Group Work
There was no team discussion to be had this week, for which I was grateful as learning Zbrush, even to a very basic level proved to be very challenging for me and so being able to focus solely on this was a great help.
Individual work
I began by following basic tutorials which helped me become accustomed to the very complicated UI of the software and experimented using my graphics tablet with the 3d software.
Once I felt a little more sure of myself I experimented a little with character sculpting, again mostly to get used with the different commands for alternate direction sculpting, smoothing and zooming in and out.
While none of these models are any good, they did help build my confidence with the software and after having experimented with different brushes and techniques I imported the chair model I made last week to experiment with.
Tom was very helpful with he technical side of Zbrush, and advised me on how best to import my mesh from maya into Zbrush. You can use fbx transfer and I did experiment with this however found it often didn’t allow me to change the entire groups mesh and only part of it, however when I exported and imported using object file format this wasn’t an issue.
The actual sculpting of the object was fairly straight forward, the use of the graphics tablet helped and lot and I used an intense smooth brush to give a nicely padded final look. I did decide not to pursue the chesterfield leather styling and instead go for a worn fabric looks as this would really help make the object look soft.
A major issue I found was that in maya I have learnt to make the low poly model and then duplicate it before adding in the high poly supporting loops. This means that you make the low poly model first and then add details onto the high poly. This ensures that both object have the same silhouette and bake together well. With Zbrush this idea is flipped.
You have to model on the high poly version of the asset in Zbrush, otherwise the topology is damaged. (See image on the right above) This felt weird sure, but the issue was that the silhouettes of the objects no longer matched as I had added to the mass of the high poly. Which resulted in a bake with dead space that was unusable.
Again I consulted Tom about this but the suggestions I got just didn’t seem to work, they would get me closer to having a low poly with the added detail but never quite right. I tried lowering the poly count using maya, however this simply didn’t seem to work. Leaving me with a model that seemed to have even more geometry than it did in Zbrush (See picture above on left)
Then I tried decimating the object in Zbrush, which seemed to work for the chair base and legs, however not on the cushions, which Is where I had added mass in the first place so that didn’t work (See above image right).
For a few days I was stuck on this step, until eventually I reached out to a junior artist at a game design studio for advice. She didn’t understand why decimate hadn’t worked but suggested I try using ‘Zremesher’ in zbrush, then said that if that didn’t work to try retopologising the mesh in Maya.
Low Poly 
High Poly
ZRemesher worked well in zbrush but was still a little high poly when moved to maya, so I also used the retopologise tool. This eventually gave me a model with strange geometry but definitely low poly enough not to hamper the game in any way. This model shared the same silhouette as the high poly and so the bake worked really well.
In substance I used a basic fabric covering as that would help make the asset look soft, and added paint marks and scuffs to the object to make it look like it belongs in the dilapidated environment I was making.
I really am proud of this model and feel very satisfied with what I was able to achieve considering I had first opened zbrush a couple of days before producing this model. Compared to the chair I made last week this looks far better and I will be happy to place this model in my portfolio when finished. With this model done I turned my attention to the footstool, which looked even worse when placed next to a nice looking chair.
With the footstool I only exported the cushion part of the model to Zbrush and reused the wooden base and legs from the chair for the new model. This was to make the two assets look like they came from one set and work well together. Again, I simply added to the model using the clay build-up brush and then smoothed it until I was happy.
I tried to keep as much of the pattern as I could from the original model but feel like this perhaps couldn’t have done more work. The issue was because I had made this patter in maya and not Zbrush, trying to alter it in the later software just disrupted it.
Overall though I am really happy with this week’s assets. I feel like just from this week I have become able to make something I never could have before and that is a really good feeling. Also once I understood how to reduce the model to a low poly the process became just a matter of minutes for the footstool cushion as apposed to the days it took me with the chair.
References:
FlippedNormals (2018) [Youtube Video] ‘Top Tips for Improving your ZBrush Sculpts’ Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAVGcCuSjxA&t=859s&ab_channel=FlippedNormals [Accessed 13/03/2021]