Hey Richard, how’s it going? hope you had a great weekend. I’m getting pretty excited about the upcoming live workshop so I actually spent the weekend setting up some of the resources I’ll be sharing with the students, but there will be time later to talk about those... for today's email, I got some juicy updates, new resources and a cool tip... Here are the highlights:

• New tutorial on ZBrush BPR render!
• Tip of the week: MicroPoly
• An update on the Asset Library Workshop!
• Final Speed Racer concept from 3DSnippets

New tutorial on ZBrush BPR render!

It has been a while since I share anything related to ZBrush BPR render so it is time for a new tutorial covering some tips on how I render an image using ZBrush single BPR with filters!

In this new tutorial, I’ll show you how you visibly improve your images for presentation using just filters to enhance the tender:

This tutorial also comes with some resources including additional MatCap materials for Hard Surface modelling (similar to the little pack I shared a couple of weeks ago), and also the Render Settings I used to create the ‘enhanced’ image of the model above.

You’ll find the link to download the resources from the description of the YouTube video ;)

Tip of the week: MicroPoly

For today’s tip, I have something that I personally think is pretty cool but in all honesty, I don’t think the specific workflow I’m going to show you are going to be useful in many situations... if nothing else, it is a very cool way to experiment with geometry and patterns!

Here is a quick Keyshot render from what I created following the steps I’m about to show you:

Alright, so for this process we are going to need a base mesh with a relatively clean topology but nothing fancy, a quick ZRmeshed object would do the trick... we just need large enough polygons so that we can add MicroPoly.

STEP 1

Take your mesh (I’m using the demo head from ZBrush projects), and enable the Dynamic subdivision from the Geometry palette. At the bottom, you can enable MicroPoly and select a MicroPoly from the thumbnail... this process will assign a MicroPoly to each face of your mesh:

This is a really cool feature to use with clothes and dynamics because the MircoPoly is only being dynamically drawn onto the mesh so you can run Simulations with a pretty detailed piece using something like a woven pattern of MicroPoly but on a ‘lowpoly’ plane.

After you choose your MicroPoly (I suggest a single-sided one for the next step), just click the Apply button and make sure your subdivision level is set to 0.

STEP 2

Once you apply the MicroPoly, it becomes real geometry that you can edit in any way... Enable Dynamic subdivision again, and while keeping the Smoothsubdiv slider to 0 again, play with the Thickness slider to add thickness to all those bits and pieces created with the MicroPoly mesh:

Go ahead and apply the Dynamic subdivision changes so that the Thickness is not part of the geometry.

STEP 3

Enable Dynamic subdivision again and this time, remove the thickness and just play around with the SmoothSubdiv to soften the edges of the pattern:

At this point, you can just apply the Dynamic subdivision, and to refine the effect add an extra level of subdivision and use the Inflate slider to ‘tighten’ the gap between the pieces (depending on which pattern you chose).

That is pretty much it... you can obviously do some further refinements as I did for my render using the Dam Standard brush to push some lines in.

Also, keep in mind that depending on the MicroPoly you used you get different results and in most cases, once you apply the Dynamic subdivision, you’ll also end up with a bunch of disconnected pieces so you can AutoGroup everything or use the Move Topological brush to tweak things with more control if you are after a particular effect ;)

An update on the Asset Library Workshop!

First, let me say sorry! haha I messed up the timezones when I sent you the email about the live workshop last week... my bad. The timezones and all the details are correct on the website, but if you are only going from what I shared in the email, the times are a bit different... Anyway, just in case, the first live sessions start on the 30th of May at 8:00 am (Australia time). HERE is a quick link for you to check your time zones.

This is just a quick note to let you know that now the enrolment page is now public on the website so the spots for the live sessions might start filling up faster.

Another project from the 3DSnippets

The past month of April on the 3DSnippets, I’ve been working on a speed racer concept and even though this type of model is not what I usually do, it was refreshing and fun to work on something different and play around with the texturing techniques. Here is one of the final renders:

The MAP for this month with all the resources is going to be ready in the next day or so and we are ready to start something new for the month of May. If you are keen to join us, make sure you do it before the 5th so you can get a vote on the next project ;)

That’s it for today! I’ll see you next week
Pablo M.

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