escaping the lab - *.obj for download added

[Frenchy Pilou]

and thx for the ZTL

[Tim Leydecker]

Thanks Frenchy!

[Tim Leydecker]

Hi guys,

I´m so happy I bought ZBrush two years ago, I can´t wait to use it :-)
Seriously, it´s wonderful to be able to just paint without worrying about UV´s.

Can anyone recommend some good metal shaders or workflows to create
the basecolor for good metals, chrome and all sorts of rust to be later
rendered in mentalray (Maya/XSI). I find it very hard to get the tones
and reflectivity right, as is noticable in the wip image below, too.
Would really love to improve my curent results, make them shine.

Cheers

tim

[Pride]

Really like the look of this scene.... I've only had good results with Maya's chrome but it takes time!

[Tim Leydecker]

Using Jeremy Pronk´s (www.thereisnoluck.com) ToLightSuite I
managed to create a nice blurred, selfoccluded metal on a still.
That´s some two years ago, just went through the comp but
for whatever reason can´t recreate it or bake it down to a
basecolor. Well, guess I´ll have to have another look at it.

There must be some way of getting it right, I do have bright
moments where the metal looks good in a frame but not yet
in animation - created reliably (done from knowledge, not by luck .
Oh well...I´ll see that I use more ZApplink, got me loads of reference.

tim

Another cold wip sample image, all colormaps (exept floor) in ZBrush:

[iatriki]

nice stuff!

[Tim Leydecker]

Finally got to see The Blob again last weekend, sucked me in, so to say.

Took that as an excuse to get hands on with the Silo/Topology Brush
and to maybe even get to try the TopoGun Beta on my stuff, clothsolves
converted to meshsnippets, mixed with all sorts of XSI weightmap voodoo,
stuck together, tweaked and retopologized, then detailed in ZBrush ...

...quite a linear workflow, right?....ahem...

Not finished, of course. But since I have to do so many things
simultaneously, I really enjoyed the somewhat relaxing experience
of sticking stuff together and just_maybe cleanup later, not in advance.

Not sure wether I´ll have the time to work on it a bit more, which sucks :-)

Cheers

tim

[Tim Leydecker]

Well, not much of a progress in terms of finishing anything
but quite some nice new tricks and toys to bounce back
and forth inbetween. Refining topology, finding an excuse
to redo everything as clean as possible. I like that...Silo thing.



As I said, not much of an update but marks quite a milestone
in terms of workflow. Can now conveniently merge everything down
into singlemesh surfaces - it´s tedious and still quite slow but rewarding.
Or just push myself to finally dare weird variations, just cleaning up later...




The above are based on the *.obj file posted at the beginning of
this thread. The mesh has by now been used quite a bit, even as
a digital "autopilot" for print - like a hommage to "J´s" MiB II limousine.
Thanks to Daniel for lending his face and Michael for the hands on attitude!



Cheers

tim

[Tim Leydecker]

Oh well, another one of those wip images.



But to me it is more than that. It marks the point where, after
years of fighting myself through all sorts of programs - I finally
get back to enjoying 3D. Simply because the renderings look better...

Over the course of the last year, Harry Bardak helped me alot
in getting mental ray to spit out images that don´t look totally off.
Thanks to him I finally see my *work in progress* in a nice light.
Now from there, mixing ZBrush, Photoshop, Maya, XSI, Silo, doo
or whatnot is getting rewarding, fun and fast enough to toy with.

That´s why I post this image, pointing people to the importance
of gamma in rendering, both for output and sourceimage interpretation
as well as attaching a huge warning sign to anything optimistically
called physically based, like what people associate with mR/FG and GI.

Cost me years of my life filled with frustration to find out it´s *optimized*.
Thanks for that, I´d prefer physically accurate by far - it´s the pure logic...

Cheers

tim

P.S: I didn´t upload the image, so it doesn´t show up as a thumb
under "recent uploads" as it isn´t so much a great piece done in Zbrush.

[Ron Harris]

very kewl thread...thnx for the tools...

Love the truck....looks outstanding to me....you do some high quality work.

thnx for sharing

Ron
catfishmn@aol.com

[Tim Leydecker]

Hey Ron,

thanks for the kind works. Glad you like the stuff!

Cheers

tim

[Tim Leydecker]

Got it. Finally. Got close to a nervous breakdown.
Now that I´ve got it, here´s the first result...

[Tim Leydecker]

[Tim Leydecker]

[Tim Leydecker]