Now Im having fun

[MealeaYing]

WOW, this last one is amazing!!! DO you separate these loops? As new solidified subtool? (sorry, I meant extract) how the workaround with displ works: 1. it must be a bug, because zbrush lets us to preview bumps but it doesn't apply UVrepeat on real displacements. 2. I use to export these to blender, render with cycles. Having in mind to fix it the blender UV editor. I just noticed that zbrush was exporting obj with h,v repeat coordinates precisely. So, importing this obj in zbrush works. Simple. Just remember, next time don't apply displ, just export the obj. You have nothing to expect from maps. These are already in zbrush and waiting the imported obj with the right (this time) UV co ordinates. BTW, intuos are wonderful tools but I bought the large one. I need a few days to feel comfortable. It's like working on small sheet of paper for long time and suddenly face a large canvas. The touch of the cat, the hit of the tiger... there's a difference. Leading me to more abstract and expressionistic solutions. I don't have to zoom for adding details now. It's great to have a vision of the whole thing when you add details. Of course, it is the hand behind the sword that makes the difference. (quiz, what was the movie?) Thanks! (and AT LAST!!!!!!) In this one I did not separate anything, its all one mesh and started off that way. The bug was messing with me badly, I didn't understand that one step, I think it ought to be in the documentation or something if its not there already. Im rather thrilled with the medium size, but I bet large is a lot of fun... I wonder if its more tiring though? Im also sort of curious about the ones with the monitor built into them, that could be interesting but I suspect they would become worn and not look so good, I can see the ZBrush UI in parts of mine and if that happened on my monitor I would get bitchy. that hand is great. export to obj and import trick is the thing, I also love the nice loops on that hand. still strugling with that grouploop, etc.. stuff. do you zremesh them before applying the loops? or after, or not? for me, whatever i try, the loops have always kind of jagged edges, and they are mostly very tiny. grtz p Thanks! And YEP! That did the trick! Usually I do things differently then this one, but it doesn't matter in this case cause I wound up with the same thing loop wise that I would have anyway, just a LITTLE bit better maybe. Normally I start off with a low rez object, UV it, then subdivide, delete lower, and then do group loops, then I repeat the process as many times as I can. Often this is only three or four times, polygons add up quickly. In this case I made the model a while ago and it had a lot of polygons so I reduced it with ZRemesher before doing all the UV-ing and looping stuff.... ZRemesher is fantastic but it doesn't like thin areas and it seems to dislike things from Sculptris and various other programs so I have been using DynaMesh first since it seems to love things that have been DynaMeshed, in this case the model itself was started in Dynamesh but because everytime I remeshed it the hands would turn into lumps it was huge and had about five million polygons, UV-ing five million polygons is not a great idea unless you want ZBrush to stop for a LONG TIME, and then you still have to make polygroups and that takes even longer and has no progress bar..... Harumph. If I can ever get the time again I will make a comprehensive set of tutorials for this and all the other stuff I know how to do now... I just need more time..... Hey, all the loop tricks in zbrush is a remeshing (from a point of view) Sculpt a potato something, curve some holes. Zremesh it. It will give you loops. You may select them, extract them or whatever. Or just paint masks on a low poly dynamesh, they will be converted to loops if you wish it. (no tris please). The whole thing with tri's is annoying as hell. I always have them no matter what I do so using "Reconstruct Subdivisions" never works......

[MealeaYing]

so... These things on the web keep cropping up and some of them are excellent, this is one of them: http://ipiccy.com/ I screwed about with that last thing I uploaded with it for a few minuets and improved it a lot I think. Its very very easy and actually a lot of fun. One of these days i will stop wishing I had photoshop because of things like this.

[michalis]

No mealea,
You need a 16 bit or a 32 bit displacement map. Never a jpg.
In zbrush, a 16 bit B&W PSD or tiff file is required.
Now enjoy the bad artifacts on your new posted artwork.
It is not the first time I'm trying to explain why.

If you need a photo editor, an advanced one, I suggest the wonderful photoline (it costs something like $50) or gimp which is free (and worse as many open source apps). On your wacom installation disk you may find adobe photo elements for free, Am I right?

[MealeaYing]

No mealea, You need a 16 bit or a 32 bit displacement map. Never a jpg. In zbrush, a 16 bit B&W PSD or tiff file is required. Now enjoy the bad artifacts on your new posted artwork. It is not the first time I'm trying to explain why. If you need a photo editor, an advanced one, I suggest the wonderful photoline (it costs something like $50) or gimp which is free (and worse as many open source apps). On your wacom installation disk you may find adobe photo elements for free, Am I right? No Michalis, YOU made this displacement map, it is a .tiff file and if it has artifacts that I didn't add by hand then you made them. I edited the same render as the one I posted before it in that little web program http://ipiccy.com/ and I think its sort of better looking then the first image, but then I am on a laptop and you are on something quite different so maybe it looks different to you. Perhaps your monitor is superior, I wouldn't be surprised. I added some graininess and used Dodge, Burn and the Sponge tool (all three of which worked BETTER then what elements had) on this image to make it look a little older. My Wacom tablet didn't come with a disk, I had to download everything and it was EXPENSIVE. So I had elements, it was the largest of a bunch of large downloads and was a serious disappointment. It was also a one time download and since I am on another computer I am out of luck. No great loss actually, it was a sharp and distinct downgrade from PhotoShop 7.1 which is the last version I had ages ago. Actually I miss it, it had Image Ready which was terrific. I have tried Gimp and haven't liked using it for a number of reasons but I have other things like Paint.Net which I love, ArtRageStudioPro, which I love and MyPaint which I also love. I also have a whole bunch of neat and fun little web things that are actually rather remarkable. I can get by without Photoshop for now, I just sort of want it so I know what Im missing, but since I don't have it I don't know what Im missing so I guess it doesn't mater much. Im trying PhotoLine, so far it is sort of interesting but Im not sure what most of the UI is for and it takes up too much space, there's no room for the image Im working on. I have only had it for a few minuets however so I will see how it goes. So.... now that you know its YOUR displacement map, how do you like it? GRIN!!!

[michalis]

Something went wrong. I insist.
The displ map has no artifacts, it is the same I used in lot of my tests.

I also posted an AO map. I suppose you didn't use this as displ. You can add it as color map though.

I may buy this hammer after all.

[Patpotlood]

are you talkng about editing your bpr renders (passes) for post effects?

or creating and/or editing 16bit displacement maps?
for the displacementmaps i am doing some experiments in cc,
only zbrush doesn't seem to accept 16bit psd files.
if i save them out as 16bit png its seems to work.

grtz p

[MealeaYing]

Something went wrong. I insist. The displ map has no artifacts, it is the same I used in lot of my tests. I also posted an AO map. I suppose you didn't use this as displ. You can add it as color map though. I may buy this hammer after all. The nail rebels: See below! hehehehe..... this is too funny! are you talkng about editing your bpr renders (passes) for post effects? or creating and/or editing 16bit displacement maps? for the displacementmaps i am doing some experiments in cc, only zbrush doesn't seem to accept 16bit psd files. if i save them out as 16bit png its seems to work. grtz p Its post work, you are correct! (and you win the "Escape from Michaelis's Hammer" award, its more prestigious than anything in its class!). I put the artifacts there in MOST cases, but there were some caused by the displacement process, I got around them by pushing the displacement further so it looked right. GRIN!! I know, I almost NEVER do post work..... hehehehehehe! Don't worry, I still love your displacement map Michalis! And Im going to edit it!

[MealeaYing]

Heres another one that didn't get finished and never will because I am a lazy ditz. Its the same displacement map... With.... ARTIFACTS! YAY! Sorry its so large..... I couldn't help it the artifacts are hard to see when they are smaller.

This one is called "People who don't know what they are doing but are willing to try everything will get somewhere different and find icecream". Actually its not, its called Head-EDIT.Jpg but thats not as much fun. Thank you Arnomad!

[RawSunlight]

Hi Mealea,

So interesting to find a gang of you guys working on 2.5d experiments... you have some amazing stuff in your thread, and I'm really keen to read up on
all the techniques you've been experimenting with.
Must confess I'd given up my experiments of this kind a fair while back, feeling like I should be learning how to sculpt in 'proper' 3D :} ... but you guys have really been pushing it, and I'm feeling excited to try it out again

Hope you won't mind me posting some pieces as introduction to your amazing club here...I'd love to jump in, get advice, be given a prod in my lazy ass






All the best...and keep the fires burning!

[Patpotlood]

arcimboldo
that's the first thing i think off when i see this picture.
don't know why, couse theres no vegetables or fruit in it.

nice head.
great stuff.

how the hell you create those polygroup 'islands'
is this all masked by hand?

grtz p

[LVXIFER]

Yes the first one is really interesting Rawsunlight. Welcome

[michalis]

only zbrush doesn't seem to accept 16bit psd files.

Not quite. Zb will accept B&W 16 bit PSD or tiff alright.

Mealea, after a closer look, (and, your last one is just great anyway),
these artifacts may have to do with the resolutions of the mesh and the density of the map. (the h,v repeat thing).
It will work better on less repeat values, or a more subdivided mesh (which hits the limits of zbrush or your machine anyway)
Let's be reasonable and practical. For very hi h,v repeat values it doesn't make sense to really subdivide the mesh. A simple bump will look better.
Here comes the AO map, it will re create this displ illusion.

(after this last huge render I have to hit enter to split everything to paragraphs )

[SpiritDreamer]

Really nice job done on that morphed/abstracted figure /head Mealea...Great experimenting..

Glenn

[MealeaYing]

Hi Mealea, So interesting to find a gang of you guys working on 2.5d experiments... you have some amazing stuff in your thread, and I'm really keen to read up on all the techniques you've been experimenting with. Must confess I'd given up my experiments of this kind a fair while back, feeling like I should be learning how to sculpt in 'proper' 3D :} ... but you guys have really been pushing it, and I'm feeling excited to try it out again Hope you won't mind me posting some pieces as introduction to your amazing club here...I'd love to jump in, get advice, be given a prod in my lazy ass All the best...and keep the fires burning! THOSE ARE GREAT! Im rummaging in your work now and it's terrific! And no, I never mind that, you are always welcome to put things in here. It is becoming a long thread, its almost a hundred now and starting to grow wrinkles. And yep, we love seeing how far something can be pushed and how many things can be done with one trick... or fifty.... Th 2.5D stuff is what Im learning all this other stuff for in a way, in ZBrush everything is a brush for 2.5D work and that is something that never stops amazing me. I don't know how much you have seen of this thread but there are lots of tutorials that I have made and links to others so you can find out all sorts of great stuff. Your stuff is amazing, I am enthralled! arcimboldo that's the first thing i think off when i see this picture. don't know why, couse theres no vegetables or fruit in it. nice head. great stuff. how the hell you create those polygroup 'islands' is this all masked by hand? grtz p This one is not masked at all, I used PUV and GUV tiling one after the other to get those and used GroupLoops each time I did a new UV mapping. I also didn't do any extractions or anything its just a dynamesh person who I later ZRemeshed and then started uving and subdividing and looping.... I keep saying this but I need to do another tutorial on this stuff, I have learned a lot since the first one(s) Yes the first one is really interesting Rawsunlight. Welcome I second that but I love the whole lot of them! Not quite. Zb will accept B&W 16 bit PSD or tiff alright. Mealea, after a closer look, (and, your last one is just great anyway), these artifacts may have to do with the resolutions of the mesh and the density of the map. (the h,v repeat thing). It will work better on less repeat values, or a more subdivided mesh (which hits the limits of zbrush or your machine anyway) Let's be reasonable and practical. For very hi h,v repeat values it doesn't make sense to really subdivide the mesh. A simple bump will look better. Here comes the AO map, it will re create this displ illusion. (after this last huge render I have to hit enter to split everything to paragraphs ) I have noticed both, the artifacts are likely because of the number of times I applied the map, not so much the H and V repeats, though I actually lower those as I go, the last one is just a preview or bump laid over the whole thing as the last bit of displacement detail, then its off to the image editor for some damage and lighting stuff... sort of.... more like just damage and messing with. The AO thing you just use as a texture correct? I have not been doing that but I have been using other things like old 2.5D drawings I have done that repeat seamlessly and some of the standard ones that come with ZBrush. The resolutions are often exceeding thirty million polygons in some cases... I forget what this one is but I think it was closer to fifteen or twenty million. One thing about huge renders and having to use return, don't bother, just make a table, 1 column, 1 row and make it 777 wide. Click the thing in the red circle here: Once you see this type1 then Tab then 1 again and Tab again and then 777 which is about perfect reading margins and then Enter or Return or whatever you have on your keyboard.. I sent an email to the Webmasters about implementing simple margins that could be toggled on or off but they never read it I suppose.... anyhow this trick works great and is fairly quick, you just have to remember to put big images outside of the table or it gets messed up. Really nice job done on that morphed/abstracted figure /head Mealea...Great experimenting.. Glenn Thank you Glenn!!!! Theres more on the way, I have some new ideas that Im going to try and I am developing a fondness for coloring stuff in.... I have ZCrayons!

[MealeaYing]

Squat.
I should make this guy seriously fat.....