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ZBrush Character Creation

3DTotal.com eBook series



- Free MatCap

- Free Movies

- Free Base Mesh

You can nd all the relevant

resource les in the resources

folder that accompanies this pdf.

chapter 01Page 3 | Bird-Man

chapter 02Page 14 | Mammal-Man

chapter 032 | Aquatic-Man

chapter 04Page 36 | Amphibian Man

chapter 05Page 46 | Insect-Man

chapter 06Page 58 | Reptilian-Man



chapter 1



page 5www.3dtotal.com Chapter 01

Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook Chapter 01: Bird-Man

Bird-ManCreated In:

ZBrush, 3ds Max & Photoshop

IntroductionI’m going to kick this brand new “Manimal”

series off this chapter by sculpting and texturing

a “bird-man”. I will need to sculpt a creature

with some aspects of both a bird and a man,

and then texture it to complete the tutorial. I’ll

walk you through my creative process and my

workow, discuss those things that are most

important, and explain some tips and tricks that I

use when creating characters in ZBrush. So let’s

get started!

ConceptOne of the most common mistakes that I see

people make is starting to work without rst

thinking about what it is they’re doing – they just

open ZBrush and start to sculpt. When I start

a new project, I like to do some research for

references, information, inspiration, or simply

look for something that will help me to nd an

interesting idea based on my theme or brief.

This way, I can start my sculpting work with

more objectivity.

So with this I mind, I begin this project by

searching for some photographic references of

different types of birds – some even in action

(ying, eating, etc.) – just to work out bird

features and gestures to help me with my initial

ideas. I choose certain bird features, such as

a beak, thin skin, the gesture of an infant bird,

and the humpback feature found in some birds,

to mix with human anatomy. With some of this

information I can start the next step. If you want

to, it can be pretty interesting to sketch some

ideas down at this stage of the process, but as

I have an idea in mind about what I’m looking

for I’m going to go ahead without any reference

drawings.

Blocking InThe rst thing that I do with the base mesh

provided for this project (Fig.01 – the base

mesh is free for download with this tutorial)

is remove one of the ngers – I think that a

chicken’s foot will best describe what I have in

mind.

After starting to block in the model, I get an idea

for the nal pose, and so I decide to sculpt with

the arm bent to help with the pose later on. To

make these changes I simply use the Transpose

tool, with masks on areas that I don’t want to

make changes to (using Rotate (hotkey R) and

Move (hotkey W)). I also use this simple base

mesh to block the beak onto, just to help me in

this initial stage (Fig.02).

I will now export my base mesh to 3ds Max to

add some edges and x any possible errors/

make any necessary adjustments in order to

prevent potential problems further down the line

(Fig.03). For this character, adding edges

http://www.3dtotal.com/





Chapter 01: Bird-ManManimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook

will not be very important, so I simply put some

edges in to increase the amount of polygons

in these areas when subdividing the model in

ZBrush, therefore avoiding any problems withlow resolution in areas that need more denition.

It’s very important to verify whether the model

will have perfect symmetry, whether the pivot

is in the centre of the object, and if the model

is in the centre of the “absolute world” (just

right-click, select and move to access Move

Transform Type-In, as seen in Fig-04). These

adjustments are very important in order to make

good symmetry in ZBrush, and to make safe useof some of the features I’ll be discussing later.

SculptingNow that I have made adjustments to the mesh,

I increase the level of subdivision (two more

levels), and with the Move, Standard and Clay

brushes I start to block in some of the main

muscles (with Clay and Standard), and adjust

some of the basic proportions (Move tool).

At this stage I don’t worry about details; the

objective

is simply

to nd some good shapes with desirable

features (Fig.05). I sculpt in some “fake”

eyes too, just for a rapid guide – it’s easier

to make adjustments to the entire sculpt

without many SubTools. Later on, I will use

some spheres as eyes.

I like to isolate some parts and work with

pieces of my model (such as the head) when

necessary. I sketch in some details to give the

head a better overall look, whilst still keeping

the details rough (Fig.06). This block-in step is

one of the most important; I spend a lot of time

experimenting and testing some things out at

this stage. I also often change the materials as






Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook Chapter 01: Bird-Man

I work in order to see my model better at the

different stages.

I’m happier with the overall proportions now,

and so I subdivide a few more times and start

to apply the medium level details, like muscle

denition, cartilage, and skin creases and folds,

using the Standard brush with some alphas, like

Alpha 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39. This, combined

with a bit of the Inat tool, can make a eshier

and more believable model, but I still need to

check some of the proportions and make some

much needed changes before I’m fully happy

(Fig.07).

For the hands, I always sculpt one isolated

hand and then project all details onto the other

hand. To do this, I create a mask over the newly

sculpted hand, go to Tools > Deformation, and

press Smart ReSym (Fig.08).

This tool will recreate a mix of projection on

both hands, but my intention is to preserve the

sculpted hand, so with the mask any details will

not be lost, and the other hand will be given the

same details (Fig.09).

I make use of a mask for the nails, too. I draw a mask in the desired

form for the nails and then invert it. I use the Move and Standard brush

to pull off all the nails, and with the Smooth brush I soften the shape

before inverting the mask again. With the Inat brush I can then work on

achieving some great volume (Fig.10).







I’m using Smart ReSym again now, but this

time I’m working with more details. I always

start using Smart ReSym at the lowest levels of

subdivision and will use it again for each level

of subdivision ahead, but it’s important to be

careful because it’s very common for crashes

and errors to happen. So always save your work

before you perform this kind of task on your

model (Fig.11).

For the nal details, I use the Standard brush

with a thin alpha (like Alpha 39), sometimes with

Lazy Mouse turned on, for laying down some

wrinkles, as well as the Inat and Clay brushes

with alphas (Alpha 01, for example). To make

the nal details I start to use more skin alphas

(human skin, reptile, pores, etc.) over the entire

sculpt – but not as a sculpting tool; I use masks

over some parts (Fig.12) and I can then sculpt

over with different intensities and brushes

(Standard for all details, and then a little bit of







Inat in some areas to get a more natural look).

This workow is a very nice way of controlling

skin details, and for nding what I’m looking for(Fig.13).

TexturingI usually use MatCap White to begin my texture

work, starting my texturing job with Polypainting.

I make a rough base colour over the entire

sculpt (Menu > Colour > Fill Object) and dene

some warm tones (like the ears, and thin skin,

and so on) (Fig.14).

I then paint some tonal variation onto the model

using the Spray brush with Alpha 07 (always

using a low intensity), mixing the colours

(Fig.15).

For the nails, I paint a mask in order to texture

the nails only (Fig.16). For the nal details I use

DragRect stroke with some alphas, like Alpha 22

for veins and Alpha 08 for small skin details.

On the beak I use a photo edited in Photoshop,

and apply it using DragRect. In this case I use

a single texture from the Total Textures DVD

collection (www.3dtotal.com/textures) (Fig.17).

Posing & Final Adjustments

I decide to keep the post for this character very

simple; I use the Transpose Master for the main

deformations, and then use the Move brush for

some adjustments with Transpose, too. I try to

keep the pose simple because my intention is

only to break up the symmetry a little in order to

get something more dynamic (Fig.18).


http://www.3dtotal.com/textures







Rendering &CompositingI use GW_Skincore as the main nal shader

(which can be downloaded at www.pixologic.

com, thanks to Grant Warwick), two ToyPlastic shaders (with some adjustments made

in Material > Modiers to show only specular,

and in SpecularCurve), one for a more “open”

specular, and another for a thin specular, as

shown in the example (Fig.19a), a Reected

Mat Material for fake reections, and a custom

shader for SSS (Sub Surface Scattering)

(Fig.19b).

For the lighting settings I make some shadow

adjustments to get a harder shadow (keep the

Aperture around 50-70 and Length about 250),

and I change the position of the light (go to

Light menu > Shadow) (Fig.20a). For the render

settings I simply adjust the Super Sample to

2 (Render menu), as shown in the example

(Fig.20b).

With Photoshop I blend all layers using some

blending modes like Multiply, Overlay, Soft

Light, and Lighten. To be honest, this part is

very intuitive; I don’t use the same blending

mode for every work as a general rule, as I

prefer to make many tests to get what I want for

each layer. I also use some masks to control the

intensity of each layer; for example, to control

the specular intensity in regions that don’t need

too much specular (Fig.21).

And here is the nal result after some correction

work done in Photoshop (Fig.22).

ConclusionWell, I have tried to show my workow,

especially in the ZBrush sculpting stage. It

has been lots of fun working on this bird-man

creature; I hope you’ve found the tutorial useful

and you’re pleased with the nal image after

seeing the work in progress. Please feel free

to contact me by email should you have any

questions. Thanks for reading!

Bruno MeloFor more from this artist please his website:

http://bmelo.cgsociety.org/gallery/

or contact him at:

[email protected]


http://www.pixologic.com/



http://bmelo.cgsociety.org/gallery


mailto:[email protected]








Note from the Editor: Grant Warwick has

kindly provided us with the GW_Skincore

MatCap that Bruno Melo has used, which you

can nd along with the base mesh in the Free

Resources folder.



chapter 2




Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook Chapter 02: Mammal-Man

Mammal-ManCreated In: ZBrush

IntroductionWhen I was asked to create something for this

Manimal series of tutorials, I snatched up the

Mammal-Man option and thought I had a really

nice opportunity to design and create something

really cool. But when I started thinking about

which kind of mammal to base it from, I was

really torn. I mean all I have to do is create

a human body and stick on some random

mammal’s head and call it a day, right? Wrong!

I have to think about the expression, the pose,

the character itself … There has to be a reason

why I choose with a certain kind. So I decided

the best bet would be to create something that

isn’t anything specic at all, and so I’m going

with the idea of doing a hybrid. Deer and cows

came to mind as my foundation because I know

that they get spooked, or get “caught in the

headlights” which may lend to a fun pose of

being spooked and recoiling!

SculptingStarting off, I do my usual setup of Polygroups.

To do this, press Shift + Ctrl, and click and drag

to isolate the polys you want included in a group

(i.e. the head and neck). To hide any polys

directly, you can Shift + Ctrl-click and drag,

and then let go of Shift. It sounds complicated

but once your ngers remember the pattern,

it’s really simple. You’re basically toggling that

Shift key after you click and drag. Once you

have the intended polys isolated, you can group

them by going down to the Tools > Polygroups

rollout and click on Group Visible. Auto Groups

will group your model by separate elements so

that’s handy too. So after this I continue on by

blocking out major forms of muscle groups. I

need to establish the design of the head of the

character early on. I pull out the ears, enlarge

the eyes, and draw the snout out in order to

make it look a bit more like a deer type animal

(Fig.01).

I thought it’d be fun to give him some hooves

on his hands, but only to replace a couple of his

ngers. I don’t want to get too literal or realistic

with it, though. At this stage I’m just using

Move, Clay, Clay Tubes, and occasionally Inat

brushes. The Move brush is good for literally

transforming polys around based on the brush

size and Focal Shift. I like to turn up my Focal

Shift to get a higher falloff. It’s great for getting

your low-poly base mesh in the right forms

early on. The Clay brush is a good brush for

slowly building up forms, which is what I do in

the rst 2-3 levels of subdivision before moving

to fancier details or wrinkles/folds. It’s nice

because it has a nice built in falloff that’s real

soft on the edges, but at in the centre. Clay

Tubes brush is similar to Clay, but it’s a bit more

rough and excellent for setting up muscle ow.

I like to change the alpha to a circular one with

a tight falloff and turn up the Focal Shift a bit so

it’s not so harsh. For both Clay and Clay Tubes






Chapter 02: Mammal-Man Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook

brushes, I change the BrushMod. This basically

increases the effect of the brush so you can lay

in forms quicker. I usually only raise up to 30-40,

but I’ve gone a little higher in the example soyou can see the difference (Fig.02). I dock the

main button to my interface so that I don’t have

to dig for it – it’s in the Brush menu next to Mesh

Insert. And to drag the button somewhere, just

go to the Preferences menu, click on Customize

UI, and then click Enable Customize. Then you

can Ctrl-click and drag buttons anywhere on the

interface from menus or wherever else. Also,

keep in mind that when you work in ZBrush,

it’s commonly known to work your way up thesubdivisions and nail your forms down rst.

Foundation is important (Fig.03).

Once I get to the point where I’m happy with

the model, and before detailing it with textural

alphas and wrinkles, I go ahead and pose the

character. To do this click on Move, Rotate,

or Scale and mask off areas you don’t want

effected on your model. If you click and drag

up on an area like an arm, the masking will

follow your stroke. You can also Ctrl-click on

a Polygroup and it will mask everything else.

Very handy! So for the actual posing, I start off

by rotating the lower arms by using Rotate and

click-and-dragging the gizmo from the elbow

joint to the wrist. This way you’re simulating an

accurate rotation. I don’t use Move too much

because it stretches the geometry if you click on

the end circles of the gizmo. If you click on the

middle circle, it’ll keep the polys intact but will

move from that position. So it is actually good

for tweaking the position of the arm after doing

the rotation. I then rotate the spine, head, and

upper arms in the same way. At this point I’m

nailing down the general action line to try and

get a nice silhouette as well as strengthen the

expression on the character’s face. Then it’s

about tweaking the arm rotation and span (by

span I mean how close they are to the sides

of the torso). Then it’s a matter of rotating the

wrists, but only to the point where they can

realistically rotate. I like to get the pose at about

90% and I leave myself the freedom to change it

later on if it isn’t “perfect” (Fig.04).

I ddle with the expression on the face a bit

here. I do most of this work on the face with

the Move brush to keep the forms intact, and

go through a lot of different emotions in the

eyebrows until I nd a nice “spooked” look.

On one side I’m going for a wide eye showing

the whites with the iris being close to being







completely exposed; the other eye squinting

and wincing in anticipation. The eyebrows are

pulled up with a worried feel; the mouth corners

turned down; the nostrils slightly ared out from

breathing in sharply. Later on, the detail I add

will be to support the pose of the face: wrinkles

above the eyebrow, bulging around the corner

of the mouth, folds for ear connections, and so

on (Fig.05).

After getting the basic look for the face sorted, I

go back to sculpting the rest of the body. Since

I’ve posed out the character, I can no longer run

regular symmetry, so I have to turn on Poseable

Symmetry. I’ll turn it off every now and then to

do some asymmetrical work in areas that need

independent attention because of the pose. So I

continue to dene out the forms and cut in areas

to express the nature of the muscles, bones,

tendons and skin, now that I have a set pose. I

also add some skin texture effects by using the

Standard brush, DragRect, ZIntensity 10-20,

and SW_Wrinkles_02.psd from the Pixologic

alpha library (www.pixologic.com/zbrush/

downloadcenter/alpha) (Fig.06).

To do the hair, I use the SnakeHook brush with

a pores alpha, a large brush size, and at full

RGB intensity I methodically lay the hair effects

in (Fig.07 – 08).

TexturingFor texturing, I do it entirely by Polypainting,

with no texture maps. To set up for Polypainting,

your model needs to be at the highest

subdivision because it will be assigning an RGB

value for every poly – the more polys, the better

the resolution of your painting. For this tutorial,

I could subdivide my model one more time,

but this would put me at 5 million polys and

my laptop gets a little shaky at this kind of poly

count. So for the sake of my sanity doing this

tutorial, I’m working with the 1.25 million poly

model and painting that.

To start with, I go to the Tool menu and open

the Texture rollout. I turn on Colorize. Now I can

paint on my colours using any of the sculpting

brushes. When you’re doing this, just be sure

to turn off ZAdd; it’s also usually a good idea

to work at a low RGB level, but that’ll depend

on what you’re doing. I like to tear off the Color

menu and dock it to the right so I can pick

colours easily as I go. You can either select

colour by dragging into the colour picker area,

clicking on the modiers tab and having a lot

of different kinds of swatches, or by clicking

on the main colour square and dragging

anywhere on the screen to pick a

colour. Also remember that you can

use the Shift key to

blend and blur your

Polypainting

(Fig.09).

The rst thing

I want to paint


http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/alpha









is the eyes. I know I want a big iris, but I need

to keep enough white area to get across the

expression of fear. So I paint the iris in a really

dark brown, almost black, and paint the whiteareas a pale yellow, since they aren’t really

white in real life. I add some reddish tones in the

corners of the eyeballs and apply some veins

with a very small brush size. If I mess up an

area and want to erase it, I just click on the main

colour square and drag onto a nearby colour,

and then repaint the colour back over the error

in a few strokes to blend it away (Fig.10).

For the body, I’m taking an approach that I’velearned from the great Scott Spencer, more

specically from one of his mini-tutorials on

traditional airbrush painting. I’ll admit that I’ve

never airbrushed anything in real life, but the

principles seem to be easy to understand

once you get going. Basically, you rst start by

spraying colours to simulate what’s going on

underneath the epidermis layer.

Application wise, I grab a nice red colour and

use Colorized Spray with the Color Mod turned

down to 0 (in the Stroke menu), an alpha mask

like Alpha 07, and RGB intensity set to 100

(Fig.11). I continue by just spraying across all

areas of where there are muscles or heavy

blood ow, like the ears, nose, etc. I’m keeping it

really loose and liberally covering lots of area as

quickly as possible. It doesn’t have to be perfect,

and you want to be sure not to completely

saturate any areas besides the real “hot” zones.

I like to take a yellow and spray across areas

where bone is really close to the surface, such

as collarbones, the sternum, forehead, cranium,

elbows, tendons, the bridge of the nose, etc. I

also think it’s handy for some fatty areas like the

belly to be a bit more orange in colour. I take

some purples and blues and hit the recessed

areas, such as around the eyes and the jaw line/

beard area. I also nd it nice to blend some of

these colours a bit and make some variations on

the primary colours to make some purples and

oranges.

The next step is to take a white, or a slightly

off-white, and start the “noodling” phase. This

brings a really nice effect to the subdermal work

we’re doing here. So either using DragRect

and Alpha 22, or by doing it freehand, noodle

in with a small brush size some white squiggles

everywhere. I like the effect of doing it freehand

but it’s a lot of area to cover so feel free to use

both methods. Also be sure to keep this really

loose, because it’s only going to be slightly

visible later on (Fig.12).

Once the noodling is done, I throw on a skin

shader – I like to use MatCap_Skin01. Then,

using a Spray application with a very low

RGB level between 4 and 10, and a neutral

skin colour, I start to lay in colour over the

subdermal work. Don’t completely cover it

up though. Just use the colour to blend

it altogether and you’ll start to see the

effect it’s meant to create (Fig.13).

I’ll admit that this technique results in

a lot of work to do all this subdermal

painting only to go and cover it all up

afterwards. But once you’re done, try







as a comparison lling the whole character with

a neutral skin colour and you’ll clearly see the

difference! Plus, although the noodling effect is

pretty subtle, it’s also very powerful. It’s okayto go back over some areas and enhance the

intended colour by using a low RGB level again.

So that’s what I do in the recessed areas and

around the eyes, etc. By keeping the colour

level low, you’re able to keep the intended effect

but change the hue of certain areas. Of course,

if you keep going over areas many times, you’ll

eventually atten it out with that colour, so watch

out for that.

Lastly, I colour in the ngernails, hooves,

nipples, veins, and dot in some freckles here

and there. And for the hairy areas, I use a

Standard brush, Colorized Spray, Color Mod at

0.7, and ow at 1.0 (Stroke menu) and Alpha

67. Then, with a medium brown and RGB at

100, I start to spray on the hair by stroking top to

bottom (Fig.14).

The hair follows the ow of the stripes in the

alpha. After applying the hair effect to all areas

(don’t forget the ngers), I use a light tan grey

and spray some striped effects on the bridge of

the nose, the arms and down

the back, just to

break up all that

brown and black

(Fig.15).







I’ve also thrown together a ZBrush render

composite in Photoshop to show you the nal

results after rendering in ZBrush (Fig.16a –

16c). It’s pretty fun but not quite as powerful asa Max/Mental Ray render (Fig.17).

So there you have it: modelling and texturing

a Mammal-Man in a nutshell! I hope the

breakdown of this character creation has helped

you. If you have any questions about what I’ve

done, feel free to contact me via email.

Note from the Editor: Jesse Sandifer has kindly

provided us with 8 movies to accompanythis tutorial, which you can nd in the Free

Resources folder. Jesse is also currently

considering doing some private one-on-one

ZBrush tutoring to the beginner or amateur

artist, so if you are interested please feel free

to contact him via email for further details and

information.

Jesse Sandifer For more from this artist visit

http://www.jessesandifer.com

or contact

[email protected]


http://www.jessesandifer.com/



http://www.jessesandifer.com/




chapter 3




Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook Chapter 03: Aquatic-Man

Aquatic-ManSoftware Used: ZBrush

IntroductionI was asked to create a character for this tutorial

article under the heading of “ Aquatic-Man”,

to show how ZBrush can be utilized to sculpt

and texture such an extraordinary creature,

thought up from the depths of my imagination by

crossing human elements with those of aquatic

beings. Here’s how we’ll go about creating such

an amalgamation in this second part of the

Manimal tutorial series.

Base MeshI decide to work straight from the offset by

sculpting directly in ZBrush from the base mesh

provided (Fig.01 – 02 – you can download the

same base mesh with this tutorial – look out

for the Free Resources logo), without creating

a concept before starting. I nd ZBrush is a

pretty cool tool that enables you to gure out

good designs directly in 3D, without the need for

preliminary drawings on every occasion.

Sculpting in ZBrushSo to start, I choose a material for the base

mesh that I think most suitable and that will

help in this initial sculpting stage. You can try

different materials by clicking on the sphere

on the left-hand side of the screen. Using

Transpose I manipulate the character into a

pose closer to what I imagine the nal character

will be in – something like that of a creature

moving through the current of water (Fig.03 –

05). To use Transpose, you’ll see at the top of

the screen the Move, Scale and Rotate buttons – in this case I’m using

the Rotate function. To make a mask in order to move individual elements

of the model, you simply hold down Ctrl and drag your cursor over the

model. You then simply need to draw a line from the rotation point to the

point that you need in order to successfully move your model.

I’m trying out this pose to illustrate a swimming creature. Unfortunately

the base mesh has not been provided with any legs so I can’t use the

bottom part of his body to work into the concept, so instead I’m using his






Chapter 03: Aquatic-Man Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook

arms pulled backwards to give a sense of this

creature gliding through water. I’m using fresh

water sh as my references, rather than salt

water sh, because I want to work with aquatic

references with fewer colors going on – I think

sea creatures could be too colored for this

character.

Before I start the sculpting work, I like to

subdivide my base mesh as much as possible,

but I’ll reduce all those subdivisions again

before starting the modeling. I do this because

sometimes you’ll subdivide the mesh with some

hidden parts, and only unhidden parts will be

subdivided. When using Transpose I like to work

in the second or third level of subdivision. I do

this because the mask function doesn’t work

very well on the rst level of subdivision, and

it’s much harder to get smooth results on higher

levels. So from experience I recommend using

levels two or three at this stage.

I don’t have too much of an idea about how my

character’s head will look at this stage, so I’m

simply playing around with form and shape to

nd a good design for his face and head (Fig.06

– 07). I’m using the Standard brush and working

in the third level of subdivision here.

As I work I keep checking the silhouette as often as I can, as it helps in

nding a good design. To create a silhouette of your model, simply nd the

Flat Color material on the Material palette, again by clicking on the sphere

on the left-hand side of the screen. With the head design established rst,

it will be much easier to create the body afterwards.

I decide to add some skin plates and scales to the character to give him

a shy look, also pulling the jaw out quite a lot – as you can see in some

deep sea sh creatures – all the while checking the silhouette is working

and the design is strong (Fig.08 – 11). I’m still working in the third level of







subdivision here, using the Standard and Move

brushes. I’ll sometimes also load in Alpha 39

into my Alpha palette in order to achieve some

stronger lines.

Because I’m still unsure about how the body

will be, in terms of its design, I decide to block

in some simply human anatomy rst to give

me a starting ground from which to build upon,

isolating parts individually and working on them

separately (Fig.12 – 16). I’m now working in

the fourth level of subdivision, still using the

Standard Brush to nd the shapes. To hide parts

of your model you simply need to press andhold Ctrl and Shift on your keyboard, and draw

a green mask over the model. If you need a

different type of mask you can always hit Lasso

on the right-hand side of the screen, or you can

use the shortcut, Ctrl + Shift + M.

The beauty at this stage is that I can work on

just one side of the body, and then, using the

SmartResym tool, simply copy the work done to

the other side of the model (Fig.17). To do this,

you simply create a mask – again by pressing

and holding Ctrl and clicking and dragging your

left mouse button – where you’ve being working,

leaving the untouched part of the model outside

of the masked zone. Go to Tool > Deformation

> SmartResym, and you will see work copied

across to the unmasked area.

Moving on from the torso and arms now, I start

work on the hands, working with each nger

separately (remember: to hide parts of your

model you simply need to press and hold Ctrl

and Shift on your keyboard, and draw a green







mask over the model). It’s difcult to work on

the inner parts of the hand when you have all

ngers in the viewport, which is why I prefer to

work with them individually, using the Clay brush

to give some volume to the skin at the joints

where the skin creases and folds, and using the

Standard brush to add lines and wrinkles to the

skin (Fig.18 – 24).

The entire block-in stage of the work has been

done in subdivision levels four to six. The ner

details are then added in the seventh level.

Finishing work on the hand, when happy with

the detailing gone into it, I can then make the

gesture of the hand much more interesting and

realistic looking using Transpose (Fig.25). As

before, I’m using Transpose to manipulate the

model to get the desired pose, in the same way

as we did earlier.

Here I add a n-like element to his arm in

order to give more detail to the silhouette, just

using the Move tool at this stage to achieve the

needed results (Fig.26). Using SmartResym

again, I add the deformation to the other arm,

too, balancing out the design to both sides of

the body, as before (Fig.27).

At this point, I‘m starting to add some more skin

plates, scales, and ns to the body by drawing







freely with the Standard brush, not worrying too

much about the small details, simply trying to

respect the natural ow of muscles in human

anatomy (Fig.28 – 31). I also nd the Clay brush

useful to use here – it gives a more organic

effect and it’s a great brush to work on the skin’s

surface with.

Remember to regularly check your designs

in silhouette by using the Flat Shader, as

explained earlier (Fig.32).

Continuing work now, I add even more skin

plates and detail to the spine (Fig.33 – 37), still

working with the Standard brush and Alpha 39.

I’m not using any direct references to sculpt; I’m

simply trying to follow the ow of the anatomy

and adding features that we’d generally

recognize from sh.

To carry on the detailing work I add similar

details as just given to the body, onto his arms,







in the same way as before – but this time

sectioning off just the one arm to work on it

separately (Fig.38 – 41).

With the design nearly complete at this stage,

it’s a good time to check on the silhouette

again to see if the concept is still strong before

nalizing it (Fig.42). For me, design is a very

complex thing. There are some techniques you

can follow, but to me it is more about a feeling.

You have to practice lots and you’ll learn to

know when to keep going and when you need to

stop – it’s all about building up experience and

experimenting. I like to keep my silhouette verydetailed, but it’s also interesting to allow the eye

to rest in some areas, too, as too much detail

can be as big a problem as too little! I think the

best training you can do is to observe and copy

the work of great artists, as well as use real life

as a reference. Try to take notice of when the

greats exaggerate details, and when they don’t.

A good understanding of anatomy is a must-

have, as well as drawing skills – drawing is a

very powerful tool! I haven’t drawn anything in

this case, but it is a skill worth developing, even

in 3D.

I feel the design is missing something here to

be honest, so what I’m going to do is to add

some more detail to the neck area to improve

the concept (Fig.43). I’m creating the new detail

using the Standard and Clay brushes. This

detail might seem useless, but it helps the eye

to stop reading at this point. It’s very important

that the eye takes some moments to pause

when reading artwork, and so I always aim to

add some “accents” throughout my models’

designs in order to achieve this.

Because organic creatures are not perfectly

symmetrical, I’m going to break up the symmetry

now at some points and add some nal detail to

nish up work on the head (Fig.44 – 48). You

can activate or deactivate Symmetry using the

X shortcut key. Again, I’m using the Clay brush

to give the skin’s surface a nice organic feel,







at this stage working in the seventh level of

subdivision.

I do the same for the arms and the body,

breaking up the symmetry further still to make

the creature all in all more believable (Fig.49 –

51).

To start giving some relief and impression to the

skin and get more realistic results, when working

on a creature such as this it’s often useful to use

the alpha from animal photographs. I can use it

by simply dragging and applying it, following the

object’s surface and the ow of anatomy (Fig.52

– 55). To make an alpha you’ll need to do this in

Photoshop by opening up a photo that you like.

Convert it to grayscale and make a soft round

border turning to black. Save this as a PSD and

you’re done. You can then import this new alpha

into your Alpha palette in ZBrush and to use it,

simply change the stroke to DragRect and you’ll

be able to drag the alpha over the surface of

your model.







As for the pores, I use the Spray stroke and

Alpha 07 to give the skin its ability to breathe

and lose it plasticity, making it more believable

to the viewer (Fig.56 – 57).

Texturing in ZBrushRight then, it’s time to start texturing in ZBrush

now. I always use a fast shader for textures

and avoid using colored shaders for this part of

the process. So simply change the color to one

that you prefer and ll the object (Fig.58 – 59).

Simply choose the material from the Material

palette (remember it’s the sphere on the left-

hand side of the screen), and then go to Color >

Fill Object.

Photographic references are extremely helpful

at this stage of texturing. For my own character

I’m going to use a photo of a cold water sh,

painting some areas with a lighter color – as

you can see on some sh – and using an alpha

from an animal skin with my brush (Fig.60 –

63). Again, to create a new custom alpha you

can simply take your photo into Photoshop and

follow the afore-mentioned procedure. After

you’ve imported it into your Alpha palette you

can then paint using the Alpha as a brush.

I can also use the DragRect stroke to apply

some color, remembering to turn off ZAdd for

this part of the texturing process (Fig.64 – 66).

If you change the stroke to DragRect, you’ll be







able to drag the alpha over the surface. If you

leave ZAdd turned on, it will apply deformation

on the mesh, and at this point we just want the

colors, so make sure that RGB is turned on.This technique is good to help you get a better

blend from one color to another. Remember to

check with the at shader all the time, though,

and sometimes the shadows on the model can

start to confuse you when apply texture!

Here I am starting to introduce a third color to

the model by painting some of his body with a

bluish gray, using the FreeHand stroke and an

imported alpha from Photoshop of animal skin(Fig.67 – 68).

Working with the Cavity Mask can be used as

a great trick to better and more realistic results.

Try to use at color when you’re doing this;

you can edit the curve and the value of the

cavity from 100 to -100 (Fig.69 – 72). Cavity

Mask allows us to paint only into or around the

depressions of our mesh. The values 100 and

-100 are the setting to paint just inside and

outside the cavity, but you can also edit the

curve to get different results. Try playing around

with the settings of this powerful tool to better

understand how it works.







With the head and torso pretty much sorted

color wise now, I continue by painting the

interior of the mouth (Fig.73), and then move

across the body simulating shadows through anew range of blue tones (Fig.74 – 75). These

shadows are sort of an “occlusion”. Try to

simulate some soft shadows on the contact

areas – not actually a dark shadow from a point

of light, but something soft.

Moving onto the arms now, I want to give them

some more interesting colors – particularly to

the forearm. I go in with a mix of hot and cold

colors (Fig.76).

The teeth need some attention now, and I paint

them using a yellow tone with a hint of brown to

give them a dirtier, aged look (Fig.77).

Nearly nished now! I’m just applying some

veins using DragRect and Alpha 22, trying out

a variation of green, blue and red veins on the

skin (Fig.78 – 79).

Finally, to nish up the texturing of my model,

as I’m pretty happy with what I’ve achieved until

now, I’m simply taking an overall look at the

character and then going into areas to add more

detail with the Cavity Mask, to really nish things

off (Fig.80 – 81). At this stage you have to make

sure that there aren’t any details missing – we

have to try not to let our earlier hard work not go

to waste in this last stage!

And here is the nal model, complete with

textures (Final.01 – 04).







RenderingWhen you’re happy with the coloring of your

ZBrush creation you can then go on and render

it. You can nd lots of great MatCaps at the

ZBrush Download Center: www.pixologic.com/

zbrush/downloadcenter. There’s plenty of good

stuff there, including some nice plugins and

videos which are always very helpful.

Pretty much any default material in ZBrush

is affected by light, as well as lots of other

MatCaps, too. But if you play around with

lighting and some different MatCaps, you’ll

soon realize that not all of them are affected by

the lighting scenario, so do be careful and pay

attention when using new MatCaps.

Before you render you’ll need to set up your

lights rst of all. So go to Menu > Light – there

you’ll be able to play with your light settings; you

can change the direction of the lights by using

your cursor and rotating the sphere. You can

any increase the number of lights if you need

more by simply clicking on the small light icons.

Below the lights you can change the light color

and intensity of them. And if you open up the

Shadow option on the bottom of the Light menu,

you can change the shadow intensity by playing

with the Aperture and Length settings. It’s very

important to make some quick tests, just playing

around with all the different light settings, in

order to better understand what each is used for

and what it can achieve.

With your lighting setup ready to go, you need

to render. So go to Menu > Render – there you’ll

nd the render options. You can turn on the Fog

and Depth Cue functions, and you’ll also nd a

slider to change the intensity and range of the

depth of eld. If you open up the Fog menu (you

can nd it right below in the Depth Cue menu)

you can change the color of the rst and forth

quads to a darker color (I usually use a very

dark gray and a dark bluish gray). Once again,

you can change the intensity and range of the

fog using the sliders. As usual, play around with

the settings to increase your understanding of

what they do. When ready, click on the ‘Best

button to render.

To create a nal image of my character I render

out the following render passes in ZBrush:

• Lighting – a fast shader with no textures

• Mask – using Flat Color will allow us to

separate the character from the background

• Constant Diffuse – using Flat Color with

textures you can get back some of the

texture detail lost after rendering, as well as

getting better contrast over the nal image





• Depth – this is really helpful to get the

correct camera depth of eld. I create this

pass using Flat Color with no textures,

playing with the Fog settings (to nd Fog go

to Render > Fog)

• Occlusion – using a MatCap called MatCap

White01, with no textures, I pull the color

towards blue

• SSS – I use a MatCap called RS_SkinBase

with textures

• Specular 1 – I use the MatCap called Bonus

02, which is a regular specular for skin

• Specular 2 – I use the ToyPlastic MatCap

with the black color to get a wet-look

appearance and to break up the specular,

bringing the look closer to something we’d

recognize on real sh

With all my render passes done, I take them

into Photoshop, relax, and then have some fun

playing around with the layer blending modes,

Brightness/Contrast values, Hue/Saturation

settings, and the Blur lter. Here is the nal

result after some post-production in Photoshop

(Final.05).

ConclusionI found the workow that I employed for

this piece quite successful, although I do

recommend that you come up with a more

exact idea of what you want to model before

you start a new character design, as I’m sure I

could have come up with a much better design

for this creature, in hindsight, if I had done

some preliminary sketches at the beginning.

Another nice process that can improve character

creation is to retopologize your model, make a

UVW map and export the maps (displacement,

normal and diffuse) in order to then render your

image in other 3D software for better results.

This is particularly a good, quick workow for

animation production.

I hope you’ve found this tutorial helpful, I’d like

to thank the 3DTotal team for the opportunity to

create this tutorial for you all, it has been really

fun to work on – thank you for reading!

Diego Maia For more from this artist visit

http://maia3d.blogspot.com/

or contact

[email protected]







chapter 4




Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook Part 4 - Amphibian Man

Amphibian ManSoftware Used: ZBrush & Photoshop

IntroductionThis chapter I’m going to be sculpting and

texturing an “amphibian-man”, so I will need to

sculpt a mutant with aspects of both amphibians

and humans, and then proceed to texture it in

the nal stages of this tutorial. I’ll be taking you

through my creative process when creating

characters in ZBrush, guiding you through the

stages, enabling you to create your very own

amphibian-man. You’ll hopefully pick up some

tips and tricks along the way as well, so let’sbegin without further ado!

ConceptWhenever I start a new project I begin by

doing research on the brief that I have been

given, looking for references, information, and

inspiration – anything that will help me to come

up with an interesting concept.

With this I mind, I begin my amphibian-man

project by searching for photographic references

of different types of amphibians – mostly toads

and frogs – to familiarize myself with some

classic characteristics of these amphibious

creatures, allowing me to work out in my mind

the kind of features my guy is going to adopt.

I’ve chosen to combine the characteristics of a

toad with that of the human, but I want to keep

a lot of the male anatomy in my creature this

time and concentrate on adding the primary

amphibious design to his head, focusing on the

mouth, as well detailing the skin texture of the

whole design to give it that toad-like feel.

Blocking-InI’m looking for a more stylized creature with this

design: strong in build, perhaps with a “crazy”

expression going on to dene a personality and

give him some character.

So with the concept forming in my mind, the

rst thing I want to do is to start the model

off by taking the base mesh (free with this

tutorial – click on the Free Resources icon to

download), turning the symmetry on (Transform

> Activate Symmetry), and blocking in the main

shapes and forms (subdivision levels 1-2) whilst

remembering that I want to build a tough guy

with muscles and a strong body. I use the Clay

and Standard brushes for this work – these

are great for building up the volumes, and then

the Move brush is particularly useful when it

comes to working out the correct proportions.

I’m working in the rst level of subdivision here

(Fig.01).

With the overall form established, I’ve decided

to go for an open-mouthed character, as this

gives him much better expression. To do this,

I subdivide again, to level 3 this time, and I

rework the mouth area using the Standard,

Move and Clay brushes (Standard is used for

the overall sculpting, the Move brush helps to

move the geometry, and the Clay brush can

achieve a better shape, for example on the lips).

In this case, it’s better to rework the mouth area,because if I try to open up the mouth, using

something like Transpose or the Move brush,

I’ll end up with a low mesh resolution inside

the mouth, which can of course be a problem

because with a low resolution mesh (to check

if you have a low number of polygons in areas,

turn on the Wireframe for a better view) I won’t

have a good enough amount of polygons for

the detail work in the last level of subdivision

(Fig.02).

SculptingSatised with the basic form of my character

after the block-in, I continue work at subdivision

level 3 with the Standard, Clay and Inat

brushes. This time, I start by using the Inat

brush to get nice muscle denition, and then

continue to dene the main muscles and

adjust the overall volumes (Fig.03). I’m still not

worrying about the details yet, as we should

remember that our goal is to work out good

shapes and volumes before detailing – the

detailing comes later!






Chapter 04 - Amphibian Man Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook

To give the character some eyes, I rst of all

select Sphere3D from the Tool palette and make

a Polymesh copy (hit the Make Polymesh3D

button). I append the sphere to my model andusing the Transpose function (Move and Scale)

I simply adjust the size and position of the

sphere as appropriate. And then the SubTool

Master Plugin comes in handy (www.pixologic.

com/zbrush/downloadcenter/zplugins) – I just

click on Mirror to copy the eye across to the

other side (Fig.04).

I subdivide the model a few more times now (to

level 4 or 5), and start applying more details,working on the muscle denition, cartilage, and

deformations, using the Standard (with alphas

like Alpha 01 and Alpha 35) and Inat brushes.

The Inat brush is awesome to use when

sculpting muscles because its brush properties

help to make the character more believable and

solid.

Happy with how things are looking I now want to

change and try out some different materials to

see how things are looking when other shaders

are applied (Fig.05).

When sculpting, I like to isolate some areas

and work with just sections of my model, such

as the head and the hands, when necessary.

This just makes it easier to work on the details

and gives me the chance to get a better look at

certain parts – in this case the head (Fig.06).

Remember that we’re constantly searching for

good overall shape and volume in our models.

I also use the Standard brush (with Alpha

35 and 37) to start the skin detailing on the

eyebrows here – later on I’ll use the Spray

Stroke to get better skin detail, but only in the

nal sculpting stage.

When working on hands in ZBrush, I always

sculpt just one isolated hand only, and then

simply project all the details onto the opposite

hand. To do this, I create a mask over the

hand to isolate it (Masking > HidePt) so that


http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/zplugins









I can sculpt with more control (Fig.07). I’m

not worrying about adding nal details to the

hands yet, I just want to dene them to get

better volume and some of the main detailsestablished.

With the one hand done, I reveal the rest of the

model that was hidden previously (Shift + Ctrl

and click off the model to show all), create a

mask over the sculpted hand, and go to Tools

> Deformation. I hit Smart ReSym which then

projects the details of the dened hand onto the

other (Fig.08).

Time for the teeth now, which are actually much

simpler than they look! I start off by creating a

mask over the lip area (just hold down Ctrl to

paint the mask), so I can sculpt without affecting

other parts of the model. I use the Standard

brush to sculpt, always with a low intensity,

the Move brush to help me to adjust the size

of them, and I also add the Pinch brush to my

tool belt this time to achieve a better connection

between each tooth and the esh that it “sits”

in. Finally, I use the Inat brush with a very low

value between each tooth to give more volume

to the gums (Fig.09).

I’ve decided to go a little off-topic here and

create some accessories for my guy to beef







up this character design. I thought this would

make an interesting addition when it comes

to compositing the character. Aiming for a

body-builder look to my nal design, I build a

dumbbell – which is actually very easy to make.

I use Cylinder3D, and with the Transpose

function I can manipulate the cylinder into all

the different cylinder shapes that build up a

classic dumbbell design. I can then append

each cylinder to form a single tool by going

to SubTool > Append (select each cylinder)

(Fig.10).

To get a good pose I of course use theTranspose function, but rst of all I need to

create a new layer to work on (Tool > Layers

> New) for the pose, and I’ll explain why I

do this later. It’s also very important to step

back a number of subdivision levels to make

better deformation without too many wrong

deformations. With the Transpose Mask feature

(just hold down Ctrl and click-and-hold on the

model; the mask will be created following the

cursor direction. If you want to mask the entire

model minus one nger, hold Ctrl and click-and-

hold on the hand, and then go to the nger – the

mask will follow the cursor). I can use Rotate for

the deformations and then use the Move brush

to make the nal adjustments (Fig.11).

Moving back to the head now, I need to add

a tongue, so I want to append a ZSphere

(Fig.12a). I turn off the perspective view and

start to create the new mesh. To make aZSphere turn into a mesh, go to Adaptive Skin

> Make Adaptive Skin. I can now subdivide

and start the sculpting work on the tongue,

using the Standard brush to dene the model

and the Move brush for better adjustments and

placement in the mouth (Fig.12b).

For the nal details I use the Standard brush

with a thin alpha, like Alpha 35-39, and the

Inat brush. I also start to incorporate more skin

alphas of human skin, pores, and so on using

different strokes: Spray Stroke with low values

to get nice pores and a slight “noise” effect over







the sculpt (especially on the tongue). A “pore

alpha” can help with this, or you can simple

use Alpha 07 instead. DragRect and DragDot

strokes with a more dened alpha, like alpha 22or 59 for example, can give some nice details

with more control, without the randomized effect

of the Spray Stroke (Fig.13).

You can get many alpha packs on www.

pixologic.com, which will help you to build up

the character’s credibility as a half human-half

animal.

And here is the nal sculpt (Fig.14).

TexturingMoving onto the texturing work now, I make a

rough base color over the entire sculpt (Menu >

Color > Fill Object), and then dene some of the

warmer tones, such as on the chest. To illustrate

the thin skin, for example, just change your

desired color and give it a lower RGB Intensity.

Using the Standard brush with FreeHand stroke

I can complete this initial stage without any

problems (Fig.15a).

I turn off the layer that I created for the pose

at this point, which I do because this way

I can turn the symmetry back on and save

some time texturing. I hide the other SubTools

now (SubTool > click on the eye to hide it, for

example) to concentrate on the main model

only. I apply some tonal variation onto the model

using the Spray Stroke (with Scale and Color

Intensity values kept low) with Alpha 07 (always

using a low intensity), mixing the colors as I go

(Fig.15b).











Getting onto the detailed texturing stage now, I

use Spray Stroke, DragRect and the Freehand

Stroke to apply the details (using some different

alphas like using Spray Stroke with Alpha 07 fora nice “noise” effect, DragRect with Alpha 59,

and Alpha 22 to give detail with better size and

placement control (Fig.16).

A good quick trick to get more detail in ZBrush

is to use the cavity mask function (Mask > Mask

by Cavity) and paint with a darker color in a very

low intensity, or just go to Color > Fill Object

and use a dark color (such as a dark grey,

for example) with a very low RGB Intensity.Observe that the pose layer is turned on again

here as we are now at the nal detailing stage

and it’s very important to make give these

details without using symmetry, in order to bring

more life to the model (Fig.17).

And here is the nal textured model (Fig.18).

Rendering &CompositingI use this stage of the design process to make

my work “pop”, using passes, blending modes,

and masks. I shall try now to talk you through

my rendering and compositing workow using

ZBrush and Photoshop.

The rst step is to congure the light, which is

basically just a case of positioning it however

you require by clicking and moving the little

orange highlighted box (Fig.19a).

The second step is to congure the main

shader which will be used as the base shader.

I use GW_Skincore by Grant Warwick as the

main nal shader (which can be downloaded

by clicking on the Free Resources icon, or by

going to www.pixologic.com), but other shaders

can be used as well, such as MatCap Skin 04,

for example.

I want to make some adjustments now by going

to Materials > Modiers – these adjustments

are different for each shader, and are made

according to the light (Fig.19b).

The third step is to congure the shadows. For

this character design I just make some simple

shadows adjustments to achieve a “harder”

shadow (see Fig.19a).









dumbbells. Layer blend mode: Lighten/Color

(Fig.20b)

• Color pass – Flat Color Material – With this

pass I have more color control in Photoshop.

In the Render menu now, I change the

Antialiasing to 2 to get a better render quality

when rendering my passes. The other shaders

used as passes for the nal render composite in

Photoshop are as follows:

• Specular passes – I use a simple shader

– the Toy Plastic shader, for example – and

modier to show only the specular. The

other specular passes use the same shader

but I change the Light direction and the

Specular Curve. ZBrush produces too much

specular over the entire model, so I use

masks to remove some specular in some

areas, and a low opacity (around 10-20%).

Layer blend mode: Lighten (Fig.20a)

• Refection pass – This is just the

ReectedMap material used to fake a

reection pass. I use this pass with different

values for the body, the tongue and the

For this example I use Hue/Saturation to

make it more reddish, and use it to achieve

a nice skin tone on the chest. Layer blend

mode: Color/Lighten (Fig.20c)







• Occlusion pass – MatCap White pass

without any texture. Layer blend mode:

Multiply (around 40-60% Opacity) (Fig.20d)

• Mask pass – Flat Color Material again –

but this time with a different color for each

SubTool (using Color > Fill Color) – can be

used to pick masks in Photoshop (using

Select > Color Range in Photoshop). With

these masks I can control the passes

by element; for example, I duplicate the

Reection pass and use one for the body

with a low opacity, and one with higher

opacity for the gym accessories (Fig.20e)

• Main pass (Fig.20f )

I use other Photoshop adjustments, too, such as

Color Balance, Sharpen, Levels, Contrast … It

may look like it took a lot of time to achieve the

nal composite, but the entire compositing step

was done in around 30-50 minutes only.

And here the nal result (Fig.21).

ConclusionHopefully I have succeeded in walking you

through my workow, and have explained the

process in enough detail for you to now create

your very own half man-half creature mutant.

I hope you’ve found the tutorial useful. Please

feel free to contact me by email should you have

any questions.

Note from the Editor: Grant Warwick has

provided us with the GW_Skincore MatCap

that Bruno Melo has used in this tutorial, which

you can nd in the Free Resources folder.

Remember that you can also nd the base

mesh that Bruno used with this tutorial in the

same folder, too!

Bruno MeloFor more from this artist visit

http://bmelo.cgsociety.org/gallery/

or contact

[email protected]










chapter 5




Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook Chapter 05 - Insect Man

Insect-ManSoftware Used: ZBrush and 3ds Max

IntroductionThe idea of a hybrid mutation from human to

insect was really exciting to me right from the

beginning of this project. The possibilities,

design-wise, are immense, and because the

world of insects is so complex and varied it

forced me to do lots of research before starting,

since it’s not a subject I have had experience

with in the past.

ConceptI began with some research, and obviously the

rst real problem to solve was how to mutate

an endoskeletal being into an exoskeletal

one. This was something that really worried

me, and at rst I was stuck at this phase for

quite some time. I tried to get inspiration from

sculptures by great artists, and slowly started

to understand what I liked and didn’t like, and

what was plausible and not so. There is a ne

line between what is plausible and what is

“cool”, and you have to be very careful where

this is concerned and aim to get a good balance

between the two; nding the right balance is

completely up to you though, depending on your

own style and artistic intentions.

First of all, I had to see if something that blends

an exoskeleton with an endoskeleton could

actually really exist…

Turtles have both endoskeleton and exoskeleton

characteristics, but I was looking for something

different: a mix of both, not coexistence. The

closest thing I have found is a hydrostatic

skeleton, which Wikipedia says is “a structure

found in many cold-blooded organisms and soft-

bodied animals consisting of a uid-lled cavity,

the coelom, surrounded by muscles”.

Hmm, interesting!

Without being too rigid and technical, since I

don’t have the knowledge to fully understand

something like this, but at the same time

wanting to take some inspiration from it,

what I imagined was an evolution where the

outer surface of the body is morphed into

a net of uid-lled cavities that hardens the

outer structure. Not as rigid as a chitin based

exoskeleton, but something that somehow can

adapt to movement with an internal pressure

system. This concept was enough to give me an

idea of the look of this mutation.

So with the concept in mind, I needed to think

about which human features could best mutate

into insect characteristics. And so, keeping in

mind the balance I mentioned before, I chose

to work with human limbs, because I felt these

would work best.

The facial structure is a particularly fun part

to work with, because I don’t want to change

too much of the skull structure; I want to retain

the idea that this creature was once actually a

human. I’m going to focus most on the mouth,

since this area is crucial in my design concept,

and will be really eye-catching. The top gums

and top lip will be fused into the insect’s labrum;

the mandible will be cut at the front to become

the new “mandible”, and I will add an extra

structure, the maxilla, which is a newly formed

part from the mutation. The tongue and bottom

lip will also become the labium.

At this point I took advantage of the newly

released plugin from Pixologic, PaintStop (www.

pixologic.com/zbrush/features/PaintStop/), to

rough out a concept to help me visualize the

gure (Fig.01). PaintStop is really handy and

easy to use, and has a lot of potential. You don’t

need to be a painter to use it, just draw and have

fun!


http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/features/PaintStop/








Chapter 05 - Insect Man Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook

Concept RefinementI’d like to just mention now something that

happened during the sculpting process.

Sometimes viewing things in 3D really shows

what’s working and what’s not working in your

design. Right in the middle of the sculpting

session I realized that what I was creating

was too similar to a suit, rather than a hybrid

creature. This really bothered me, I didn’t like

it and I felt I had to nd a solution to x it. This

was perhaps the hardest part of the creation

process for me, because for the rst time I

had to face the mutation phenomena in a very

different way: I started to think about what

“mutation” would mean for a human being; how

the character would feel about it. I had to think

about him, and not just about the design.

So whilst sculpting, I changed my initial concept

to something more repugnant, something which

would make you think about what is actually

going on in the image, rather than just looking

at it and moving on. I introduced the human side

of the creature to the concept, the portion of

him that reveals his humanity, his feelings, and

allows you to get a little closer to the design.

For this part of the concept I looked mainly for

references concerning the molting (obviously

I had to keep in mind that I was using a base

mesh, so I couldn’t expect to be able to do

something like actually perform molting on

the model; it would need to be sculpted to

appear that way) and started to think about the

transition between the two stages

ZBrushThe given base mesh was unfortunately not the

easiest thing to adapt to my concept, but tricky

or not I had to go on and focus on doing it right.

I’ll now take you through my ZBrush sculpting

process.

At level 0 it is really hard to nd the right shapes;

I push and pull vertices around to nd the best

positions, mainly working on proportions using

the Move brush and the Transpose function

(Fig.02).

Stepping up a subdivision level, I work with

Transpose again to mask and adapt better the

silhouette to my concept, and use the Standard

and Inat brushes to sculpt the main volumes

(Fig.03 – 04).







It’s really important to focus on the main

forms right now, zooming out a lot to see if

everything ts together, and not being afraid

to make drastic changes if unsatised. At thisstage we’re working on the foundation of our

sculpture; everything we will do later will be

affected by the choices we make right now (i.e.

in the lower subdivision levels). Later sculpting

details will rely heavily on the previously

sculpted surface, so basically you have to

visualize in your mind the details that are not yet

there, and sculpt the average version of them –

a bit like a blurred image. As an example, think

about painting a tree you see at 1km distance:it’s nothing more than a green irregular spot.

The nearer you get to the tree, the more detailed

information you get to paint (describe) it.

What I also do, is use the whole range of the

brushes’ Draw Size, not just the big and medium

ones; try to use a very small brush in the

beginning as well, to emphasize some smaller

details – but remember: only from the distance!

Sometimes you can focus on close-up details

in your sculpting, perhaps because you need to

better see just one part of the model in order to

adjust everything else accordingly.

Another thing I like to do is to quickly pose some

parts, like the hands or arms, in a gesture that

helps me to better understand the volumes and

forms.

Once I get to subdivision level 3 or 4, I started

using mostly the Clay Tubes and Clay brushes,

since I nd myself being very comfortable

working with them; they help you to get rid of

the bulginess from the lower levels, averaging

out forms and consolidating the major volumes

(Fig.05 – 06).

Additional Objects At this stage I use 3ds Max to create some very

simple geometry to use as base meshes for the

mandibles and maxillae. As you can see, they

are just standard cubes scaled and subdivided a

few times, and just for the mandibles I’ve made

an extrusion to better conform the shape I have

in mind (Fig.07).

For the eyes I temporarily place some ZBrush

Sphere primitives to hold the shape (I will come

back to these later on).

Once I’ve imported the newly created .obj, I’ve

got everything I need and I can start working on

the object as a whole, trying to sculpt everything

at the same level without leaving parts too

roughly sculpted (Fig.08). This is important

because you want to have a good general

understanding of what is going on in the model

to be able to judge what is working the way you

want it, and what needs adjustments.







Moving on, I isolate the shell, and with the Clay

brush I sculpt some variations into the surface

(Fig.09 – 10).

As mentioned earlier, try to use your Draw

Size range, as this will help you to to create

believable variations and patterns in your

sculpting work (Fig.11).

With the shell’s main volumes roughed out, I

work on the junctions in the limbs next, trying to

recreate a net of underlying bers and nerves,

tendons and cartilaginous structures, and

everything else that could t to mimic what oncewas human and still there, but is now morphed

into this new form (Fig.12).

Something very clear on insects is that their

shells tend to have borders; in most cases they

are jagged and have little spikes. To sculpt

these details into my model, I use a cloud-like

alpha with a Standard brush, with the Stroke set

to DragDot – this is because I can get realtime

feedback of both the position and the altitude of

the brush, so I can very precisely place those

little spikes where I want them (Fig.13).

Adjusting the Sculpt for the New Concept

As I mentioned earlier, during the sculpting

process I changed my mind, deciding to break

up the insect mutation to reveal human portions

to the character. Here is how:

I step back to the lowest subdivision level and

smooth and reconstruct from there the human

features I want to see (Fig.14).

I’m not afraid at all about erasing all of what I’ve

previously done, because I am very condent

about the new concept. At rst the work seems

massive, and it’s easy to get a bit stressed

because your progress is very slow, but it’s very

important to always remember the meaning of

what you’re doing: you have very good reasons

to go through this process and the result will be

much better than what you had previously. So,

put your favorite music on the playlist and relax!

I focus on the anatomy being in the process

of mutation, which is reected in the sculpt on

the other side of the face/body, so everything

we know from human anatomy will be more

recognizable on this side of the character, giving

the appearance that the process is already

taking place (Fig.15).







Inner organs and structures would be stressed

by this mutation, so I start sculpting some hybrid

anatomy where parts are more human like;

others are blended, whilst some are a completemess – all this is to show that something weird

is going on right now, making it difcult to fully

understand what this creature once was.

The sculpting process here is the same as

done for the earlier concept, using the Clay and

Clay Tubes brushes, sometimes also taking

advantage of the Standard brush to apply some

sharp details (veins, depressions) (Fig.16 – 17).

For the ne tendons you can see in the

examples, I used the Clay Tubes brush to rough

out the inner part of the elbow, or the “human”

side of the torso, crossing strokes until I got a

pattern that mimicked what I needed. Taking

the Standard brush, with a really low ZIntensity

and a small Draw Size, I started to slowly sculpt

patterns, crossing them together and nding

merging points. Looking at sculptures from

Masters such as Jordu Schell, or Steve Wang,

you can really understand how these patterns

work and be inspired by them!

Final Sculpting DetailsWhen most of the work is done you need to

spend time working on the smaller details.

Don’t be in a hurry, all the steps need time and

hard work, and it’s really important to continue

working until you feel satised. Every step

needs the same level of attention.

In my case, I can’t really get close to the shell’s

appearance just with the sculpting alone, but

with some ne details I can describe the surface

much more and add an extra level of realism.

One way to do this is to use the projection

of alphas of random organic noise patterns,

created freehand in Photoshop or using a

section of a texture (I use the 3DTotal Texture

DVDs, they have a huge amount of different

surfaces to sample from), with a Standard brush

and the Stroke set to DragRect. Try to vary

the scale and rotation of your projection to get

a more organic and believable distribution of

details. You can also use customized and more

focused alphas, and place them where you

need them. I used this method to simulate little

cracks of plastered effects; you might want to

use this method also for veins or pores (Fig.18

– 19). The other way is to sculpt what you need

with custom alphas and use the Color Spray or







Spray Stroke. You can use a very small jagged

circle to simulate little spikes, for example.

The insect eye was tricky to get it how I wanted

it. As I mentioned previously, I used ZBrush’s

Sphere Primitive in the rst instance as a

placeholder, but I realized that the poles of the

sphere tend to get jagged once subdivided and

sculpted, so I needed clean geometry to workwith.

Using 3ds Max I create a simple primitive

sphere with spherical UV mapping; I export

the mesh as an .obj, import it into ZBrush, and

position it using Transpose (Fig.20).

I then use Photoshop to create a beehive-like

pattern that can mimic the insect’s divided eye

– basically a black and white image with white

hexagonal cells separated by black (Fig.21).

Once I have the height map for the cells done,

I import it into ZBrush as a texture, apply it to

the imported sphere, and use it to mask the

geometry of the eye based on the texture’s

intensity (Fig.22).

With the sphere masked, I the use the Inat

Deformation to pull out the cells and get the nal

divided eye (Fig.23).

I had a few problems with antennae. I rst

used ZSpheres to create a rough base mesh

for them, appended them as a SubTool, and

sculpted. I wasn’t satised with this version

though; the antennae were too distracting for

me and I didn’t like the shape too much (Fig.24).

So to x the antennae problem, I create a

cylinder in Max with evenly spaced subdivisions,

and then, using an FFD box modier, I

proportionally scale down the top. To create the

repeated bulging effect I just use the scale tool

with an edge every once in a while to get the

recesses I need (Fig.25).

In order to make the antennae curved the way I

want them to, I create a Spline with the desired

curvature and then deform the cylinder using a

Path Deform (WSM) modier, with the spline as

the path (Fig.26).







Once the sculpting is nished I want to pose the

character using Transpose Master. Something

to be aware of here is that sometimes this

amazing tool doesn’t work properly; I don’t

understand if it’s something I’m doing wrong

or something related to this particular model,

but what happens is that when I use the tool to

pose the character how I want him, and once I

transfer the pose back to the subdivided mesh,

I lose all my subdivision levels. My solution

for this problem is to disable the UV for all my

SubTools. This works just ne, and nally I

have my happy ending with the results I want

(Fig.27).

Polypainting andTexturingI collect all the references I can about insects

for this part of the process, as this is perhaps

the most important part of texturing – it’s not just

about colors, but also being able to understand

and recreate how nature works as closely as

you can.

I’ve found some really very interesting color

schemes in the insect world, but I also realized

that it’s very difcult to adapt bright colors to

my concept, even though they are the most

interesting ones. I think the main problem with

this is that they look too fake when painted.

The rst thing I do to begin the Polypainting

process is to ll the object (remember to turn on

Colorize from the Texture sub palette in the Tool

menu, and have the RGB value set to 100) with

a bright green color – this will be my base color

for the insect half of the character (Fig.28).

To keep things looking interesting, I use mostly

the Color Spray stroke to get some variations







in luminosity, with different values for the Draw

Size and lots of different tones of green, red

and yellow. I then use the same process for the

human side of the model, just using skin tones

instead (Fig.29 – 30).

With the main variations painted, I decide to

create a texture just for the body (leaving other

SubTools, such as the antennae and eyes, for

the Polypainting technique) for two reasons: rst

of all, I don’t have enough polys to describe the

textures; and second, I need some other tools

that you can only access using the Projection

Master.

So rst I create an 8K white texture (this might

be a bit large, but if you can handle these

large les it’s better to resize them down later

rather of realizing in the middle of the texturing

process you don’t have high enough resolution).

Then, with the body SubTool selected, I turn

off Colorize from the texture sub palette, go

down to level zero in my geometry subdivisions,

set 100 for the RGB value, apply an AUV tiles

mapping, and nally hit the Col > Txr button to

transfer all my polypainted data onto the texture

(Fig.31).

So far so good!Now I have a lot more possibilities painting wise;

not only using the Standard brush, but also

the ability to use all the Pixol tools, such as the

Sharpen, Blur, Intensity and Contrast brushes,

and so on.

The rst step is to enforce the depth of my

texture by dimming the cavity areas and

lightening the elevated ones. To do this I mostly

use the Standard brush with falloff alphas like

Alpha 01 or Alpha 37, to get a nice gradient

between the two tonal values, also with the help

of the Intensity brush (Fig.32).







Sometimes when you use the Intensity brush

too much, you can get noisy results, but don’t

worry because it’s easy to x with the Blur brush

in no time at all!

It’s OK to use custom alphas to break down the

color, using either the Spray or the DragRect

stroke. And it’s important not to cover your

sculpted data with a generic texture, but make

sure you always enforce or highlight what you

had previously described in your sculpt. For

example, if you have tiny spots all around the

sculpted surface, make sure to paint over them

with a different color to accentuate them, or ifyou have a crack in the surface, just enforce it

by dimming the recess.

On the eshy side I use the Standard brush with

a very small Draw Size to paint in some veins,

trying to change the Draw Size to get some

variations in the scale, using different colors,

from green to purple (Fig.33 – 34).

I use some cropped textures from the 3DTotal

Textures DVDs (www.3dtotal.com/textures) as

alphas to DragRect onto the surface to get some

sharper variations; you could use dirt, concrete,

organic-looking textures, or just patterns that t

with your model and concept (Fig.35 – 36).

Also experiment with the already mentioned

Pixol brushes (Intensity, Contrast etc.) with

custom alphas. You can get some very nice

effects with the right settings; just remember

that, while in Projection Master, you’re basically

painting as with a traditional 2D package, so

take full advantage of it!

Something to be aware of is that the RGB value

tends to color a lot from the very lower settings:

working with a value like 2 or 4 was enough for

me for most of the painting session; the higher

I got it was something like 18 on a range from 0

to 100.

You can project paint some photo references

if you need them, too. There is a great video

tutorial by Krishnamurti Costa (www.antropus.

com/tutorials.htm) that explains this process

very well. Basically, once in Projection Master,

you select a ZBrush Plane as a tool with the

photo reference image you need as the texture,

and a basic circle with falloff as the alpha to

smooth out the corners. Make sure you have

ZAdd set to 0, and simply draw your plane on

the canvas. You can then use the standard

sculpting tools to deform it to make it better t

your model. This is a handy way to use photos

to texture your model – thanks to Krishnamurti

Costa for sharing his technique with the

community!

Rendering andCompositingWe’re now at the nal stage of production of this

Manimal.

I rst of all create a pass of the texture alone,

with a at material (Fig.37). I then ll all the

SubTools with a white color and use MatCaps

to render out different passes, with and without

shadows (I can then choose what I will or won’t



http://www.antropus.com/tutorials.htm










use). I use some human skin and insect photos

to create some custom MatCaps – this process

is well explained in the ZBrush Documentation

you can already nd online.

For the shadows and Ambient Occlusion, I use

a custom-made MatCap that mimics the effect.

I’m also sure to render out a ZDepth pass that

will be handy for a depth of eld effect later on in

Photoshop. To do this, go to the Alpha palette,

press (at the very bottom) the GrabDoc button,

and export it.

Other custom materials are used for the

specular: I ll all the SubTools with black

and use the Basic Material or the Toy Plastic

Material, and I adjust the specular curve as I

need to in order to get wet-looking highlights, or

glossy specular (Fig.38a – b).

In Photoshop you’re free to experiment,

adjusting the Brightness/Contrast and/or the

Color Balance, using masks to differentiate the

shading or even doing some paintover work

if you need to. For example, I have added a

bit of smoke to the bottom to better blend the

character with the background (Fig.39).

ConclusionThis was an extraordinary project, not only

because I was free to develop my own

interpretation of the subject but also because I

have learned so much about the insect world,

as well as about sculpting and texturing. Every

project needs you to nd solutions to achieve

the desired results, and every time it’s a great

challenge. What I can suggest is for you to work

hard to get to where you want to be, and if you

can’t get there, well you’ll have to work harder,

defeat the problems and nd solutions; think in a

different way and enjoy what you’re doing. This

is the fundamental point to all this!





I hope you have found this tutorial interesting

and the techniques offered will be useful to

you with your own projects. Good luck to you

all, please feel free to contact me with any

questions!

Federico ScarbiniFor more from this artist visit

http://www.federicoscarbini.com

or contact

[email protected]

http://www.federicoscarbini.com/



http://www.federicoscarbini.com/



chapter 6




Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook Chapter 06 - Reptilian-Man

Reptilian-ManSoftware Used: ZBrush and Photoshop

IntroductionIn this tutorial I’ll try to teach you my workow

while creating a “reptilian-man” from simple

base mesh in ZBrush. I’ll aim to show

you through the whole process – from the

basic development of proportions, through

retopologizing in ZBrush, to rendering, and

nally post-production in Photoshop.

I won’t start out with any concept drawings

before starting this model in ZBrush – when you

download the free movies with this tutorial you’ll

see that my reptilian concept is created during

the sculpting stage. This way of working is not

always a good idea – it’s always better to know

what you want to do before you start, and if you

can’t draw then you can at least look for some

good reference images on the internet to give

you an idea.

SculptingI start this new character in the same way as all

the other artists of this series have done before

me, with a simple human base mesh (which is

available for download with this tutorial).

Before I start sculpting, for easier selection I go

ahead and divide the mesh, whilst at the lowest

subdivision level, into Polygroups. I hide any

unnecessary parts of the model (press Ctrl +

Shift, and then release Shift) and use Group

Visible in the Tool > Polygroups menu.

With the Polygroups created, I can then start

to transform the base mesh by masking, using

the Move brush, and the Move/Rotate/Scale

Transform tools (W/E/R) to change the overall

shapes and proportions to something less

human-like in shape (Fig.01).

To create a mask, you simply press and hold

the Ctrl key when painting on the surface of your

model. You can also erase unnecessary parts of

mask by pressing and holding the Alt key, whilst

the Ctrl key is still being held. To completely

erase a mask drag on the empty canvas holding

Ctrl; Ctrl-clicking on the canvas will invert the

mask. You can also blur a mask (Ctrl-click on

the masked part of your model) and sharpen it

(Ctrl + Alt-click). I like to hide my mask during

work to make the changes I create more visible

(Ctrl + H). There is also a very useful feature

called Topological Masking which works with

the Move, Rotate or Scale Transform active –

simply press and hold the Ctrl key whilst in one

of these modes and click-and-drag over your

model. You can then create a mask following

your mesh topology.

Whilst still at the lowest level of subdivision (or

in the second level at most), I begin to block

in the basic body shapes, generally using the

Standard and Clay Tubes brushes. It’s a good

idea also to lower the Smooth brush’s ZIntensity

here; standard settings make the smoothing

too destructive when working in low levels of

subdivision (Fig.02).






Chapter 06 - Reptilian-Man Manimal ZBrush Character Creation eBook

When working on the overall shapes of a

character design, I try to not concentrate on just

one part of model. I jump from head to hands,

using masking and the Move tool to changeproportions. From time to time I also like to

change the material to a at black color to check

how the silhouette is working (Fig.03). You

can create your own black silhouette viewing

material – and save it in material menu – out of

any of basic ZBrush basic materials (Fig.04).

When I have something looking more or less

satisfactory, I subdivide once or twice more

and then start working on the smaller forms ofthe body, such as the eye sockets, ngers and

muscles. Using mostly the Clay Tubes brush

with a strong ZIntensity, I try to create natural

looking shapes for the muscles. It’s important

to always keep in mind at this stage of work the

bone structure, too. Muscles don’t exist without

an underlying bone structure, so it can be really

helpful at this point to mark some of the bones

and joints in.

From time to time I nd it useful to look at

anatomy reference images – not completely

trying to copy human muscles, just using them

as a guide for my modeling work. I then use the

Inat brush to add some volume to the larger

muscles of the body.

To create the eye sockets I choose to append

an eyeball SubTool. This helps me to makethe eyelids correctly and helps me to avoid

problems later on when matching them to the

eyeballs (Fig.05).

To create an eyeball I use the Sphere3D tool

from the Tool menu. Draw it on the canvas and

use the Make PolyMesh3D button in the Tool

palette to enable sculpting. Next, switch to your

main tool, use the Append button in the SubTool

palette and choose your Polymesh sphere.

Switch to your eyeball SubTool in the SubTool

palette and use Move (W), Scale (E) and Rotate

(R) to place the eye in the right position. With

the eye SubTool selected, use the Clone button

in the Tool menu to create a copy of the eyeball.

Append the copied eyeball in SubTool palette.

Next, skip to the Deformations palette and use

the Mirror button to mirror your cloned eyeballtool to right side of the model.

Whilst working on my reptilian head I’m using

some iguana reference photos that I’ve found

on Google Images. I’m not trying to make a

perfect copy of a reptilian head, I just like to

use photos to follow and use them as a guide

for the overall shapes. I’ve chosen to make the

back of his head much bigger than what you’d

expect of a reptile, as he should in theory have

a bigger brain. I’ve also decided to make his

mouth shorter.

With the overall forms dened, I’m now going

to start to add the smaller details. Using the

Standard brush with Gravity set to around 30 in

the brush options, I sculpt in some skin folds,

and then use the Standard brush with Brush

Mod at 15-20 and a small alpha to sharpen

some of the edges, like the eyelids, nostrils and

smaller skin creases (Fig.06).

Retopologizing After playing with details and sharpening up

edges, I’ve decided to retopologize my model.

It isn’t absolutely necessary, but I’ve noticed

some geometry stretching in the lower parts of

the body which could lead to problems in later

stages of sculpting – especially as I’ll be working

with scales.

To start the retopologizing process, I create

a ZSphere on my canvas. I go to the Tool >







Rigging menu and use the Select Mesh button

to choose my model (Fig.07). With the mesh

selected I then go to Tool > Topology and

choose Edit Topology.

Before I start to create new topology, I like to

turn off the viewport shadows in the Render

> Preview Shadows menu – this just makes

the visibility of the model better, especially in

areas like the bottom of the chin or armpits. I

then click on the canvas outside of the model to

avoid attaching the rst topology point to a point

already existing inside the model.

Creating new topology in ZBrush is rather easy,

much like building a cage of quads on a model’s

surface. In this part of the work I switch from

graphics tablet to mouse to have better control

and avoid any random clicks. Keeping the brush

size small, I start creating new topology simply

by clicking on the model. When you create a

new topology point, it’s selected (a red circle

around the point), and the next click on the

model’s surface will create the point connected

to it. If you want to create a new point without

connecting it to the last one, click on the canvas

to deselect your last point. To select a new point

without creating a new edge, press Ctrl and click

on it. You can also delete unnecessary points

(Alt-click) or move them (W and Q – back to

paint mode). You can also use Ctrl-Shift to hide

parts of model if necessary, just like when in

sculpting mode.

When creating new topology in ZBrush I try

to use the same rules as when sculpting or

painting. First I create big shapes (edge loops

around the muscles, eyes or mouth), and take

care of the details later (lling big edge loops

with smaller quads). I prefer to turn off the

symmetry when creating geometric points in

the center of the model, just to avoid errors with

doubled centered points. It’s important to keep

all topology in quads if possible (ZBrush doesn’t

like triangles!). Create denser topology in places

which need more detail, like the mouth, eyes or

ears. Use fewer, larger quads in less important

places (Fig.08).

When the new topology is ready, I use the

Preview button in the Adaptive Skin menu to

make it visible. I set the Density slider to 1,

turn on Polyframe view (Shift + F) and carefully

check for errors in the mesh (look out for

any unnecessary holes or doubled edges).







If everything looks ne I then use the Make

Adaptive Skin button to create my 3D tool from

the topology (Fig.09).

Reprojecting Details onto New Topology

First I select my original model from the Tool

menu. I draw it onto the canvas and hit T to get

into Edit mode. Next I use the Append button in

the SubTool menu to append my new topology

object as a new SubTool. I set my old model to

the third or fourth subdivision level and switch to

the new topology SubTool.

For safety, I create a new Morph Target

(StoreMT in the Morph Target menu). With the

Morph Target stored I can use the Morph brush

to remove any projection errors, like exploding

vertices. I then hit the Project All button in

the SubTool menu. If everything looks good I

can switch to the rst SubTool, go to a higher

subdivision level, then go back to the new

topology tool, subdivide it and use Project All

again (Fig.10).

Do the same for every subdivision level. In

the case of problems use the Morph brush to

erase projection errors. Of course, you can

use projection immediately on the highest

subdivision level rather than skipping between

tools and using this step-by-step technique, but I

prefer this method – it takes more time but helps

to avoid errors.

With the details projected onto my new model I

use a mask and rotate (R) to open my reptilian-

man’s mouth (Fig.11).

I can now go back to Edit Topology, this time

using the lowest subdivision level. Using the

same method as before I go into Edit Topology

mode and, holding Shift, I simply paint the

existing topology onto my model. All I have to do

is to patch the hole inside his mouth with new

geometry (Fig.12 – 13).







I repeat the same steps as before to project the

details onto the model with the patched mouth.

Finishing Details and Adding SubToolsWith my new retopologized mesh I can now

work some more details over it, sharpening

some edges with the Pinch brush, and using the

Standard brush with Gravity and the Inat brush

to give a more natural look to the skin folds and

muscles. For some of the smaller wrinkles I

use the Standard brush with a blurred Alpha 59

(Fig.14).

To make teeth for my model, give him spikeson his back and tongue, as well as some

claws, I append a ZSphere SubTool. I model

some simple ZSphere teeth (Fig.15) and use

Adaptive Skin > Make Adaptive Skin to turn it

into geometry. I then use Tool > Clone, along

with Mirror in the Deformation menu, to make

the upper teeth.

I model just one ZSphere spike and use copies

of it for all the other spikes, and with a few small

changes I can use it for the claws as well (use

Clone just once and then append as many

copies as needed in the SubTool menu). I use

Transpose, Move, Scale and Rotate to place the

spikes and claws into the right positions. And

nally, I use the SubTool Master plugin (http://

www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/

zplugins/) to merge all claws and spikes into one

SubTool – this makes the navigation between

SubTools much easier (Fig.16).

With all the spikes and claws in place I’ve

decided I’m going to make some scales now,

rather than just have a at skin – I want to

make my reptilian-man look less human and

more interesting! For small scales I’m using the

Standard brush with low ZIntensity, DragRect

stroke, and a couple of reptile skin alphas

which I’ve found on the internet. You can nd

lots of free alphas at the Pixologic Download

Center (http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/

downloadcenter/alpha/). You can also create

your own alphas in Photoshop from photos –

simply convert a photo to 8- or 16-bit grayscale.

I actually prefer to paint my alphas by hand

though, as it gives me more control than using a

photo (Fig.17).

To avoid ugly intersections between individual

brushstrokes I make use of Radial Fade in the

Alpha menu, which makes the outer edges of

the alpha more transparent. I always try to follow

the natural ow of muscles and skin, placing my

brushstrokes carefully and trying to rotate the

alpha in the right direction (move your graphics

tablet or mouse holding the left button to rotate

or scale the alpha with the DragRect stroke)

(Fig.18).







The large scales on his head and ngers I have

made by hand. I start by painting the shape of

the scales using a mask (holding Ctrl). I then

invert the mask (Ctrl + I) and hide it for bettervisibility (Ctrl + H). When sculpting scales, I use

the same technique as before, mostly using the

Clay Tubes brush along with the Standard and

Pinch brushes, and nally the Inat brush comes

in handy to give volume. A couple of strokes

of a low intensity Flatten brush helps make the

scales look more angular (Fig.19).

Pose

To pose my character I use the TransposeMaster plugin (http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/

downloadcenter/zplugins/) (Fig.20). It’s simple

to use: just click the TPoseMesh button in the

plugin menu and it creates a low version of the

model with all SubTools merged together.

I use the usual masking and rotate technique

to make some pose changes here, and when

ready I press the TPose > SubTool button in the

Transpose Master menu to transfer changes

to the original model, including all SubTools.

Finally, I use a couple of strokes of the Inat and

Standard brushes to make the posed muscles

look much more natural (Fig.21).

PolyPaintingBefore I start painting, I change the material to

MatCap White. I also use a modied FastShader

(Fig.22) and Flat Color materials to check the

look of my texture from time to time.

I don’t like ZBrush’s color selection too much,

so I prepare a couple of color palettes from

reptile photos in my paint program and load

them onto a ZBrush canvas using the Image

Plane plugin (http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/

downloadcenter/zplugins/) (Fig.23). I can now

select colors from my palette just by clicking

on the ZBrush color selector and dragging it to

the right color in my palette on the canvas. You

could do the same thing with a photo rather than

a palette, to sample real colors from it.

I’m now going to turn off ZAdd on my Standard

brush, turn RGB on, and ll the model with a

base color (Color > Fill Object). I add some color







variation with the Color Spray stroke with a low

RGB intensity, with a couple of different alphas.

I continue painting with a very low RGB intensity

(around 3-6) with different color variations, trying

to make recessed parts of the model darker, and

adding small details with skin alphas and the

DragRect stroke. Finally, I use cavity masking to

select cracks between the scales and I ll them

with a dark, almost black color (still using a low

RGB intensity), just to make them more visible

(Fig.24 – 25).

RenderingFor the nal render I use Grant Warwick’s

GW_SkinCore material as the base shader (free

to download with this tutorial – simply click on

the Free Resources icon). Three versions of

basic materials are setup to show only specular

highlights with different specular curve settings

(Fig.26); white MatCap is used as an ambient

occlusion pass for compositing; and I make a

Flat Color render just to be safe (in case I need

to make some color corrections later).

I also use Alpha > Grab Doc to create a ZDepth

pass, plus a at color render with the various

SubTools lled with different colors to use as a

mask in Photoshop (Fig.27).

I make some changes now to the standard light

settings (Fig.28) where I set Super Sample to 2

in the Render > Antialiasing menu. I then make

the nal renders in double the resolution of the

nal image, simply for better antialiasing.

Compositing And now it’s time for a little post-production

in Photoshop. The nal renement in your 2D

application of choice is one of most important

parts of creating a good image. My basic render

from ZBrush doesn’t look too encouraging (Fig.

29), but then even the best Mental Ray renders

sometimes need some help from Photoshop!

So rst of all I create a new Photoshop







document with all my ZBrush render passes

in it (Fig.30). I use my Flat Color render as a

clipping mask for all the other layers, so I apply

it over the background and use the CreateClipping Mask function (Alt + Ctrl + G) for all

layers over it.

Now, with the clipping mask active for higher

layers, I can work on my background. I use a

low opacity brush to make a smoky looking

effect, a couple of low intensity color gradients,

along with a little use of the Blur and Smudge

tools, and it’s ready!

I can now take care of the reptilian gure. I use

some different layer compositing options and

opacity values for my render passes: Color Burn

for my at color pass, Overlay for my ambient

occlusion one, and Screen and Lighten for

different specular passes. I also use a Layer

Mask for some of the passes and make some

hand corrections to them. This part of the work

is mostly about experimentation with different

blending modes and opacity levels. I nd that

using a couple of adjustment layers like Levels,

Hue/Saturation and Brightness/Contrast are also

particularly effective to help you get your desired

results (Fig.31).

To nish the post-production work, I’ve decided

to add a little drool effect to his mouth. I was a

bit too lazy to paint all the tiny highlights in his

saliva by hand, so I simply use a new layer with

couple of blending options like Drop Shadow,

Outer/Inner Glow, and Bevel and Emboss

(Fig.32). With these blending effects set I can







paint drops of saliva with a simple black color, and the layer effects do the

rest of work for me (Fig.33)! I use the Screen blending mode for this layer,

and after attening the image I use the Dodge Tool to emphasize the

highlights in the drool.

And here is the nal composition (Fig.34).

ConclusionI’m pretty happy with how my nal image has turned out. It may not be

photo realistic, but I like the results and what I’ve achieved. This was my

rst work completely rendered in ZBrush (I normally use Mental Ray to

render) so I think it has come out pretty well for

a debut! I also had lots of fun working on it, so

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and that it

helps you to come up with something in ZBrush

that you’re also proud of. Thanks for reading!

Tomasz KwiecinskiFor more from this artist contact them at:

[email protected]





http://www.3dtotal.com/bugatti_veyron



http://www.3dtotal.com/bugatti_veyron



In this series we will be working our way through the basic process of creating a creature bust, then taking

it to completion by the last chapter. We will be starting with a basic Zsphere base mesh that we will create

ourselves and we’ll use this as our starting point for sculpturing and nally adding texture to. The tutorial series

is split into 7 chapters so that we can take it at a beginner’s pace and cover as much ground as possible forpeople totally new to Zbrush. (Plus you’ll end up with a nished digital sculpt that will give you the condence to

approach you own projects in a similar manner.)

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http://www.3dtotal.com/swordmaster/

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Introduction:The original character of the Swordmaster

was created by Seong-wha Jeong and we

had 3DTotal’s in-house 3d artist Richard

Tilbury, re-create the character in 3dsmax

as well as create the textures in Photoshop,

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highly polished, low polygon game character

with detailed texturing for real-time render-

ing. We have also converted the tutorials into

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platforms. Even if you are not a user of one ofthem, the principles should be easily followed

in nearly all other 3D applications.

The Swordmaster tutorials is spread over 8

Chapters which outline, in detail, the process

for creating the Swordmaster below are the

details.

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Chapter 1: Modelling the Head

Chapter 2: Modelling the Torso

Chapter 3: Modelling the Arms & Legs

Chapter 4: Modelling the Clothing & Hair

Chapter 5: Modelling the Armour

Chapter 6: Mapping & Unwrapping

Chapter 7: Texturing the Skin & Body

Chapter 8: Texturing the Armour & Clothing

image by Seong-wha Jeong

Downloadable Tutorial EBook









































The series is split into 6 chapters and will endeavour to give you an insight into how a fully realised 3D scene

may be arrived at from beginning to end. The tutorials will attempt to address the key issues and techniques

appropriate in achieving this, from concept sketches through to building the 3D scene, mapping and

unwrapping, texturing and eventually to lighting and rendering, culminating in a fnal render . The emphasis overthe course of the series will be on the texturing and principally the aging and wear of materials.

Original Author: 3DTotal.com Ltd | Platform: 3ds max, Cinema 4d, LightWave, Maya and Softimage XSI

Format: DOWNLOAD ONLY PDF | Pages: 38+


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Zbrush Character Creation is a comprehensive look at the techniques and tools used to sculpt a variety of

physical characteristics specic to several character types. The lessons on offer show how to transform a

general base mesh into a denitive character class and explains the tools used to not only create the details

and unique facial features, but also how to manipulate the overall proportions and head shapes. There arenine chapters in all, ve of which cover the human condition and four of which cover creatures with human

characteristics including zombie, werewolf and Frankenstein’s monster.

Original Author: 3DTotal.com Ltd | Platform: ZBrush | Format: DOWNLOAD ONLY PDF | Pages: 091


3DTOTAL.COM

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Introduction: Michel Roger’s famous ‘Joan of Arc’

tutorial re-written for Maya by Taylor

Kingston, Cinema 4D by Giuseppe

Guglielmucci & Nikki Bartucci,

Lightwave by Vojislav Milanovich and

Softimage by Luciano Iurino and

3DCreative Magazine.com.

If there has been one single tutorialthat has educated and inspired more

budding 3d artists than anything else,

this complete step by step project by

Michel’s must be it. The community

is in debt to him.

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These 120 plus page, Downloadable PDF’s are

designed for ease of use to help beginners and

intermediate level of artist alike in the creation

of a female character. The tutorial takes you

through the process of modelling, texturing and

mapping to fnally adding bones.

Chapter 1: Modeling of the Body

- Body

Chapter 2: Modeling of the Head

- Head, Ear & Assembly

Chapter 3: Modeling of the Accessories

- The Sword & Armour Legs


- Armour Bust, Hair & Glove


- Accessories & UVW Mapping

Chapter 6: UVW Mapping

- Sword, Clothing, Armour & Body

Chapter 7: Texturing & Hair

- Eyes, Skin & Hair

Chapter 8: Bones & Skinning

- Bases, Hierarchy & Skinning

I m a g e b y M i c h e l R

o g e r

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This e-book provides a detailed account of building, texturing and lighting the interior of a Gothic Church based

upon a concept painting. The ebook is available in ve different platforms. Chapter two however is dedicated to

creating a gargoyle in Zbrush – the focal point in our scene. Here the author will start by creating a rough body

form using ZSpheres and move through the numerous sculpting phases and modeling the details for each partof the character, highlighting the various brushes and tools used throughout.

Original Author: 3DTotal.com Ltd | Platforms: 3ds max, Cinema 4d, LightWave, Maya and Modo.

Format: DOWNLOAD ONLY PDF | Pages: 47+


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The tutorial eBook will begin by creating and applying materials for the various parts of the car, such as glass,chrome and tyres, as well as texturing some simple geometry that will make up a scene. It will then move onto

lighting where the focus will be on setting up a lighting rig and the various parameters connected to this. Finallythe series will culminate with a section on rendering, where the aim will be to fnish with a polished image.

Original Author: 3DTotal.com Ltd | Platform: 3ds max, Cinema 4d, LightWave, Maya and Softimage XSIFormat: DOWNLOAD ONLY PDF | Pages: 44+


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