Modelling my Cthulhu Hammer... Again (27/2/2013)

After being reminded of the work that we needed to do for this module I tried to find my saved Cthulhu Hammer model only for it to be missing! Unable to find it I was forced to remodel the whole thing.
You can see this process below.

I first of all tried to copy my original stick with the nine rings on it. Unable to get the stick to look the same height or width as my previous one, however I decided to make the stick longer and add two more rings onto it in order to make it look more like it was originally. 

I was then going to go on to copying my process for the hammer and the hammer head when my lecturer came over to look at my work. Showing him my presentation again and explaining that my original model was lost he helped me. Unable to find it himself he recommended that I do each bit of the hammer separately before sticking them together. Therefore he made a start on the hammer head that you can see below.

After which I then added to it a more bulbish forehead in accordance to Cthulhu's head whilst making sure to add detail to the model by 'raking' it.

Looking over how to design the tentacles for the hammer head I added a sphere to the scene before adding a 'CurveTube' as I did originally for my hammer head tentacles but didn't like. However, this time I smoothed the tentacle to make it look less cylindrical and added rakes in order to give it more detail.

I then duplicated the tentacles and added them to the hammer head, also adding spheres in order to create eye balls. 

I also made a start on the hammer itself which you can see below.

By the end of the session my lecturer had sent me his notes having looked over my work. His notes are as follows.
'Looked at powerpoint, good reference material. Getting more confident with ZBrush but still feel more comfortable with 3dsMax. Grenade is very good with textures. Current hammer stick has been lost but already has good idea of how to get back to that stage. Looked at using claybuildup, rake and standard brushes to sculpt Cthulhu. Use curve brushes to get tentacles again.'    

Further ZBrush Presentations and Modelling (12/2/2013)

Firstly we watched the rest of the group's presentations.

Afterwards we were told a number of techniques that we could use for our our future ZBrush models. 
Below are the notes which include the steps I took to make certain objects after our lecturer had shown us how to do it.

Notes:

• Use 'Skin shade 4' as your model's texture if it is meant to appear organic. 
• Don't use the colour black on models as ZBrush uses that for transparency (similar to a green screen effect).  
• 'B' key followed by the 'M' key followed by the 'E' key brings up the 'Elastic Tool' which can be used to stretch the model. 
• 'B' key then 'I' key and finally 'W' key are then used to add shapes to the object instead of just stretching the objects on it already.
• 'Curvetubes' is another cool method I could use to make the Cthulhu face on my hammer as you can easily bend the tubes to your liking. Therefore it's not only good for tentacles, but also for hair, wires and whiskers.   
• I should 'Merge' my sub tools as each one takes up A LOT of memory. Can use 'Split' afterwards to restore them if need be. 
• 'OBJ' is the universal saving format that people use in order to transfer meshes from one program to another e.g. ZBrush to 3ds Max.

Shadowbox and other modelling:

Started of finding a ‘Shadowbox’ on ZBrush under the ‘Tools’ option before adding it to the screen. 

Holding down the 'Ctrl' key whilst holding down left click with the mouse I was able to make it produce shapes such as the one below. Depending on the side on the 'Shadowbox' I draw on I can get different angles and shapes.

Using the 'X' key you can even include symmetry in your work as seen on the object below. 

Our lecturer explained that using symmetry was perfect for making jewellery and objects. You could even make gears which would be perfect for anyone who likes Steampunnk. This of course made me sit up and take notice which everyone else recognised and laughed along with me.

Therefore I decided to try design my own symbol as seen below using more than just two dots of symmetry.

Messed around with the elastic tool below to create some sort of space ship.

Adding spheres next I then stretched them to get the following.

I then used ‘Curve tools’ as mentioned before in order to change the space ship to a monster face that included tentacles.

The above thus helped me a lot as I then decided to make a start on my Cthulhu hammer. You can see the process below.

Using the ‘Deformation’ table I was able to more easily edit my shapes. For example, making the ‘Size’ a higher number and selecting only the Z axis allowed me to stretch the staff for the hammer.

Pressing ‘Append’ then allowed me to add extra shapes to my scene including the ring on the staff below that I also made bigger by increasing its ‘Size’.

I then used ‘Duplicate’ on the ‘SubTool’ section in order to add extra rings that I moved up and down by its Z axis using ‘Offset’ by ‘400’ each time.

Then added a sphere to the top of the staff which I edited by molding it in order to create the basic shape of my hammer head.

Finally I messed around with different methods in order to create the tentacles for the Cthulhu face. Although the below didn’t look too bad I decided to get rid of the tentacles on it anyway as they just didn’t look right to me. But at least I have now narrowed down my search for a method.

One good idea from my friend Jim that I plan to hopefully include in my work is maybe the Cthulhu language that you can find online. Thus I could inscribe/etch these words into the pole perhaps using the ‘Shadowbox' method that I learned today.