Reflective Journal in short

Alright, so here is the deal, I was prompted to make a Reflective Journal following this tutorial, but I found it to be easier just to incorporate the thing in this blog.

There is not much to say about this, I learned most of what I know today from Digital-Tutors, and the way they explained things can be seen in few parts in my tutorial here.

Now what they didn't do was to explain few common errors that tend to happen, so you have to search the internet trying to find the issue that's affecting you.
So what I did in my Tutorial was to explain few of the mistakes that happen in the process and how to correct them.

Thing is, I don't have a clue what to write about in this section, this blog was made in 2 days and there wasn't much time to reflect on anything or let alone watch tutorials... I blame my poor management skills for that, I tend to leave easier projects till like 1 week before the deadline, dunno why, I just cant get myself to work on them...
Ofcourse, that only happens when I'm working alone, when I'm in a group, I'm aware people depend on me finishing my part of the job on time, and I hate to disappoint.

Anyhow, I hope this will be enough reflecting for one tutorial.

The other part of my Project was to reflect on how my current skills match up on the skills I require to get a job in the industry in a specific field.

What I hope to do is Modelling, Texturing and Rigging.
When it comes to Modelling, my skills are decent, and I still have to work on them, same goes for Texturing, there is still al lot of things I have to learn in order to compete for a job.
Rigging is my weakest link, the last project I worked on I had to Rig my own model, and I can say it was a ordeal since it was my first time giving it a shot. The technical aspect of rigging is quite a challenge, and the research of how the joints interact with the mesh when it comes to painting weights is fascinating, Over the summer I will most certainly work on that aspect, because first of all its a amazing skill to poses, and secondly, there aren't that many riggers in our year so its definitely a skill that can benefit everyone.

Looking at the Job applications (there aren't as many), they are looking for people who poses fine art skills and a keen eye for human and creature anatomy, luckily I love to illustrate, and have some knowledge when it comes to sculpting so with the two combined I can clearly see what I'm doing inside Software like Maya and ZBrush, and I understand why they are asking for them.

Most of the places are looking for people with work experiences in those fields, this is something I do not have.

But anyway, there is a long way to go, and so little time... SO I better get started!

        

Displacement Mapping

By this point you should have your model out and sculpted, a brand new complimenting Topology and a usable UV map, and on top of all that, you should have some basic knowledge of this software.
The only thing left now is to sort out the Displacement map, export the mesh as a OBJ.

Getting out a Displacement map is simple, all you have to do with your model selected on the highest Subdivision Level,  click on DISPLACEMENT MAP under TOOLS, select the option that says FLIP V (this is needed because Maya and ZBrush don't have the same UV map conventions), set your DPSubPix on 4, and make it 32bit.

Now that you got all that down click on CREATE AND EXPORT MAP, this will prompt you to save out first, One important thing, Maya tends to have a grudge against TIFF files for some reason so save it out as PSD;

Once you do that it will take some time for ZBrush to generate the map out so this would be a great time for that smoke.
Anyhow, why PSD, the reason is simple, you can always open it and change it into TARGA... but when you think about it so you can with a TIFF, nothing changes, ah well.

When the Displacement map generation finishes all you have to do is set your model on the lowest Subdivision Level and export out in a OBJ. format, you can do that by clicking on EXPORT and selecting where you want to place you file; (your polycount should be somewhere around 5000)

Now its time to say hello to Maya!

UV Mapping, Part 2

Anyhow, hopefully you have grasped the first few options we can find in UV Master, By now you should understand more how the suggestion painting works in this application, and got some good SEEMS yourself, here is how my look;

-Took me some time, but I got them where I wanted them in the end,
Next stop is;

ATTRACTING FROM AMBIENT OCCLUSION;
This option sorts the SEAMS judging from the ambient occlusion, this is the first time I was using this Plugin and didn't find much use out of this option but i can show you on what principle it works;

The shaded bits ATTRACT the SEAMS, and you get some decent enough results out of this method but if you want precision, get ready to do it yourself.


FLATTEN;

This is basically the end-result you are looking for, and you access it by clicking on FLATTEN, once you get a UV map that works you you all you have to do is press the ''PrintScreen'' key on your keyboard and take it to Photoshop for further editing, I wont walk you trough that process since everyone has the basic Photoshop knowledge. (or so I hope)


Now that we got what we were looking for its only a matter of UnFLATTEN the map and copying it to our mesh;
This is how you achieve that;

So once back in the CLONE view, we just select COPY UVs, then select our Mesh and after that selecting PASTE UVs;

As you can see your material stayed white or SkinShade4, you can always change it back to what it was by clicking on MATERIALS and selecting MetCap Red Wax;

Or if you want you can choose the material you prefer, I like to keep it as default, altough there are some quite neat effects there that you can achieve on your mesh.


Now that you PASTED the UV, its time to use your own Photoshop skills, but before you do that you might want to wait till we get to the part when we start to toy with Maya, since creating decent UV's require's of you to keep shifting back and forth from Photoshop to Maya until you achieve textures that compliment the Mesh.

UV Mapping, Part 1

For this part of the tutorial you will need a ZBrush plug-in called ''UV Master'', it can be found on this link;
http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/features/UV-Master/
The explanation is simple, its allows you to sort out you UV Map faster and more efficiently, the rest of the information and how to install it can be found if you follow the link.

So once you install the plug-in I will explain the basics of how to use it;

Ok, when you open your ZBrush, load the ZTool that has your finished model (sculpting wise), and you are ready to continue with the tutorial;

In the upper part of ZBrush youll find a option under the name Zplugin, if you click on it all of your plugins should be shown in the dropdown window, including UV Master;

Once you open the Zplugin window you should see in the upper left corner of it a white circle with a arrow pointing out, if you click on that icon it will snap the entire window on to your TOOL's, including the UV Master that we want opened .

The next step is to click on WORK ON CLONE, what this does it makes a clone of your model in order to preserve your work, The clone will be automatically set on the lowest Subdivision Level;

So now that you have the CLONE in place its time to explain few of the options found in this Plugin;

Right off the bat, activate the CHECK SEAMS option, what this does is allows us to see where the seams will be cutting the map (the Orange line), in other words, the edges of the UVmap, this is something you need to hide as best as you can so its less seen, I'm lucky because Cthulhus back wont be shown so I can hide the SEAMS anywhere in that area.

SYMMETRY;
What this does is forcing ZBrush to make your maps as symmetrical as it can, useful option to have ON

POLYGROUPS;
This option wont be used in our case since we rewritten the Topology of our mesh, but what it does is simple, it makes ZBrush follow the Polygroups (can be seen when you activate the Poly Group Wireframe mode) to create the SEAMS.

USE EXISTING UV SEAMS;
This one is self explanatory, In your case, you don't have any to start with, we need to create them, but its useful if you export the Model you made in Maya or any other 3D application as a OBJ. and you want to keep the UV Map you made in those applications.


The next options are accessed once you activate the ENABLE CONTROL PAINTING option,
There you can find PROTECT, ATTRACT, ERASE.
First I should explain on what principle this Mapping Plugin works, you have the control to suggest ZBrush where you would like to have your SEAMS placed... but it doesn't mean he will do exactly what you tell him, and thus the epic battle of ''Man VS. Machine'' begins your best weapons are PROTECT, ATTRACT, ERASE  and the mighty RAGEQUIT!... jokes aside, and lets start with;

PROTECT;

SO once PROTECT is active it will give you the option to paint on your Mesh with a RED colour, (you can always scale the brush size as you see fit),
Now once you start painting keep in mind that when you are applying the RED colour, you are suggesting to ZBrush NOT to apply any SEAMS there, and in most cases it will listen.


ATTRACT;

This option will allow you to paint on your Mesh with a BLUE colour, and while doing so it will also suggest to ZBrush where to place/attract the SEAMS, (sometimes its best if you scale dawn your brush size when working with this option)
Anyhow, For this model I wanted the SEAMS placed on his back like I stated before, so I tried to follow as much as I could with ATTRACT on the lines of his back that will be less seen.


ERASE;

What this option gives you is simple as its name, basically you can ERASE any ATTRACT or PROTECT surface once you have it active, this comes in hand when you want to thin down some of your lines, and trust me every single bit counts.


Alright lets see now what sort of SEAMS we get out once we try to UNWRAP it out with the suggestions we gave to ZBrush;

Hhahaha well now that's messy!
But don't let this get you down, took me around 1 hour to get my SEAMS the exact way I wanted, and its more fun and interactive than the way you are made to create UVmas in Maya by a long shot.

Sculpting, Overview

With the new Topology you will find Sculpting to go much more smoother, and the amount of detail you will be able to produce will be staggering.

Since the plan is to only use 5000 polys for this model in Maya, what we'll do now is go all out in ZBrush, and raise the Polycount as high as you deem necessary to get all the details you want on the model, why?

Well we are going to use a method called DISPLACEMENT MAPS, what this does is take all the information from the Polys and puts it onto a black and white surface, this is even easier if you have your UV maps assigned correctly, but we will cover that in the next bit of the tutorial.
 For now I just want you to go all out with the details and don't hold back while exploring all the different Brushes and Alphas, and utilizing the Masking methods (don't forget about the >X< symmetry).

 This part unfortunately cant be show how to do without a proper Video footage, so the next best thing is to show you what I did on mine by showing you the pictures of the end result;

(PS. there are not so many details on his back due to the type of footage he will be on, so I didn't want to lose on that aspect)

Fell free to take any references you want From these images.

Topology Correction, Step 4 (Projection and Adaptive Skin)

K, so if you followed this tutorial and took some references from clips that can be found on the internet concerning this subject you should have the basic knowledge of how to Re-Write the Topology, and your mesh would look more or lest something like this; 

At this point you could just go and make all of your hard work into a ADAPTIVE SKIN, that's alright if you didn't lose any details in the process, but if your first mesh had more details than you are getting out with the new topology mesh, you can always PROJECT them onto the newly made Topology,

Here is how we do it,  

Here is the deal, under TOPOLOGY there is a TOOL named PROJECTION, in order to project the mesh with all the details we used under RIGGING all we have to do is; keep EDIT TOPOLOGY ON, and keep PREVIEW from ADAPTIVE SKIN OFF, and then just click on PROJECTION... once you do that you can go on and click on PREVIEW, and if everything is alright you can scale the DENSITY  right next to PREVIEW up to see if all of your details were projected the right way......

NOW, a error may or may not occur,  but if it does, your mesh will be distorted in some bits like it corroded, I don't know what's behind that problem but I sure found a way to fix it!

Under PROJECTION there is a option named PROJECTION RANGE , by default its set on 0.1, but if you invert it ie. set it on -0.1 your mesh should projected the right  way,

It can be found here;

Ok, so if everything is alright all you need to do is click on MAKE ADAPTIVE SKIN in the ADAPTIVE SKIN tool.

Just like when we were working with ZSpheres, it will create a skin out of what we made and usually will be named Skin_ZSphere_1, can be found here;

All you have to do is click on it and save it out as ZTool with w/e name you want.

there is one more thing I need to mention before we conclude this part of the tutorial, 
your mesh might look a little bit squarish and the same as before you did the topology, but thats nothing to worry about, its just a faithful projection , to smooth it out all you need is activate DRAW and EDIT mode and just SHIFT+Click soften it up with smooth brush.


Ok, so this concludes the hardest part of this tutorial, everything else is quite straight forward from now on. 

Topology Correction, Step 3 (Re-writing)

This is the most dreadful part not because its hard, its because its really tedious, long, and mind numbing.

There is no way I can describe you this process with only words and pictures, but I will try.

There are also few tricks I use while rewriting the topology that you might find useful, but for now lets get started with the basics;

When re-writing the topology what you are doing is filling out the gaps we left when we deleted those parts of the mesh and shaping them in such a way that they follow the RIG we assigned earlier.

There are few things you need to get use to, this is a messy process and its easy to make mistakes, Do try to avoid triangles, they don't affect the mesh in ZBrush on such a scale as they do in Maya, but since we have to rig and animate this guy, you need to keep in mind, this is going to Maya.

Your best friend in this process is ADAPTIVE SKIN and PREVIEW ... or just pressing ''A'' on your keyboard,

what this will allow you to do is preview how your topology is working, 

Back to the basics, your goal is to connect dots, and sometimes those dots are not as friendly as they might seam, so for that I developed my personal way of connecting them, 

If you remember from previous parts of this tutorial when I was talking about the Q W E R keys,

You should know that ''W'' controls the DRAW MODE, and that ''E'' controls the MOVE MODE.

Now, depending on what you can get the most precision out of, mouse or your tablet, in any case, always hold your hand over the ''W'' and ''E'' key and then move around with your mouse/tablet...

So first of press ''E'' to get into the MOVE MODE once there, you cant by mistake draw lines that you don't want, after you select a Point on your topology you wish to connect with another point, press the ''W'' key and then click on that point, 

what this does is giving you more control over the points and and less chance to screw up, it looks somewhat like this; 

Good Job, you connected the first two points out of several hundred!

(please keep in mind that the lines you make while connecting those points should follow the shape of the mesh we made into the rig)

And don't forget to always press ''A'' to view your mesh because errors can always sneak up on you, 

One more Advice, the lines you make while connecting those points are the base on which ZBrush builds your mesh, so if you have a part of the mesh you are planing on going heavy on the details, add more points and connections, and if there is a part you know you are not going to sculpt as much, you can always add less connections to it (this saves up on time too).

Here are few examples;
Example1_Wireframe;

Example1_AdaptiveSkin;

Example2_Wireframe;

Example2_AdaptiveSkin;

One of the most common errors you are going to encounter while building your topology is points that seem to be connected, but when you press ''A'' you see there is a hole at that place.

Here is a example;

In this picture everything looks alright and connected; 

(this pictures were taken before I started the tutorial, and I took them just so i dont forget about this, so some naming might be a bit different, its nothing important)

But when you press ''A'' you see something like this; 

what happened here is as following, if you zoom in you'll still see that everything is connected;

What you need to do then is press ''E'' on your keyboard to enter into MOVE mode and move around the points until you find the one that isn't connected properly, once you find it, just ALT+Click on the point that's out of place to delete it and just reconnect them;

Unfortunately this is all I can do to make you understand this process with just pictures and words, I strongly recommend going on YouTube or any other source of information to gain better understanding of this via Clips

Topology Correction, Step 2 (Rigging and Topology)

So you got 2 different meshes saved out, if you just decided to load ZBrush and its fresh, you can always go under LOAD TOOL and load them out.

Now first off, Open the file I told you to name ''C4'' and set it on a Subdivision Level that has near 1 000 000 polys, once you get that done, the next step is to click once again on the ZSphere Tool, just like in the beginning of the tutorial.

You should have a ZSphere in the middle of you workspace now, the next step is to RIG the C4 mesh onto the ZSphere, here is where you can find it and how to do it;

So first you click on RIGGING, then when the Tool opens you should see a option named SELECT MESH, if you click on that command a bigger window should open, and under Quick Pick you should see the C4 mesh, select it.

Now that you did that you should be able to see something like this;

What this allows us to do is see the C4 mesh and draw the lines on top of it so they can follow the shape, but we saved out the C4_Del file too so it can save us some time, now, what that will do is simple, it will draw the lines we deem good on this mesh projection, to do so you need to go under TOPOLOGY TOOL and click on the option SELECT TOPO, after that a similar window as the one in RIGGING will pop up, and all we have to do is select C4_Del. as seen here;

Once C4_Del is selected, next thing you have to do is click on EDIT TOPOLOGY, and everything should look more or less this way;

Why I'm saying ''more or less'' is the fact that your transparency might be a bit different, and this is one of the things noone will explain you what to do with, everyone thinks you have everything fine and dandy... but I spent hours first time I was playing with the topology trying to figure out what was wrong with my ZBrush until I stumbled upon a Post that gave me a good idea, and I'm gonna share it with you in case you are as lucky as me!

There is a option box in top bit of your screen named PREFERENCES if you click on it you will see a dropdown window with loads of options, you are only interested in DRAW for now, once you open it a few options should pop;

Alright now you can see few options here, first off;
TRANSPARENCY DEPTH; what this controls is the depth of your transparency, keep in mind that your model up till now is hollow and doesn't have a depth to it, your skin on the mesh doesn't have a thickness, so this is useless for you at this time.
FRONT and BACK OPACITY; now here is where the moneys at, changing these two will shift the opacity until you find your desired option of view, this varies from person to person and to each its own.

Here is where you can find them;

This concludes the second step in the Topology correction process.

Topology Correction, Step 1

Ok, so now that we understand the reason behind re-writing the topology, 

I will guide you step by step in this process since its quite a pain getting it right;

the next step is to save out as a Ztool what we done so far, you can do that just by clicking here and sorting out how you want to name it and were to place it; For now lets keep it named ''C4'', this will keep things easier in the next part, and don't forget to save it out under Subdivision Level 5 which is at around 1 mill polys;

So once we got that out of the way, what we need to do next is set it on the lowest subdivision level, as I shown you before you can access that in GEOMETRY tools found here;

Alright, we got it on the lowest subdivision level, so what we gonna do next is make a CLONE of this, it can be found here; 

Now that we have our Clone in place on the lowest Subdivision Level, we can feel free to delete all higher ones, now I made a mistake of not explaining this earlier so I'll correct myself now, 

There are two options listed under GEOMETRY one is Delete Higher and Delete Lower, now what these do is simple, lets say you are right now on Subdivision Level 1 and you have 6 Subdivision Levels in total, if you click on Delete Higher, every Subdivision Level from 2 up to 6 will be deleted, same goes for Delete Lower, just the other way around; this is where you can find them; 

So, once we deleted all the higher Subdivisions its time do decide what we want to keep of the Mesh and what we want to get rid off, My advice is to usually keep finer parts like the fingers, tentacles and all the things that have a decent enough Topology, and are quite hard to reconstruct.

The easiest way to speed up our decision is if we go into Poly Wireframe mode and then make a selection;

Fort my character I decided to get rid of these parts (Also the ones on his back) and to keep the lower parts of the arms, fingers, wings, legs and tentacles;

If you followed the MASKING part of this Tutorial, you should know the basic methods, and in this case we are going to use the POLY GROUP MASKING, or CTRL+SHIFT+click, and mask out all those points I marked, at the end it should look something like this;

Once you done this, the next step is to delete all the hidden parts, we can get that done by clicking on this command under GEOMETRY;

  

Now that you Deleted the hidden parts you'll have to save out this Mesh as a ZTOOL under a different name, lets call it C4_Del, this way explaining the next part will go smoother.

Getting ready for Re-writing the topology

So if you came this far and followed my instructions you should have a decent enough model with decent details on him, keep in mind that you don't have to overdo the details, there is plenty of time once we re-write the topology to follow in with the details on the mesh.

And you should have the basic understanding of the Masking methods used.

Now, the reason behind the topology re-write is simple, you want less polys and more details, and that is achieved by re-writing the topology, it can be a stressful process, and you will wish you never did it in the first place, but trust me when I tell you its well worth it.

I'll try to show with this example.

-This is the mesh without the topology correction, as you can see its on almost a 1 000 000 polys, and that's fine, this is how far you should have come, and if you continue sculpting you'll see that you need to divide and divide the mesh up to 7 mill polys in order to get fine details in it, and that's just a Waste of RAM's...

As shown, even on 1mill polys it still gets parts that just mess around, on the part of the chest you can see little square marks and if you try to add more details you fail if you don't divide.

-Now, take a look on a model that already has its topology re-written in order to follow the details on the mesh and its only on 300 000 polys;

 you can see how the polyframe follows the details more fluently, you get to add more details on a lower poly mesh and if divided there is no end to it, for example, here is more or less of the same poly count mesh as the one that I didn't re-write in the upper part of the post, but with its topology re-written, 1 200 000 polys;

Why I'm telling you all this is because you really gonna hate the process of re-writing the topology, but its one of those things that can make your life easier, same as going to the dentist, noone likes it :)