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Ricky's Sketchbook


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Well it occurs to me that the next middle-detail is going to take a little longer than expected.

Here's the workflow (I've already drawn in the lines):

1. BuildClay using diamond brush, gives nice hard edge

2. Chisel Large and small (using presets)

3. LiveClay to reduce seams

4. CreaseClay, to pull in edges

This is another 3hrs sculpting time (which includes re-doing head bricks too):

135281666990.jpg

135281638789.jpg

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  • Advanced Member

Posts attacking my workflow is exactly what I wanted from this thread, so I thank you for joining in.

I originally wanted my 'Thing' to look more organic than other models. I wanted to exaggerate and display the molecular change in his body, I wanted the brick formations to be unique and more sporadic. Because of this my workflow was as follows:

1. Basic sculpt and pose (no detail)

2. Outline brick pattern using a small inverse LiveClay brush

3. Select each brick outlined area and use the BuildClay tool to draw out the brick shape.

4. Sharpen brick shape with the Chisel brush.

5. Use the CreaseClay to pull in the cracks

6. Move onto another area and repeat steps 3 to 5

Now, a lot of the 3hrs included testing a couple of brushes, techniques and also (and this is something I need to stop doing) constantly zooming in and out to check the sculpt looks out (sometimes after a couple of strokes). But still, I agree that 3hrs is too long for that amount of detail on such a small area.

Now, I went back and opened up the last saved version and using the side I haven't built up yet, used your suggested method.

Not only does it not look 'tiled' (an effect I want to avoid and which is sometimes easily spotted when using masks) but on comparison looks better than the early detailed side. And it only took me 2 mins!

135288602209.jpg

So, I think I will drop back a few saves and start again with using the new method.

Keep the feedback coming guys and girls.

Cheers,

Ricky.

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  • Advanced Member

Great improve! But I think he will need a little more sharpness in the end

(but may be you are already planning to).

You will keep a bit of the rock feel of the original, don't you?

In that case, flaten (without soften) and pinch are your friends.

Keep it up!

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  • Advanced Member

Thanks.

I've done an hour after stripping back a few saves and cleaning up the sculpt, before using the new method.

A lot quicker and more rock like. Here's the top (front and back). I have yet to pinch and refine the bricks:

135289310038.jpg

135289290161.jpg

Question:

Is there anyway (or brush) to increase the depth of the cuts, without affecting the position or depth of the surface clay (similar to 'more in cavity' but for voxels/surface mode)?

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I think "Absolute" tool in surface mode, with a sharp alpha could work good,

but be careful, you could loose definition when coming back to voxels.

Probably something to do at the very end?

Yearoftheox solution with mask is not bad too IMO. But you may have to come back on

details to avoid a too repetitive feel (mask + kind of beveling the crevasse in a second time)

1) _ _

| |

| |

2) _ _

\ /

| |

Hope you'll understand my weird sketch. 1) hole, seen from the side, not above. No bevel. 2) hole (crevasse) + bevel

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  • Advanced Member

Hem, the result is not great.

Here is the pic:

the_thing.jpg

Obviously, it would take too long to use alternatively "absolute", "flaten", "pinch" and "chisel".

The best thing to do is may be to make your own alpha brush.

There's a good video tutorial by Digman about that on 3dc site. Have a look! :

http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10194&pid=79215&st=0entry79215

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No, cheers, that's what I thought you meant.

Errm, may just add to the depth in normal map when it comes to the paint job. I don't want to lose the detail on the fingers, but I want the same depth as the new cracks.

Thanks again.

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Good luck is what I seem to need to get 3DC to work for me with sculpts....

So I Autopo'd the sculpt and added in the strokes, density and then marked the UVs... just as a test before I do my own retopo.

Here are some screenshots. The main issue is the one at the end, where for some reason my normal map is coming in incorrectly (looks inverted)

and there are areas that are black (on the BakedOcclusion layer) and areas of the normal map that is missing detail from the Voxel sculpt. Oh, and the voxel sculpt now seems to have retained the colouring from the Density part of the Autopo routine!

Please tell me it's something I'm doing wrong.

135301312424.jpg

135301314569.jpg

135301315205.jpg

135301324425.jpg

Cheers,

Ricky.

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The best thing about 3DCoat is the many workflows and ways of creating the same effect in sculpting. We can tailor it to our style... :D

Press Ctrl and the D key in the voxel room to remove the Density part of the Autopo routine.

Skype session on your other problem if you so desire...

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Hi there mate. Thanks again for replying.

Cleared the Density part, cheers.

As for Skype, I won't be able to this evening (your afternoon) but I will be able to drop on around 2pm GMT which is 8 am your time. Is that ok?

Ricky.

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Ok, that's some neat stuff right there Mr Shpagin:

I'm manually retopo'n a mesh (which isn't a symmetrical voxel mesh). Stick on symmetry. Apply symmetry to layer. Use a big brush with the 'Brush' tool and all vertices re snap when brushed over the un-symmetrical side. That's a huge time saver.

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Is there anyway to in the Retopo room to select the edge of a poly loop and extend, similar to the extend function in Lightwave?

Here's what I mean, I can't see the other polys around the backside of the finger, but I want to extend the poly loop all the way down to the tip, then cap with quads.

post-3405-0-39127900-1353237736_thumb.jp

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I don't think there is such a function. I use split ring and slide edge in that case. You can't

extend the last edge ring (can't make it slide on voxel surface if there's no polygon after it).

For your NM problem. I think you can choose the orientation on +Y or -Y within 3dC before baking.

The other solution is to go in Photoshop, take the green channel of the baked normal map

and invert it (CTRL+SHIFT+I?). It is the cheating way though.

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There is a function for what you are trying to do... :)

In the Top Menu select edges.

Select your edges or edge loop.

Then in the left toolbar under the commands section, select Extrude. (define a hotkey for ease of use) You can keep extruding till you press the Esc. key

You might have to go back and adjust some of the polygons after you complete your extruding but cleaning up is very fast now.

Select "Move vertices" and make sure Auto is selected in the top menu. Now you can hover over a Vertex, edge or polygon and choose which one you want to adjust.

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Thanks guys for your extended assistance.

I found that the NM issues can be resolved in the paint room by selecting the layer and inverting the colour. But I will look into it further as I would like to solve it.

Away from The Thing problems... I am having problems with this site. I don't get private messages poppoing up. When I reply to a post I have to refresh the screen to see the post and as I said in a previous thread I cannot follow Garagarape's sketch page, so therefore I don't get updates. Should I send these faults to Andrew or is there someone else who is responsible for site maintenance?

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Wow, this has gotta be one of the best mesh explosions ever:

135335065829.jpg

On a good note, I may have solved the issue with the NM not hitting certain areas of the mesh when merged with the paint room.

Here's the problem area:

135335203316.jpg

What I did, to prove it wasn't the UV maps, was to setup a separate UV map just for the problem areas. The results were the same:

135335235063.jpg

So I went back to the Voxel room and used the 'cleanClay' brush on the problem areas, with the 'average' selection in the 'tool options'. I tried using the 'reconstruct' setting, but it tore the mess.

But after a few more hours of testing, and using Digman's suggestion of using one stage of subdivision I finally have a decent 4K UV'd Normal map and subsequent colour maps. I just need to raise the depthscan level to sort out the problem areas (represented by the red arrows).

135335255754.jpg

Once sorted I will be able to do the legs and shorts in a separate map.

Ricky.

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Just to test seams and stretching, I imported Thing into Lightwave and created a basic rig. Here are some test images.

I now need to bring his pants over as part of one model, but I'm having retopo issues as they are quite thin (used Voxel layer tool from main body sculpt) and the retopo mesh is snapping to the inside surface.

Will look at that in more detail tomorrow.

post-3405-0-00702400-1353451087_thumb.jp

post-3405-0-01988000-1353451101_thumb.jp

post-3405-0-38838400-1353451114_thumb.jp

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Ok, to follow on from my 'it's taking 25 mins to merge to the paint room' post...

Details of Ben Grimm Sculpt:

1. 12M+ in surface mode

2. Two Retopo groups

3. Three UV maps

4. All baked to 4K maps

5. Retopo mesh 4579 faces

22-25 mins - both 3DC V3 and V4.

Multithreading is on in preferences in V4.

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