Developing Derivatives of the DAZ Dragon 3 in ZBrush

Dragon Quest

Join us on this quest to discover some fantastic variants of the DAZ Dragon 3. By the end of this mini-course, you’ll know how to generate some clever derivations of the standard DAZ Dragon 3 by the use of morphs. Along this journey you’ll gain some essential ZBrush skills in order to produce your own compelling re imagining of this model.

Most importantly, the DAZ 3D store has already indicated they would be pleased to sell the best of these variants that you create. PLUS we’ve agreed to create a sale on the DAZ 3 Dragon with DAZ 3D, so you can take the model for yourself to play with and create your variations.

We’re going to be working in ZBrush 4R7 and as long as you have a basic knowledge of ZBrush, you should be able to follow along with what we’re doing. We’ll include tips of how you can use the new ZBrushCore instead of ZBrush 4R7 as we go through this tuition.

We recommend you come along to all sessions to get a comprehensive understanding of how to create compelling new Dragon 3 versions.

Session 3 : Saturday 29th of October – Detailing your Dragon

20:00 BST (London)/12:00 PDT (Los Angeles)/15:00 EDT (New York)

5. Secondary Sculpting of a Morph Variation.

Since the primary forms are potentially changed dramatically from the base Dragon 3, a new texture set is recommended for each major Morph Variation! To start this process, the mesh is sub-divided in Zbrush and an overall secondary sculpt pass is applied BEFORE the alpha detailing. Think of this as the 3D under-painting that sets up the final detail. Without a good secondary pass, alphas details often look generic or even fake. Skin wrinkles, muscle and fat anatomy will be considered from animal and reptile examples.

a. Wrinkle theory – cutting in with the dam standard brush
b. Inflation brush passes – the influence of fat and gravity
c. Standard and clay brush uses for reenforcing both wrinkles and fat details.
d. Starting to build scale details by hand.
e. Developing a flow or rhythm that introduces randomness for a natural “feel”.

6. Original Alpha creation

a. Getting legal photo reference and preparing it in Photoshop
b. Sculpting texture details from scratch on a plane in Zbrush
c. Making tilable textures in Photoshop and Zbrush
d. Making “hero” detail patches

7. Using Alpha’s with layers

a. Morph targets and morph brush options
b. Layer mixing
c. Customizing brushes

4. Reinforcing the Alpha details pass with manual sculpting.

a. Rinse and repeat until finished!

Session 4 : Sunday 30th of October -Dragon Painting

20:00 BST (London)/12:00 PDT (Los Angeles)/15:00 EDT (New York)

8. Painting Diffuse layer

a. Color theory
b. Using the mask menu to assist with color painting
c. Spray and color spray brushes

6. Map Extraction

a. Normal
d. Displacement
c. Diffuse
d. Ambient Occlusion
c. Cavity
e. Metal, Rough, or Spec and Glossy– the differences and how to use the mask menu in zbrush plus adjustments photoshop to build them

9. Getting it all working in an Iray shader in Daz Studio

a. importing the maps to the right slots
b. playing with settings and options

About the presenter : John Haverkamp

John Haverkamp was born in Ohio and then moved to the pristine Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia at a young age. There he spent a semi-isolated childhood re-enacting the Lord of the Rings and being corrupted by Dungeons and Dragons. Always with the fondness for the fantastical and medieval, Art school drove him deeper into Luddite territory by granting him the skills of a traditional metal-smith. This meant post-college jobs making copper fountains, welding and steel fabricating, casting and finishing bronze sculptures, and working for an architectural blacksmith throughout his twenties.

Digitally, John got sucked into cyberspace and the arcane mysteries of 3D studio max. The perfect software match for John was ZBrush discovered six years ago. Now he teaches digital arts part time, and constantly endeavours to improve his craft as a digital-sculptor and visualizer through personal work, illustration and indie game projects.