RFX Design: DESIGN • ENERGY • MOTION: ZBrush 4 Release 2

9/22/11

ZBrush 4 Release 2

As I mentioned in a previous post, ZBrush has just come out with a new release of their software which is a huge game changer for me. The main thing that I love about it is the new Dynamesh feature. In previous versions of ZBrush, you were pretty much stuck with your base mesh and if you stretched your geometry too far, then you would get some very bad results. Dynamesh does something called "voxel sculpting," I believe. Another program called 3D coat has a pretty good explanation on the principle.

This little iguanadon alien thing started out as a simple 3D sphere. With a few pushes and pulls from dynamesh, I was able to eventually get the basic proportions that I wanted and then from there I did the normal ZBrush workflow of adding progressive details, even down to the fine details and textures. I then used Polypainting to get a rough texture on it.

All in all, the whole process from start to finish was about two hours. I'm sure in the future I can get the time down, but this changes a lot of things for me. For one, I'm not afraid of doing character meshes now that I can do this and then bring it back into Topogun to get it some animation-friendly topology. Right now it's only a "sketch," but it still is a heck of a lot quicker than doing a character the old fashioned way.

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What is this all about?

I was only nine years old when my brother brought the game Myst into our house. I remember vividly delving into it's surreal world and being mesmerized by the groundbreaking visuals that it held. It was at that moment that a seed of fascination had been planted inside me which continued to grow and grow and grow.

It has been many years since that day when I was introduced to the world of 3D computer animation, but I have had an increasingly strong desire to learn more and more about it. I remember the first computer animation I created as a teenager using Strata Studio Pro: a simple car driving around a corner and into a garage with the door closing behind it. The modeling was crude, there were no textures, the animation itself did not look realistic at all, the resulting movie took up a significant portion of our hard drive space, and the rendering time tied up the family computer for over a day. Despite all those things, I realized that there was something in my future involving this new developing medium.

My interest in 3D computer animation grew exponentially over the years and I have never been able to get enough of it. I am continually fascinated by the challenging visuals that are continually being achieved in the entertainment industry. I'm the type of person who will buy the special edition of the movie just so I can see all of the "Making Of" featurettes. I think I enjoy them more than the movie sometimes. Although I had this strong interest in 3D computer animation, I chose to do my undergraduate work in industrial design. I have no regrets about my decision to pursue that path, however, because I learned a great deal about proper proportions, composition, form, color theory, and how people's perception of things can be influenced by visual cues. I recognize that many of these principles translate very easily into visual entertainment.

I graduated from Brigham Young University in 2007 and was hired by Pride Mobility Products in Scranton, Pennsylvania. While there I was responsible for designing various mobility products such as powered wheelchairs, scooters, and other accessories. Oddly enough, however, I found my duties in the design team being focused more towards tasks that were closely related to what a technical director or render wrangler would do. I was often chosen to do the renderings for the products we designed because I understood how to program shaders and how to create HDR studio lighting setups. In addition, during our regular meetings, I found myself doodling little cartoon characters that I had dreamed up or dreaming up ways of how our products could transform into robots, etc. Eventually the itch returned and I realized that my ultimate goals and professional desired wouldn't be fully satisfied in my current career path.

In the spring of 2009 I decided that I wanted to pursue 3D computer modeling and animation as a profession and applied for the MFA program at Academy of Art University. I recently moved to Provo, Utah, and am currently taking classes online while I pursue some other personal goals. I am eager to collaborate on projects and am excited to get involved with the other graduate students. Feel free to check out my web site www.rfxdesign.com and give me any critiques on my work. I'm always looking for a chance to improve my knowledge and skills.

9/22/11

ZBrush 4 Release 2

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What is this all about?

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