It’s quite weird as an effects/programmer to relearn CG modelling, especially when it’s been several years since I did extensive character/scene models. Now maybe I’m becoming a well rounded CG generalist, or maybe uping skills to extend fx ability even further, since a lot of effects do rely on understanding topology/model detail etc (more practical than supernovas and nuclear blasts?).

zbrush is pretty fun so far, but I wish to learn more about controlling topology, since it’s a bit insane to just make polys 16x denser whenever more detail in a small area or direction is needed. zbrush does surprisingly well on a laptop, but I’m worried for maya when it needs to process that poly weight.

First model in zbrush:



aweful head!!

(* 7 sided just for fun)

Initial tests with the basic Z tutorials:

Radial symmetry sculpting is very nice and takes practice. I haven’t figured out ZProjection brush. The top of a dog head is embedded onto the vase. Maybe it doesn’t work with models with concave areas respective to view projection? So it’s like a z displacement?

Move brush on the blade. I’d rather use some larger deformers like lattice, since move can distort details while moving in a nonsmooth way. The video did it pretty well, so I should try fiddling with settings and move more precisely. Handle texture I’m totally not getting, fillobject? I can’t paint color, only entire mrgb shaders, and the paint edges are poly jagged.

Later add old maya into the mix…more to learn!

(fullsized models)
CG models