Mech Drone 04

**RawSunlight** · 07-17-10

Chill guys, the only reason there were 2 thumbs was because someone asked about one of the brushes used in the cover image... a genuine reason to post, no? and even if you believe not, then still a genuine mistake at least?

Take a moment to check circumstances before being off with others or polluting a thread with unnecessary comments.

Mike, Mestophales, apologies, I feel like I've unwittingly brought nuisance posts to your thread

**AVBN5000** · 07-17-10

Very nice layout and design of the book/dvd cover/case. Not sure if there is going to be a dvd or not but it would looks pretty sharp in that design.

It looks like something I would buy :-)

**KrakenCMT** · 07-17-10

I like the overall design better of mestophales' design better and let me tell you why. The name of the book is titled "The ZEN of ZBrush". When I think of the "Zen" of anything, I think of simplicity, of calm meditation, and of being enlightened in the most straightforward and simple way on whatever subject that comes after the words "The Zen of".

The first cover needs a bit of work, but it's simple, has a fairly good composition and feels more in tune with the subject, though I think the background might look better in white. I think the newer covers are a bit too busy and not Zen-like. Every space on the cover is filled with something which makes the overall design feel a bit too complicated for the subject.

I think the colors should pop more too. A neutral blue gray is something I'd expect on a book about computer programming or something sterile like that. For "The Zen of ZBrush", it should be simple in design with a good use of negative space (very Zen-like), and a strong splash of color somewhere (but not everywhere) as a focal point . And the first cover comes closer IMO.

I do like the overall design of the second one, but to me it doesn't fit the message conveyed by the book's title.

**KillahPriest** · 07-17-10

The pose the mech is in already looks like half of a yin yang. Why don't you do a play on that?

**RawSunlight** · 07-17-10

I had thought about these things, and discussed as much with Mestophales,
the mech in lotus position, concentric details radiating outward.
(As yet I have no assets beyond Mike's renders on this thread, so that's not possible).
Also, The Zs as japanese calligraphy strokes, etc

For now though, I'm feeling the title is a catchphrase to get across the idea of doing cool and intricate detailing with ZBrush - that is the point of this cover, and I suspect the money shot/ USP that will sell it. Make THAT look as cool as possible.
I've not seen anything of the book, so I might well be on the wrong track, but using Zen as a concept... in my mind, that would be a red herring?

"Zen - enlightenment attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition (rather than through faith and devotion)"

Zen as a concept would go against the idea of buying a book to teach you Zen in the first place

Negative space on a book cover about hard surface modelling? A difficult one to pull off... it's not an illustrative piece.
The danger with the notion of Zen is that you just end up looking New Age and not in a good way?

All that said, the perfect cover would get some of those concepts in and do it cleverly, but I have no assets and I'm just helping out for free

A question though, if you saw them both in a shop, which one would you pick up?

Please feel free to sketch your ideas out to show us how you'd do it, or mock it up yourself?
My only thought was to give that Mech-drone something more befitting its quality. If someone succeeds in bringing all of those elements together, all's the better for Mike and the other artists involved... and THAT is the ultimate goal!

**CowboyBunny** · 07-17-10

I appreciate you answering my question.
Thanks

**EricShawn** · 07-17-10

Please use the ATN code on all images for this thread if the image is substantially the same one. We all thank you.

Also, how come the book cover is limited to that color palette, is the publisher not supporting a 4 color cover design? Just wondering.

And I LOVE the sculpture, super talented!

**Bas Mazur** · 07-17-10

WTF, again that image in the sub-row

As Lemo said: I think we got it.... so... please do not clutter the bottom row with multiple posts.
IF (!) you knew anything about zen... you should make all of us happy

**RawSunlight** · 07-17-10

Apologies gentlemen, seems I've offended lots of people.
To my knowledge I only posted 3 times yesterday, and only ever one image in the thumbs row at a time; they were, I believe, substantiative changes, though you've certainly made me question where the definition of that lies now, thanks Eric.

Mike, Mestophales, given I seem to have unintentionally brought down a bit of a $#!t storm in your thread, my sincere apologies to you.
As I was only trying to help, but now appear to be doing the exact opposiite, I'm going try to discreetly bow out

and wish you luck with the book
I have no doubt it will do very well; Mike's drone is exquisite and the list of other artists suggests the rest of the book will be the same.

One last thing: I received this very kind message from Thomas at Pixologic, I hope it's of help to you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

I'm Thomas from Pixologic. I'm contacting you about the cover that you are creating for the Zen of ZBrush book. I saw a question about the brushes in the last posts, I added in attachement the icons if you need them for the book content or the cover, if it can help a little bit. It comes from the documentation sources (as I'm writting it

)

As I'm in france, I don't know with who in the US team you are working with about this book, can you let me know (well, I can ask my co workers

?

BTW, let me know about the release and if you can provide us in france some samples of the book as I'm in contact with several editors/book stores.

Thanks,

Thomas
Product Manager & 3D Artist
Pixologic, makers of ZBrush
+33 (0) 9 51 41 14 41 - Tel
+33 (0) 5 56 37 13 44 - Fax
http://www.pixologic.fr - French website
http://www.pixologic.com - English website
http://www.zbrushcentral.com - Community
http://www.pixologic.fr/blog - Le ZBlog !
http://twitter.com/pixologic - Twitter Pixologic

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good luck, I'll be looking out for the book

**MikeJensen** · 07-19-10

Hey guys,

Not really an update. I've seen the discussion of the book cover. I go to school for design similar to this so I thought I'd make a minimalistic design incorporating the enso circle from the zen tradition. I'm not sold on the back as I feel right now it's too cluttered. Anyways, I just figured I'd share.

I'll answer all of the rest of your questions later right now it's 5:25 am time to get some sleep. =)

**RawSunlight** · 07-19-10

Hey Mike,

Wow, that IS nice and clean... glad to step aside for that cover

Would agree about the back, but you already know...

Only thing I might do is turn the opacity down on the enso symbol so that the title reads a little more clearly.

**KrakenCMT** · 07-19-10

Mike, YES! I definitely think this is more of the direction that it should go. It's not selling "Zen", though it uses the philosophy of Zen in the cover design. That is what I was talking about before.

My personal feeling is that it still needs a strong splash of color somewhere. Maybe on part of the model. Something bold to grab attention. When you have such a simple design, the fewer the elements, a strong focal point is even more needed. So a splash of color and perhaps increased contrast in the model. And maybe something is needed to give the overall cover a little more depth. Faded water ripples in the background, But overall much better and heading in the right direction.

The back cover is where you could start adding a little more info with blurbs and small previews of what's inside the book. Maybe bringing in a few more detail shots and less of the full model would help make it look less repetitive.

Forgive me, but below I took the liberty to take a few minutes and add a bit of color to demonstrate (I hope I got the orange areas somewhat accurate to your character). I threw in a transition between color and grayscale render, but you could even do a transition to wireframe, or even better, maybe a transition to a ZSpheres 2 render to drive it home that it's all ZBrush.

Just some friendly suggestions I thought I'd throw out there. And BTW, I've forgotten to mention in my last post how killer your model is!

**O/MI** · 07-20-10

nice mike...thats much better ...

kraken your looks good too...but i would vote for mikes version...

**RawSunlight** · 07-20-10

? ...because mike's is so beautiful

**KillahPriest** · 07-22-10

The new cover looks great.

How long until it's available?

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