“The Warrior” – Detailing, Posing and Texturing Using ZBrush & Photoshop:
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Warrior
In the fifth part of “The Warrior” series, I’m going to cover texturing the character using the free ZBrush plugin ‘ZApplink’ and Photoshop. We’ll also add detail to the character’s boots and briefs. And finally pose our character using ZBrush’s Transpose tools.Step 1
In ZBrush select the shoe and export it to Maya. Create some belts on the shoe by Extruding polygon loops as shown in the image below.Step 2
Make sure the normals are correct while you import the belts back into ZBrush, if your normals are flipped, your mesh is going to look like the image below. To fix this in ZBrush, go to ‘Display’ in the tool menu and click on the ‘Flip’ button.Step 3
Select the model you were working on and Click on the ‘Append’ button, and select the Belts you imported.Step 4
Now Select the belts on the shoes, and turn smooth off by clicking the ‘Smt’ button off. Click on the ‘Divide’ button once, then click on the ‘Smt’ button again and divide the mesh a few more times.Step 5
Now create some Stitches on the inner side of each shoe.Step 6
And some stitches on the lower part of the shoes as shown.Step 7
We’ll also create Stitches on the shoe belts as shown in the image below.Step 8
Select the shoe in the Subtools palette, and go to Surface in the tool menu and click on the Noise button. Enter the settings shown below.Step 9
This is what I get.Step 10
In the next steps I’m going to texture this character using the ‘Zapplink’ plugin, go to the address given below and download ‘Zapplink’ from the Pixologic website.Step 11
Hide all the subtools from the ‘Subtool’ menu, except for the character itself.Step 12
Go to ‘UV Map’ in the Tool menu and specify the texture map size by clicking on the button ‘2048’. And click on the ‘New Textr’ button to apply it to the character.Step 13
Zoom in on the face.Step 14
Go to the Document menu and click on the ‘ZApplink’ button.Step 15
The Dialogue box shown below will come up on the screen. Click on the ‘Set Target App’ button to link with an image editing application. In my case I’m going to use ‘Photoshop’ (you’ll only have to do this the first time you use ‘ZApplink’.) Then click on the ‘Drop now’ button.Step 16
‘ZApplink’ opens the snapshot in the Photoshop, with the layer settings as shown below in the image. ‘Layer 1’ is the layer which has to be edited. The order and name of the layers should always be the same when you finally save this file.Step 17
I’m going to use this image for texturing.Step 18
Copy and paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) the image onto the canvas and adjust it.Step 19
It should look something like this.Step 20
Save the file and press ‘Alt+Tab’ on the keyboard and switch to ZBrush. You’re going to see a dialogue box as shown below. Click on ‘Re-enter ZBrush’ to enter ZBrush, and click on the ‘Return to external editor’ to go back to Photoshop. Here I’ve clicked on the ‘Re-enter ZBrush’ button.Step 21
Next Click on the ‘Pickup Now’ button in the dialogue box.Step 22
This is what you should get in ZBrush.Step 23
Now go to ‘Texture Map’ in the tool menu, and click on‘Clone Txtr’.Step 24
Go to the Texture menu, Click on the current texture, select the cloned texture and then click on the ‘Flip V’ button in the menu. Then Export and save it.Step 25
Adjust the view to see the side of the character’s face on the canvas and then click on the ‘ZApplink’ button in the document menu (as in step 14.) This time you can keep ‘Double Sided’ on, and follow the same steps from 14 to 23 again.Step 26
While working in Photoshop you can use the ‘Liquify’ Filter to adjust the image. Check the Show Backdrop option On, and you’ll be able to see the other layers while working on the main layer.Step 27
When switching back to ZBrush, if this option box comes up, click on ‘Return to external editor’.Step 28
This is what we get after picking up the texture.Step 29
Clone the texture as we did in Step 23, then Flip and Export it.Step 30
Open the image files exported from ZBrush in Photoshop. Press ‘Shift’ on the keyboard and drag & drop the Second image onto the first one.Step 31
Now I’m going to composite these two images together using a layer mask. Select Layer 1 and click on the icon (marked below) to add a layer mask.Step 32
Press ‘B’ on the keyboard to select the brush and set the foreground color to Black. Start painting to reveal the background layer. Black will ‘reveal’ and White will ‘hide’ the content below layer 1.Step 33
Once you’re done painting, Save the texture and import it into ZBrush, go to the Texture menu, click on the Import button and select the texture image. And Flip it vertically.Step 34
Go to ‘Texture Map’ in the Tool menu and select the imported image to apply it to the character.Step 35
Small problems in the textures can be fixed using ‘Projection Master’ in ZBrush. As in this case, around the nose area.Step 36
To fix it, Zoom into the area and click on the ‘Projection Master’ Button in the upper left corner of the canvas or press ‘G’ on the keyboard.Step 37
Check on the ‘Colors’ option and click on ‘Drop Now’ button.Step 38
Select the ‘Cloner Brush’ from the 2.5D Brushes menu.Step 39
Turn off ‘Zadd’ by clicking on the button and make sure ‘Rgb’ is On.Step 40
‘Ctrl+click’ to set the target and fix the area. Once you’re done click on ‘Projection master’ again (or press‘G’ on the keyboard.) And then click on ‘Pickup Now’.Step 41
Here the whole character is being textured using the same techniques.Step 42
One the character is painted, Clone the complete texture, Flip it Vertically and then Export it.Step 43
Now I’m going to pose the character using the ‘TransposeMaster’ plugin, it can be download from the Pixologic website.Step 44
Now turn all the subtools On from the ‘Subtool’ options in the Tool menu. Click on the ‘Texture On’ button to turn the texture Off on the Character.Step 45
Now go to the Zplugin menu, and click on the ‘TPoseMesh’ button.Step 46
All the subtools will be taken down to their lowest geometry levels.Step 47
To enable the ‘Transpose tool’, press ‘W’ key on the keyboard or press the ‘move’ button highlighted below. Here you can actually press any of the ‘Move, Scale or Rotate (W,E or R)’ buttons to enable the Transpose tool. To Rotate an arm downward using transpose, you’d mask off everything but the arm, then draw an action line from the shoulder to the elbow as shown below in the image, use the outer circle to place the Transpose tool properly.Step 48
And then with ‘Rotate’ active, drag the end of the action line at the wrist to Rotate the arm.Step 49
Here’s a side view of the character’s arm.Step 50
Rotate the upper body using the same techniques.Step 51
Pose the other hand using the same technique again.Step 52
Here’s the character when I’m done with the Transpose tool. Press the ‘Q’ key on the keyboard to exit the Transpose tool.Step 53
Now go to the Zplugin menu – Transpose Master and click on the ‘TPose-Subt’ Button.Step 54
Now I’m going to detail the briefs he’s wearing. Select the Brief subtool and click on the ‘Projection Master’ button.Step 55
In the ‘projection Master’ dialogue box, make sure only ‘Deformation ’ and ‘Normalized’ are checked, and click on the ‘Drop Now’ button.Step 56
Select ‘Line’ as the Stroke.Step 57
And ‘Alpha 12’.Step 58
Create Lines as shown below. Here ‘Move, Rotate and Scale’ can be used for adjusting the placement of the Lines on the briefs. Here you can also adjust the ‘Z Intensity’ accordingly.Step 59
Click on ‘Pickup Now’ when you are done with them.Step 60
Now you can see the Lines we created are not very good because of the limited number of polygons, try dividing the mesh a few more times. And then follow from Step 54 again.Step 61
Here’s the briefs with the details created, for the small holes, use ‘Zsub’ while working in ‘Projection Master’.Step 62
Step 62: This is what I have at the end of this part of tutorial.
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