July 22, 2008

Fun with Z Brush

I have been playing with Z Brush as a modeling package.  It is a sweet application!  Now that I know my way around the Interface, I find it very enjoyable to create with the package.  While I still think Mudbox is much easier to use, I can see why Z Brush is used in so many productions. 

It is especially useful for generating normal maps for current generation games.  You can achieve more depth in your normal maps than you can using a filter with NVIDIA or Crazy Bump.  To do this, use the grayscale image, that you were going to use to generate a filtered normal map, and import it into Z Brush as a texture or brush.  Apply the tiled texture to a divided flat piece of geometry in Z Brush so that the depth of the texture is  extracted.  Next use your brushes to add some more detail, depth, and deformations.  From there export a normal map out, or apply a normal shader to the geometry and take a screenshot. 

Using Z Brush to generate a normal map give textures an extra dimension and depth that you don’t get from a filter.  On a side note, some of the channels in the normal map can be added into the diffuse color texture map for added depth.  It also is a great way to visualize a grayscale depth map.  So often edges and small details don’t have enough color depth in the grayscale image.  These details usually get blurred out when filtered.  Once visualized in Z Brush, you can sharpen the edges with a sculpting brush.

Cheers!

:)