This week at Siggraph 2012
This past week, I attended Siggraph 2012, and was amazed at the amount of new tech that already has commercial potential. There were also a great number of presenters discussing the production workflows for both upcoming and released feature films. Throughout the conference, recording of panels was not permitted, so brace yourself for a wall of text.
Tri-Part and Move Tool Enhancements
I’ve always been a traditional box modeler, part of my shying away from zbrush was the lacking ability to precisely modify topology. While there are some more advanced features lacking, the additions to the transform widget makes things to much easier.
Patch Merge Explained (Bridge) in Zbrush 4r4
I said it was magic, before, and glazed over its functionality. I still think it is, and let me give you a glimpse on why I think so.
Zbrush 4R4 Topology Tools in depth
I may have been a bit hasty to dismiss qRemesher as an alpha in the last post. Looking deeper (reading the manual) I can start to see a bit more of it’s power. It’s quickly becoming an time saving new feature. Also covered in this entry is the useful ‘topology brush’
zBrush 4r4 first impressions
When ever Pixologic releases a new version, I get excited. New tools to play with, and the updates are free. I’ve only had an hour or so to fiddle with some of the new features that are packed into zbrush 4r4. It’s not 64 bit yet, but it’s still one of the best tools out there. More details after the jump
The dangers in internal committee thinking.
There is nothing worse than having a dozen people telling you what their version of ‘perfect’ would be. Well, actually there is, and that is you doing it to yourself. Read a wall of text after the jump.
So you want to make something look nice? (Rendering General)
In this post I’ll go over different rendering methods and their inherent advantages / disadvantages.
Have some Matcaps!
When I’m modeling, I want to be able to see what I’m doing and be somewhat accurate. While a lot of matcaps in the library are ‘fun’, they have limited usefulness. If I’m not using the basic material, I’m using one of these that I’ve made. They are simple spheres that have been rendered out in maya using the same lighting setup. They aren’t physically accurate or even modeled after anything specific, but they get the job done! Feel free to use, and you can download them here!
Continuous Burn Brush
I made this brush to add a specific type of noise to a sculpt. Tap for a split second, and you get pock-marked skin type effect. Go a little further, and you get the bubbling of scar tissue. Really work at it and you get a severely torn up mesh while still maintaining integrity. You can download it here!
3 Zbrush Tools I really should have learned how to use earlier.
Hey all. It seems like every time I open zBrush, I find a feature that I didn’t know existed. Here’s three great features that I’ve been overlooking.
