What kind of program is ZBrush? The website is profoundly unhelpful at explaining exactly what you do with it. Do you set up lighting and render with it, like a typical 3D program?

I like the color scheme on the left better also. The only problem with the head I see is that visual detail is lost because it's too dark, and I can't quite make out his anatomy, although that might be my less-than-perfect color perception.

Lol, yeah, it doesn't help you a lot describing what the program can do if you go to the website. But basically, Zbrush is a 3D sculpting program but instead of manipulating clay/sculpey, you just manipulate the polygons. It's not quite like other typical 3D programs, like Maya or 3D Max, you can just pick up and start using it. The only thing that you need to get used to is the navigation. But you don't have to learn all the interfaces. You just need 2 types of brush and you can basically sculpt anything you want. It's used mainly for the sculpting and it's not an animation program (you can only pose your model and that's about it). You can also add light and render it, although for my model I just used the default light so some areas weren't properly lit. But you can see the progresses of this model here. I took screen captures of him from different angle.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/sh.....ad.php?t=53344

The grey renders really shows off the anatomy and the detail. That's one seriously impressive model. The color pics don't quite do it justice. Getting good lighting on a 3D scene is a whole tedious, time-consuming art in itself, so I know where you're coming from with the default lighting thing.

I've done considerable work with modeling in Maya, although mostly objects. I did do a German Shepherd model, which I'm going to finish any day now, honest. Any day now...



You want an easy Photoshop tip on the tribal tatoos? It's easy to do, not quite as easy to explain...

Thank you for the comment. Yeah, lighting is pretty trick thing to do. What's the trick for doing tribal tattoos in Photoshop? You're not talking about using pen tool, right?

Nah, not the pen tool. It's just allows one layer to blend better with the underlying layer, assuming you have the Thorny Devil render on one layer, and the Tattoos on the layer above it.

Select the tattoo layer, then from the main menu select Layer->Layer Style->Blending Options...

The box comes up, and at the bottom you've got a section that says "Blend If:" Below it, there is "This Layer" and "Underlying Layer". If you tweak the sliders, it will help the Tattoos blend more realistically with image beneath it. The "trick" is that if you hold down the 'alt' key when you click on a slider and drag it, it will split into two sliders allowing you to define a range. Tweaking the ranges this way often allows one layer to realistically add 'decals' to the underlying layer with minimal effort.

Easy trick, didn't know if you were aware it.

Cool. Thank you for the tutorial.

Very marvelous creation. The design is really intriguing.

Thank you for the comment.

It was my pleasure to give.