8baller

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Hey, that is just amazing. Sorry if you answered this but did you do the model start to finish in zbrush, or did you start in Maya or 3DMax etc and create a basic model, then move it to zbrush for the detailwork?

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Normally, at least in the past, I would create a base mesh in Maya then import the extremely low rez model into zbrush. However, since I was using this to try out new features in Zbrush 3 I started from a basic sphere in Zbrush, did the base modeling which was about 45-60% of the basic shape. Then used Zbrush 3's new topology tool to create a low rez model, with improved topology in Zbrush. As another test, I did export THAT low rez model to Maya where I added the bust/chest polys but that was really just to check things out and make sure wonky things weren't happening between the two. Then back to Zbrush. So really, 98% was all Zbrush.

I was pretty impressed with the topology tool so that may acutally make Zbrush a viable place to do low poly modeling now, although I'll still use Maya or Bodypaint to lay out the UV's.

To clarify something about Zbrush, it's really a tool to suppliment other 3d apps. Not so much a full stand alone 3d package.

Todd

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How long have you been doing this stuff?

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Well depends on what you classify "this stuff". I started doing basic CAD 3d stuff on the Atari 1040ST waaaaay back in....ummm.....around '90 something. I moved on to Stratastudio on the Mac after seeing Myst. So '94, '95ish. Since then I've played around in Raydream, Lightwave, Maya, and support programs like Bodypaint 3d and Zbrush.

So, a while I guess.

At one point I wanted to do 3d stuff for movies, but it wasn't meant to be.

Thanks,
Todd

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The texturing without UVs thing is cool, but just an FYI if you ever plan on using Z3 for normal mapping - it's actually broken at the moment.

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Yeah, but I saw on the forums that someone posted a wonky work around for now, but I haven't had the need to try it out yet.

Thanks,
Todd

Nah, they're just 3d. Maya stuff. I was bored and thought it would had humorous possibilities.

Todd

The beginnings of a new project or proof of an alternate universe?

CoX meets.....

Have fun,
Todd

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Wow. That movie makes Zbrush look like a cool tool. I'm impressed with the way some of the features seems to work, and love the idea of painting right into the model instead of using Photoshop as an outside tool and doing regular refreshes.

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Yeah, Zbrush has some pretty nice drawing tools, but the really cool thing is there's a plug-in for Zbrush that lets you bounce back and forth between Zbrush and Photoshop so you can use both sets of tools seemlessly. The only bad thing is I don't know if a new version of that plug-in is out for Z3 yet.

Although I started with a sphere I still have to point out a big piece of what's missing in the video is creating a new mesh on top of the basic head shape to correct any topology problems that dragging large sets of polys around leads to. Creating the 'corrected' mesh was a manual process but not too bad with the new tools. It went pretty quick. Then after the new mesh was created I modeled the medium and high detail stuff.

Oh, *** I apologize for the geeking out here but ***, Doug get this, with the new Z3 you can paint your texture on the model before laying out the UV's! If you've got a high enough rez model. That was another feature I was testing out with the Rikti. So right now I've got the painted head in Z3 (3mil polys or something like that), and a low rez version in Maya (1,100 polys more or less). I'm laying out the UV's in Maya then I'll import it back into Z and transfer the Texture to the low rez model. I'll probably step up the resolution on the low rez to 4,000+ to make it easier for Maya to handle when I take it back in there to render in Mental Ray. *** geekout is done ***

Anyhow, it's a fun program to relax with.

Thank all you guys for the comments and feedback, hopefully I'll be able to finish him up in the not too distant future. I've got about 1/2 of his base armor (torso) modeled so far in Maya.

Thanks again,
Todd

Thanks for the feedback all. Sorry it's not more 'useful', but still kinda fun to watch.

The software is ZBrush 3 and it will run you right around $500. That's about the middle of the road for 3d software.

Todd

So I put together a little video showing various steps during creating the Rikti head. Unfortunately, I didn't have all the step recorded to put together an actual informative tutorial or anything, but it's kind of interesting to see things develop.

The video is a little over 8 minutes long no yes, it's timelapsed something like 800% (at least most of it).

I was also learning the video software so the video lacks a lot...but still kinda interesting.

Video of Rikti Head

Have fun.
Todd

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Returning to the contest, here's a question for the winners and anyone else who cares to answer. Did you use demoedits to create all your screenshots, or were some taken from actual gameplay?

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I used a variety of things. It got a little tricky since all the characters featured are on the same account. Most of the images were straight screenshots, hundreds of them. Other shots required demorecord so I could do a character swap or even change the time if day for the lighting I was looking for. But since demorecord was broken on the live servers during the contest, I had to copy most of the characters to the test server so I could demo record there. And of course all the 'group shots', we're set up with demorecord as were the shots with the portal and the Arachnos air ships.

It was pretty interesting because I'd never played around with demorecord before.

Photoshop would have been easier and quicker, but I wanted to stay more 'true' to the contest.

Todd

Well I colored Super Kate, going for more of a "comic" look than the more painted look. Special thanks to Daggerpoint for his super coloring tutorials. I gave a couple of the techniques a shot because I love the line art and coloring style he gives all his work. So a big "thank you" to him.

Let me know what you think.

Super Kate - Colored

Thanks,
Todd

Do they still make pencils?

Just kidding :P. Outstanding stuff, as always. And da** you, you even did feathers!

Todd

Ok, more Rikti....2nd times a charm.
Front and Profile

Up Close and Personal

Still no posing at all and no real lighting. This was rendered right in ZBrush. For the final I think I'm going to try to get this back into Maya.

So far, really liking the new stuff in Zbrush 3, and still so much more to learn.

Thoughts,
Todd

Yes...tutorial #1: It's new software so SAVE OFTEN! Although not nearly as frustrating with bugs as the new Photoshop was when it launched I've had a couple of lock ups, last night was at a pretty bad time. So save often and you should be ok.

More direct tutorials can be found at the following:
Zbrush Central
www.zbrushcentral.com - the zBrush community forum, they've got a whole section of the forum just for tutorials. You can pretty much find whatever you want there.

House of Tutorials
www.houseoftutorials.com - this guy, John Welsh has probably the best tutorials I've seen and he was super quick to whip up a batch for Z3 right after it lauched. The forums say he used to charge a monthly fee but he seems to have dumped that for now.

3dTrainer.com
www.3dtrainer.com - has a section for Zbrush 3 and is very much directed at beginners. Usually it's a service you have to pay for but they've posted a username and password for a limited time on the zbrushcentral tutorial forum that gets you in the door.

Just a general note, as you would hope with any software upgrade some things didn't change too much from Zbrush 2, then again others were totally revamped. Just be aware of that if you catch yourself watching a Zbrush 2 tutorial and wonder why you can't find certain buttons/functions. I'd probably TRY to stick exclusively to Z3 tutorials.

Hope this helps.
Todd

p.s. oh...and save often

Thanks all. Sadly, work has had me swamped and I haven't been able to touch it the last couple of days. Maybe tonight or this weekend.

CydinMonde: You're correct on the model part, actually is already is a 3d model.

DarkJedi: oh Captain my Captain...I'd be honored if you wanted to play around with it. As far as to what my plans are. It's funny, I started out with it just as a topic to play around with Z3. My current plan now is to create a Rikti bust, which would include upper armor that holds the head. In the end it would be a 'Rikti Portrait'.

I'm trying to get it to look as 'real' as...well...an alien head...ok, nevermind. Anyhow, going for realism.

So, texturing and minimal rigging required to pose the head and give him some kind of facial expression.

I've bounced him back and forth between Z3 and Maya (originally I only modeled the head and neck in Z3), and I decided to extend that out in Maya (and again, just sort of testing). Rigging and base armor would be created in Maya. I've got Poser, but have never rigged any custom characters in it. I just use it for pose reference. So I'd probably just defer to your bud for that.

Currently, I'm done modeling the head and I'm back in Maya laying out the UV's (not a big fan of ZBrush's UV proceedure). Like I said though, haven't touched it in a couple of days.

I actually started a vid tutorial on it which I'll probably finish up. It goes from a big sphere in Z3, to a rough model, then using Z3's new topology brush I layed out better topology for it, sadly I didn't grab video of continued modeling from the cleaned up model to final model.

The low rez model sits somewhere around 1,100 quads I believe. With the high rez just short of 4mil.

I'm contemplating doing a series of bad guys. I'd like to see more grittier clockwork and some really messed up freakshow than what we've seen so far. Sort of McFarlane-like. We'll see where things go from there.

I'm glad you like what you've seen so far. If I did go the full-body route I'd probably rig and animate them in some way. I mean...why not right?

Take it easy all,
Todd

a.k.a. 8Baller

p.s. Oh, and for the record, I'm basing the model off of Rikti concept art from a CoH/CoX book I've got. Some liberty has been taken to try out stuff, and just play around.

Sparky, I can pretty safely say "The Stuff of Dreams" was overall my favorite comic. Then again, I'm a sucker for the "imagination" angle. Specifically, I loved the comic writing and the 'global theme' that I figured could appeal to anyone that played the game.

Now, hand me my nerf bat

DevilsRope, work's got me swamped right now, but when I get some free time again I'm thinking of putting together an issue 2 and 3. (There's just too much left in the part of the story to cram into one more). The cool thing I guess, is that I already have a pretty solid map as to what happens. I had the backstory on 8Baller, Jaden and 8Brawler figured out when I created 8Brawler. It was just a lot of fun to work out the details and put it together in comic form.

Todd
a.k.a 8baller

Thanks all. I'll keep rollin with it and see what happens. And you are correct the font is Roswell Wreckage available at blambot.com

There's a lot of awesome stuff there.

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Oh dang it, see there you went and made me drool on my keyboard.

Curse you.

I can't wait to see how things develop. Not trying to take any coolness away from the characters, but the landscape here is...gorgeous.

8

p.s. yes I can get silly late at night

Awesome start man! I can't wait to see more. But what blows me away the most I think, is that you'll pulling this off after JUST having jr.

I did one project in college where I was putting together full comic spreads....then I realized....MY WORD this is a lot of work!

So I went the easy route and changed my major to rocket science.

Seriously, I never understood what a big undertaking each issue is.

Anyhow, keep em coming!
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3d Rikti, man that's fun to say.

But anyhow, I was playing around with some of the new features in ZBrush 3 and started putting this Rikti head together. I figure if it all comes together it will be a piece inspired by the next CoH "Issue", "Invasion"

Thoughts are welcome, it's about 75% through the modeling state. Still have some high rez details to work in.

3d Rikti Head - Initial

Thanks,
8

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Congratulations!!! I didn't know we could use Photoshop to create our own layouts, or I definitely would've entered myself.

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I don't know that Photoshop was used to create any of the layouts. As for me, I just created custom .xml templates that the comic book creator software read in like the 100+ or so supplied. Instructions were roughly layed out somewhere on the CBC forums or site, I forget where I read it.

The custom narrative boxes were simply 'clip art' as the CBC software refers to it, with line by line of headline text manually typeset on top...(yeah that part wasn't the most fun).

And the 'layered/enlarged' graphics (like 8Brawler with the gun) were again, simply 'clip art' elements. All-in-all, other than color tweeking and running the 'poster edged' filter for the drawn effect, Photoshop was used pretty minimally.

I guess I could put a tutorial together if anyone was interested.

Todd

Thanks everyone! And gratz to all those you took the time to create and post a comic. There were some incredible entries out there. I loved the "Not a Hero" concept, and the awesome style of "Strength", and the perfect writing of "The Stuff of Dreams"...so many good entries that I'm sure (hope) they'll post very soon. Or, just hop over to the Hypercomics.com site and browse for yourself.

It was a blast to make, my daughter and son definately gave their two cents. Maybe sometime I'll have the extra time to tell the rest of 8Baller's story.

Thanks to NCsoft for the contest, I don't think I've ever seen a more appropriate contest for a MMO. And special thanks to the judges that took the time to read through the entries. Any one of the judges would have been intimidating at the thought of presenting a comic to them...but all three...my knees are still shaking.

Thanks again. It was fun. Now get out there and soak up the x2xp weekend

Thanks,
Todd

a.k.a. 8Baller

Thanks all, I'll fix the heel before I go to color.

*Note to self: Must do more research on women's footwear. *

Thanks,
8

Thanks I'll take a closer look. That would be HER left foot right...not the foot on the left

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Spirit who? Yeah, I know...not regulars by any stretch but I recently got CoH for my daughter's birthday and we've been teaming up as a duo.

Here's a quick WIP of the inks. Spirit Samuri and Starwatcher (Ink)

I find myself stumbling over inking Spirit (who as the name suggests, is a ghost). It appears the trick is...how to ink someone to look transparent? I'm hoping the colors with pull it out.

Thoughts/Comments welcome.

Thanks,
8

Best of luck sir, both in figuring things out and in pursuing whatever it is you come up with. I'm pretty sure there won't be another the likes of you any time soon.

p.s. If you DO ever figure things out, let me know...cause I'm still flying by the seat of my pants. (and yes, the pants are on...let's nip that one in the bud right now).

Good luck,
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