ZBrush Presentation (6/2/2013)

For this session I had to present a power point presentation of my work so far and what I plan to do next week with the Cthulhu hammer from my art project. By choosing to design the hammer from my art project not only does it show my skills at recreating drawings, but I can also add things to my 3D model that you perhaps couldn't include in a 2D drawing. For example, I can show wear and tear as if the hammer has been used before, skin and slime textures for its 'face' and finally hard wood for its staff.    

As for the other work on the presentation itself, I think that others agreed with me that the monster could have been a lot more detailed e.g. hair added for its eyebrow and moutache. But, at least the grenade was textured which people liked and overall it looked like a grenade which at least is a good thing.    


After finishing my presentation I then talked to my lecturer in order to find out how I could create Cthulhu's head as his tentacles are what I believe will be the most challenging part of my model.
Bringing up ZBrush my lecturer suggested the following tools and methods I could use:

• Dynamesh.
• Snakehook.
• Ctrl, click and drag on an empty canvas in order to make sub tools pointed e.g. tentacle like.
• Tool palette, Geometry and Dynamesh.
• Inflate Brush. 

However, the method I thought sounded the best was to create each tentacle separately and then add them to the head afterwards. If I do decide to do this method then it would be best to do each tentacle individually, otherwise when I get round to editing or rescaling them I could end up doing them wrong, especially if I want to turn them around in different angles only to find the detail inconsistent. 

After the above he then showed the whole group how to use ZSpheres in order to create trees.
You can see my progress below:

• Started of with a ZSpehre.

• ‘Edit’ and ‘Draw’ allowed me to add a new ZSphere to the existing one.

• Using ‘Edit’ and ‘Move’ allowed me to stretch out the added ZSphere.

• I continued to do this to all the ZSpheres until I got a basic tree.

• Pressing ‘A’ allows me to view a preview of the whole model without any of the ZSpehres.

• My lecturer then remidned me how to texture my tree and even made it look like an antler that while unintended actually looked pretty good.      

Overall, while I am still getting used to the program and don't fully know the limits of it, I believe that I am getting more confident with it and remembering the advice the lecturer gave me. Seeing what I achieved above I feel that I should be able to create my hammer for my own asset with little to no fuss (fingers crossed).