays Halo anymore and was "rusty."
Okay, this is in kb. You asked for it, hows this for specific? :)
Project file a whopping 1,843,983
611,586
588,153
584,950
560,058
542,162
477,551
414,225
386,622
356,634
315,603
311,935
302,557
291,664
283,998
265,188
then 5 more down to 200,000
8 more 112,764-189,157
3 more around 80,000
6 more 27,000-73,000
The DVD is quite good. Madeleine is a well known ZBrush artist. She explains quite clearly while showing examples.
The new features in ZBrush are quite awesome if you take the time to learn them. ZModeler basically is the next evolutionary step for ZSpheres, Nano mesh is the next for Fiber and Micro mesh, and Array is just a very cool way of working, once you wrap your head around it.
This is my flower which started with ZModerler, uses Array for all petal like structures plus the filaments and anthers. The pollen on the anthers is done with nano mesh.
The chainmaille jewel is done with array.
Beautiful- love the flower! :)
This is a tutorial I did on making the Chainmaille Jewel.
And thank you both for your kind words. :)
Thank you for sharing Cris- I'll be sure and watch it after I get back into it.
BTW, my sons are on video 4 of that series and they say she is an excellent teacher and explains things well. They already know the UI but it's good for a refresher, and they learned a few new things (such as changing the actual shape of the brush, not only the size.)
Thanks Chris...
I'm back, starting over with Zbrush and experimenting. (In a rather big way.) While there's easier ways of doing this (and experienced users feel free to suggest it, please!) this is how I am managing to at least get things done. I'm using the Introducing Zbrush book by Eric Keller but also going "off on my own." This is how to do an eye for a character. If you have a different way, please feel free to share. And I'll be adding a link to this post to the beginning of the thread for easy reference.
Creating An Eye
These are the brushes/intensities to get it done easily- this is the Z Intensity / Focal Shift / Brush Size
SPOLISH for the eye hole- 31 /-39 / - 52 (makes a decent round indentation for you.)
Then PINCH to firm the rim 16 /2 /32
CLAY BUILDUP to add back to the rim 24 / -15 / 19 (BTW, this is a PERFECT setting for claybuildup. Not too big or small.)
Then SMOOTH it. 11 / 26 / 19
Use MOVE TOPOLOGICAL to round the rim, get what you want. 28 / 14 / 62
Make sure Dynamesh is on in Geometry. (if it won't go on make sure remove lower subdivisions is done and up the subdivisions) THE INSERTS WON'T WORK IF IT ISN'T ON. Dynamesh merges your figure and the inserted item.
B-I-W (Brush flyout, I for insert brushes, W for INSERT SPHERE) Drag and create sphere, release. Everything else will get masked.
Move your sphere and do whatever you want to shape it. I used:
Move Topological 28 / 24 / 46 and then fine tune with NUDGE 49 / 11 /46
Then Smooth to flatten. When done, hold CTRL and drag out in viewport (NOT ON FIGURE) to clear the mask. Rinse and repeat to put a smaller circle on the sphere you just created, for a pupil or even a highlight for the eye.
TIP: One thing to keep in mind, whenever you CTRL+Drag in viewport to do Dynamesh, or when you Smooth, your mesh tightens/shrinks. So I do things a bit larger than what I need, to accomodate that. For instance, I may or may not keep this outer rim this tall.
hey Novica great guides!
I have a question and maybe you can point me in the right direction. I've made the creature below and rigged it in zbrush. For the pic below I posed it in zbrush moving my rig around and transfered to DAZ. I'd like to rig it so that it would I would be able to adjust the pose in DAZ without needing to go back to zbrush. Any idea how?
@cichy25 Oh lord, you're SO far ahead of me, lol! Wish I could help you but I haven't ever done rigging or bones, I'm just now starting back (at the beginning) with Zbrush because I did it a year ago for a few weeks then stopped. So I'm a brand new user, just trying to share what I learn and also with the hope that other more experienced users can hop in and say "easier to do it this way" to help everyone speed up the process/avoid pitfalls.
In my thread (here in Art Studio) in my first post, I try to list helpful things I find. The only thing I have on rigging is this thread. It's how to import OBJ and rig in Daz Studio. But that appears to be clothing. However:
There's also this Basic Rigging Preparation then Adding Bones for Rigging
No worries it just takes practice and going at it. I've been using Zbrush for a year now as a hobby and I still sometimes get so mad because I mess up something that I won't go back to it for days. I've started with Daz not very long ago and it's so much fun that I decided to try and make some props for it myself and the past month has been a huge learning experiance. So far this rigging business been the hardest to find anything on. I've seen info like in the thread you pointed me to but that usualy has info about how to import clothes you made and bind it to already existing model like genesis 3 female which already has all the bones. In case of the creature I made it was done from ground up just sculpting and painting it in zbrush so it doesn't have any bones :( Thx for looking into it though and I'll keep an eye out on this thread so maybe we can share our finds :)