ZB_03 | 2 ways to turn 2D alpha to 3D Model using alpha.

 

Hi Everyone, my name is Michele

and in today's Zbrush tutorial,

I am going to show you how you can import a good alpha

and convert it into a 3D model using 2 methods.

before we start doing that,

Let's learn how to export a good alpha from your image editing software.

Let's switch to my image editing software,

I'm using pixelmator pro, but you can use any other's like photoshop,

procreate or corel draw etc. Just take note of these few items:

your width and height must be at least 512 pixels,

your resolution 72 pixels/inch and colour depth needs to be 16 bits/channel.

The image you want to extrude in Zbrush has to be in white with the RGB value of

255,255,255. then your black colour which is ignored by Zbrush has be in 0,0,0.

Sometimes your colours may look white or black but their RGB value may not

read so. and when you extrude them in Zbrush it ends up with an unexpected,

messy blob. Just keep in mind for alpha, absolute white means show,

absolute black means ignore. So go ahead and get your image ready and let's export it to your desktop for easy access.

You can save it under PNG, JPEG or Photoshop file format.

with 16 bits channel, which means

there are 16 bits of colour information in a pixel which can do amazing

extrusions with VDM brushes. I'll do a video on that next round.

So do subscribe if you don't want to miss out on that.

Now let's just export this simple alpha and switch to Zbrush

when you are in Zbrush,

press comma to close the lightbox.

Then click on Documents tab and New document so that Zbrush window

auto fits my screen size. and save this as my default startup screen.

You can delete it under Zstartup folder if you want to undo it.

Let's draw out a 3D plane on the canvas,

click edit to switch it to 3D document.

Make it into a Polymesh 3D, and turn on the polyframe with line and fill on.

fit the model to screen by pressing F and let's import our alpha.

Press control to activate your Mask pen.

Click on alpha and click import.

Click on the image I have just exported and then click open.

Now press control to activate your mask pen,

click on the image we just imported to activate it.

and change our stroke to drag rect so that we can draw out the pattern with

click and drag. Now we need to increase the geometry so that we can use the

alpha we have imported. If we just drag out our image with this

current resolution, it will only be a pixellated, faint grey shadow.

and another thing is, we need to press control and reduce the

focal shift to -100.

By pressing control and changing it, I am only changing the focal shift of the

mask pen. The focal shift of the drawing/sculpting pen remains intact.

Then, go to Geometry under Tool, divide the geometry 6 times until you reach

1 million active points.

This is not a hard and fast rule, it depends on how detail your mask is,

if it has simple shapes,

250K is fine but mine is filled with swirling curves so 1 million it is.

Then, we need to smooth out the mask edges by going under Tool > Masking > Sharpen mask.

Now let's use method no 1

which is using polygrouping to separate the masked area.

Polygrouping is like playing colour tagging.

Tag it a different colour, it belongs to that group.

You can edit one colour and the geometries in that colour are affected.

Next, look at the new Polygroup up close,

urgh, jagged edges.

Let's smooth it out by going under

Geometry > Edgeloop > GroupsLoops.

This button Groups the visible polygroups on canvas into individual groups

of colours and pad the edges with Loops which smooths out the edges.

So let's run the GroupsLoops on the isolated polygroup. Hmmm, sounds like Fruit Loops.

Before that we need to delete off the lower divisions,

or else Zbrush won't let us run GroupsLoops. GroupsLoops

the settings I am using are 4 numbers of Loops on the slider.

Polish all the way up to 100,

less if your image is not so full of swirls and twirls.

Leave the Triangle on

and just look at how smooth that is.

Next I am going to extrude this flat image.

Press Ctrl & Shift

Click on the pattern to isolate it

and mask the pattern by holding down Ctrl and tap on the grey background.

pressing Ctrl & Shift, tap again on the grey background to reveal everything.

Now I want to invert my mask by holding down Ctrl &

tap between the canvas edge and the white line.

Press W to reveal gizmo and slightly orbit the pattern so that we can see the

blue arrow clearly.

Click and pull on the pattern to extrude it and that's it !

Here you go, the first method to convert 2D alpha to 3D model. Press F to fit your model to screen

and turn off Polyframe.

The next method is using the subtool to extract the mask as a Subtool layer.

So let's undo everything and go back to masking stage, then

Go to Subtool > Extract. When you click Extract it will show you a preview

of the settings you have chosen. Just a preview until you click on Accept,

Once you Accept though there's no going back and change the settings.

However, even if you can't undo it, you can always hide it under Subtool layer

and re-Extract it again onto another Subtool layer.

The settings I'm using are 100 for Smoothing,

Turn on TCorner & TBorder.

I am leaving Double off because I only want it to

extrude on one side of the surface and not both sides.

Let me zoom in, I want to show you the effect of extract.

Once you click on extract,

the result is visible as long as you don't touch anything on the screen.

The moment you click on the screen, it disappears but the result is still

stored. If you want to keep the result, just click on Accept and the extrusion

will be saved onto another layer in Subtool. if you want, your can extract

another version of it again. Just turn of the visibility of the subtool layer you

extracted the first time, adjust the settings then extract and accept again.

and there you go, the two methods of converting a 2D alpha to 3D model

Oh just as a bonus, there's a simpler way of using your alpha

which is the quickest. Just drag and drop it on any surface.

Select clay buildup brush, Stroke as DragRect and

Select your alpha image. and Drag away.

The downside is that I can't isolate it as a group

or polygroup automatically unlike the previous two methods.

which is why I don't recommend it, unless it doens't matter to you. Alright!

If you like my content, please subscribe and give me a thumbs up.

Tell your friends who are learning Zbrush about my channel

and I'll see you in the next video.

ZB_02 | Turn SVG vectors into 3D model with 1 click.

 

Hi Everyone, my name is Michele.

and in today’s Zbrush tutorial

I'll be showing how to import an SVG file

And Zbrush will automatically convert it into a 3D model.

Then I am gonna show you how to save it as a tool so that you can reuse

it in any new projects in the future.

So let's get started.

Press comma to close the lightbox

And then go to Zplugin

And then go to TEXT 3D & VECTOR SHAPES

Click on it

and go to NEW SVG

and then logo.svg

or whatever file, whatever SVG file you intend to use, then click open.

Then once it's loaded (visible on the right)

Click and drag (downward)

and at the moment it is a 2.5D document

Click on EDIT to turn it into a 3D document.

with your model loaded, you can orbit around your model

by clicking & dragging on the camview dummy head.

Or alternatively, click anywhere on the grey area to orbit the model.

Let's turn on the Polyframe, to see how the model is constructed.

The model is constructed by geometric shapes joined together with shapes and points.

What you see here are the shapes or face that form the whole model.

And they join up at these positions called points.

When you increase resolution at options menu, you increase the number of triangles.

Likewise when you decrease the resolution you decrease the triangles and points,

And it will take less time to render your model.

Let’s try out each of the options starting with extrusion.

Extrusion is pretty straightforward, decrease the value you decrease the thickness.

Increase the value, the model becomes thicker.

Let's adjust the resolution.

Let me lower the resolution, you can see the triangles grow in size with less points.

and when I increase the resolution the triangles become denser

Let's change the bevel from 0 to 24. This chamfers the edges

instead of coming down at a sharp 90 degree angle.

Bear in mind the higher the value of chamfer, the thicker your model grows side way.

In other words, the logo becomes fat, and it's no longer your logo. Its a fat logo.

You can adjust the resolution of your bevel if you need to with this slider.

The higher the number , equates the number of division line on your bevel.

I adjusted to 6 so there are 6 lines within my bevel edges

Next let's check out curvature of the bevel.

Let's decrease the value, creating a concave bevel.

Increasing the value, gives the bevel a more rounded cute look.

Turn off polyframe and we're done.

Let's say we want to turn this into a tool

so that we can load it every time we open up a new project.

Click on Save as under Tool

And then go to.... And change the name to your

Whatever name you want, I'll call it sample logo.

And then we're going to close this file.

Do you want to save ZBrush project ? NO.

So when I open it up,

I can load the logo as a tool.

Under TOOL, Click on LOAD TOOL

and then click on the sample logo and open.

And it will be loaded into your tool library.

and that’s it.

and if you like my video please give me a thumbs up

and click on subscribe so that you won't miss any future videos I'll be uploading. See you!