true, also on a darker note, it could be possible for them to improve mb to play nicer with max, and maya, and infact somehow take aspects of mb, and put them in both. and perhaps make the support for how zb handles things less important to them or even disregard or misimplement to force people to use their app and snuff our zb. A little on the conspiracy theorists side I know. But ponder that over your next cup of coffee.
So with last weeks work complete, my tutor gave me another avenue to pursue this week. If I could make a displacement or normal map of the mudbox sculpt and work off an export of Layer 0, I could get a renderable hand in maya without killing my PC. However, after reading up on the different techniques over the weekend, these were my results.
Base Model
Now, however, it appears I will be forced only to hand in the hand. I will spend the next week creating the best turntable I can manage with what I have, and continue with the study of hair and displacement maps in the future. Overall, I have fulfilled the brief given, and created something I can proudly display on my portfolio and learnt a great deal in the process, all of which make me very pleased.
Second: Using the above technique I was able to gauge how the UVs applied to the model. From there I used various different images to create a texture map using the projection tool, playing with offset and fade, then taking the texture into photoshop, changing hues and adding speckled detail as I felt was required and moving it back to mudbox to pain again. This technique ended with two maps that were blended together.
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I decided not to create a stencil for this, because a nail comes out from underneath the cuticle and out over the flesh of the top. So to create this effect, I used the freeze tool to define the area around the nail. With that immobile, I used the grab tool to force the base of the nail down and under the frozen mesh to create the cuticle. Then I used the grab tool tool to stretch out the front of the nail to have it hang over the flesh. Images of the process are below.
This week I set aside for Proof of Concepts in my mudbox sculpting and techniques. Whilst there has been little information in Mudbox circles on high-detail skin sculpting, there appears to be more when searching for Zbrush techniques, and all but one appear to be transferable. There is no noise filter or any curve system in Mudbox, and therefore some of the randomly generated patterns are not available. However, this just means I can focus on cross-platform sculpting skills, as per the original brief.
I have also found that my new laptop can run mudbox without lag to over 25 million polygons. I have not tried further, as it has been unnecessary, and the file size with 6 sculpt levels this high (Level 10 on the simple cube) has created a file 1.3GB in size. I will keep an eye on and document the file size and sculpt layers and levels required to get results as I continue with this project.
Here's a tutorial on how to transfer a model from max to mudbox,export a mesh and a displacement map, and then render it in max using abunch of different displacement methods (depending on what renderer youwant to use). I'll be using 3dsmax 2009 and mudbox 2010, buttheprocess is quite similar for any recent version of max and mudbox.
Charlesworth agrees: I started out on Mass Effect using ZBrush and struggled at first with its quirks, eventually becoming comfortable with its working environment. When I first had the opportunity to beta test Mudbox, I have to say I jumped at the chance. I had never really been satisfied with the way in which ZBrush forced me to work. Mudbox feels like much more of an extension of the other tools in my pipeline than ZBrush. It has the same 3D laws and logic that apply when Im using Maya and the same 2D functionality that I enjoy from Photoshop. Smooth shaded sculpting and a perspective camera were also welcome additions.
Within this context eye movement analysis indicates a learning process that is dependent upon a consistent visual flow. Purposely connecting the title, visual element and information text of a learning object may best reinforce learning. By doing this the course designer/instructor becomes a sort of cognitive guide either focusing or not-focusing learning via the meaning structure of the various learning object elements. In our case we want to use visual elements to support performance and achievement of learning tasks.