I had a rather fine and arduous experience within z-brush over the last week, and after a few melt downs I managed to solve the issue what was causing the problems and finally got on with the sculpting. I made a few tweaks to the design as I felt that certain elements did not work as well as previously thought. The hat needed changing and I tweaked elements of the swords and guns in order to make them suit the theme a little more.
I tried to replicate a sort of general grievous inspired bone looking material for the main armour, and tried to keep the materials to quite worn and metallic bases. I overall feel the design came out alright, I'm happy with the final product with the way looks in terms of proportions and colour schemes, but there are elements but I do feel there needs to be some tweaks. I may play a bit with the final textures just to add a little more realistic effects to certain elements and tone down some of the elements that seem a little too grainy.
The robotics and armours included a lot of repeated elements to make the details, but from previous experience I made sure I unwrapped one object and duplicated it in series to avoid having to texture each segment individually. They way in which I unwrapped the model, seems I modelled first then went into Z-brush meant that the z-brush model I worked upon looked half completed as much of the detail was captured from one piece of the mesh, so basically rather than render uncompleted shots, I thought I would wait and update with a more complete model.
I worked on the weapons after the main body was completed, and I worked on them in separate files and posed them later within Maya. I tried to capture some floral motif design into the gun, on the handler to try and replicate some decorative elements to Japanese guns flintlock pistols.
I think I need to tone down the textures on he gun as it does seem like its made of a ferrous meta as opposed to looking work and damaged slightly. I may go back and look at the floral motif and make it stand out a little more, as it seems a bit drowned out during the piece. I had a lot of fun creating my own alphas and all suggested changes can be made very quickly. As I am still learning z-brush a lot of the techniques used were experimental and if I were to go back alter the model further it wouldn't take as long now having leant from my many many errors during the process.
The swords textures were enhanced using MTB2(MarmosetToolbag2) as initially though having hand painted textured for each element, the shaders and surfaces available within the software meant that I could portray metallic texture more accurately. I tried to add a sort of engraving to the blade to make to look more like a katana blade, despite being more heavily influenced by Count Doukoo's blade from StarWars. I decided to add a metallic decoration to the scabbard/sheathe as to help make it more interesting as opposed to just a leather cover.
I went back and altered the rice hat and made it flatter and to look more leathery worn. I feel this did help design as the hat kept drawing the eye away and initially it didn't look right. I am happier with the design and thanks to z-brush managed to incorporate some pattern work fairly easily, and it made the hat look that much better.
I feel that this project once again helped and pushed me that little bit further with using z-brush and I feel a lot more confident using the software and am now staring to get quicker at getting desired effects from the application. I am by no way an expert, but every project I do will present new challenges and make me use it in a different way. I have only ever used z-brush after having sculpted something previously in Maya, but now with a bit of experience I feel confident to produce work straight in the package and use the different workflow of modelling then retopologising afterwards.
Turnaround Video <<<<<<<<<< click to follow link
I was a really nice break to model something different from a car and assets, and I would love to be able to rig and pose this model. Though I don't know how to as of yet with more time and after deadlines I would love to pose the character to get a better feel for the character. As it stands time is slipping away and I can't find an animator to rig this for me, but hopefully I will learn to in the next couple of months.
No its time to steam ahead ( bad pun I know) with with my locomotive project as this is the only one I have not yet started and with the deadline in less than 3 weeks I am up against it. Challenge accepted. Lets get to it !!!
P.S as always C&C always welcomed.
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