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1.
POLYSPHERES
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This image was created in the latest version of ZBrush and uses
the all new Polymesh feature. As with most of the newer features
in ZBrush Pixologic provide you with an extensive set of ZScripts
to help you understand the basics. Polyspheres is no exception.
The ZScript is the best way to learn! Run them.
So,
what are they then!. Polyspheres help you to model a large or
complex mesh by allowing you to add inter-conected spheres to
a group, one by one, until you have the desired shape. Remember
when you were taught to draw as a kid? They told you to think
of every object in terms of primitive shapes. Well this is the
same only in 3D. Some people will liken it to metaballs but
believe me, this is different.
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The
spheres that you have placed can be moved, scaled, rotated
by themselves or as a group. To make an arm, you makes
a ball, add a ball doe each joint and pull the fingers
into the shape of a hand, easy.
Take a look at the new-look transform panel. See figure
1. Notice that SYMMETRY is now in with the transform panel?
When you are happy that the Polysphere model is complete
you can then use a process called skinning. This creates
a single mesh object based on the shape of the combined
Polyspheres. There are settings for resolution and smoothness
to help get the desired result.
TOOL
POLYSPHERE
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figure
1. |
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I wanted to do this tutorial to show people how to take a character
from an image and turn it into a 3D ZBrush image. For reference
I used an image of a KROOT. This creature is taken from the War
Hammer 40,000 game by Games workshop.©
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3.
MODELING
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The
Head
Although I wanted to make this image to show the Polysphere
feature I decided to model a head separately. I used a basic 3D
Sphere to create the head and added features in EDIT mode.
(How to model a head in ZBrush)
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| The
Polysphere Body |
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body of our KROOT is in a very defiant stance gripping his SPLINTER
RIFLE. With Polyspheres you can set the symmetry feature so the
body is completely symmetrical. For this image I needed to add
spheres in a non-symmetrical way. |
I started with a ball for the hips, a ball for the belly
and one for the chest. I changed to 
with a draw setting of 1.
This then allowed me to move any of the spheres without
effecting the others. Any setting higher than one and the
areas of affect is increased. As you move a sphere, the
interconnecting gray areas lengthens or shortens accordingly. |
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To
continue adding Spheres I switched back to  .
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I continued adding spheres for the shoulder and legs. I
moved them into place and moved onto the left arm. Down
the arm and onto the hands and then fingers. You need to
be sure you are placing the joints in the correct place
early on in the process. For example. If you wanted to move
the entire arm later in the process you would have to reposition
every sphere in the lower arm and hand. Get into the habit
of positioning the parts right first time.
This is where a good reference image helps. One way to be
sure is to load the image you are trying to re-create into
a back layer of the document. That way, you can match the
spheres to the image as you go. |
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a short while I had a full body (minus feet and a head) and I
was ready to turn the Polysphere object into a mesh object by
skinning it. |
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SKINNING |
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To turn the object into a 'skin' or a mesh object you now
need to press 'MAKE 3D SKIN'
This will create a new mesh in the TOOL panel. You can
change skinning settings to get different type of objects.
For this one I used a resolution of 256 (maximum) and a
SMOOTH setting of 20.
My result can be seen below. This mesh or ZTOOL can now
be altered as per a normal ZTOOL, i.e.. with the
and features
in the TRANSFORM panel |
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| 5.
TEXTURING |
I tend towards TEXTUREMASTER for this type of image but
on this occasion I decided to place all the body ZTools (Objects)
into the image and then paint and texture them in the canvas.
If you ever decide to use this method remember that you will have
no texture saved with your ZTool and therefore will have to redo
a texture every time you use that ZTool.
I used three BASIC materials for the skin and decided to aim for
a yellow/green skin tone. The materials had differing levels or
NOISE, NOISE RADIUS, COLOR BUMP and specularity. I like
to use a NEGATIVE number in the COLOUR BUMP as this
helps to 'raise' light colored veins and arteries.
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THE BACKGROUND |
The background for this image was created by adding a 3DPlane
to a background layer and painting onto it with the SIMPLE BRUSH.
For this image I used a BASIC ALPHA BRUSH and the DRAG
RECTANGLE stoke type. This process lets me build up layers
of colour that quickly start to look like clouds or smoke.
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| 7.
MULTIMARKER GUN |
Although Polymesh allows you to make complex organic meshes
I still like to use the tried and tested Multi-Marker. This
little gem lets me take a set of primitive shapes and add
them all together into a Polymesh object.
One tip: Make sure that when you modify objects they you
do it using the deformations panel. If you just change the
sizes on screen the mesh doesn't work correctly. |
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