Class Notes - Beginner ZBrush

Rendering and Turntable

-ZBrush

Movie-> Turnatable

Play Movie- to look up your video

Window- entire program
Doc- records only the Doc, no UI
Large // Medium // Small- looks at the size of the Document. Large- the whole size of the Doc, Med- half, etc

Delete the video to write a new one

Overlay IMG- the img in the bottom corner

Title Image -the image in the center, that fades in & out ( you can change that- the timimg, change the logo img or put in type)

All Fade in and out can be updated at any time.

Be conscious of your Background color. If it is a gradient, it will flicker, which is REALLY annoying. Don't put gradient, always make a flat color bg. Document-> Range to 0 and the color above will be used as a bg color.

Modifiers

Spin cycles- how many times it rotates
FPS- frames per second

Quality - quality of the video itself ; Intensity, Color - of the video
For a test you can reduce the quality to save time and test different options...especially that you record it in BPR.

Save as.... - .zmv can only be opened with ZBrush
Load - loads the .zmv file
Export ( turn on H -high quality).... - saves the actual video

http://docs.pixologic.com/reference-guide/movie/

Timelapse - looks and records you sculpting. (but you have to turn it on Before you start sculpting)
Record - records every second frame real time and doesn't jump or skip like the Timelapse.

Courser Size -turn it off incase you don't want it to show up in the video.
If you want the model to fill the most of the document, Zoom out with the Zoom button to see the whole frame of your video.
To go back to normal- click Actual (it doesn't get cut off- it is just doesn't fit)
Click AAHalf - produces a better quality of the video. ( but it drops the quality in half. If you want a video 2000x1000, make the Document Size 4000x2000 and then turn AAHalf)

https://www.marmoset.co/toolbag

(really good)

https://sketchfab.com/

- a game render. Enables real time view.

Timeline

- one track at a time
FE., Camera movement

Position camera, make a dot, then change camera position and set another dot -now the camera can move
Shift + P - to play the video

To change the speed- click on the dot and move it along the line.
You can rotate the model, do all the things you want.

To Delete- click on the Dot, drag it down away from the Timeline
To move multiple points at a time, select them holding Shift.

*You can start with a front of the face and then move it down to the back of the shoes- That will make a more interesting video.
To hold a frame, copy a frame ( the dot). To do that- when you have a dot selected, hold Shift and tap on the Timeline.

You can always do the regular Turntable and the Timeline separately and then stich those together in programs like AfterEffects, IMovie etc.

CTRL+ SHIFT + tap on the first dot for it to Record the timeline

Play Movie - to watch it

Recording FPS-
Number of frames per second used when recording the movie. Small values reduce the movie file size, but result in a jerkier animation.

Playback FPS-
Determines how quickly the movie will play back. If this is equal to the Recording FPS, the movie will play at the speed it was recorded at; if this is double the Recording FPS, the movie will play at double speed; and so on.

Export...
Save as....

TimeLine Tracks

If you want to add more animation rather than just Camera. You can turn on/off Polygroups / Color/ Materials etc

* You want to make a green BG transition to Blue and then to Red
First dot- turn on the green
Second- turn to blue etc.
If you turn on lets say green and don't add a dot to switch it, it will stay this way.

Whatever track you have been before- shows up as greyed out dots on the timeline. (If you are in Material now and have been in Camera before, you will see the camera dots, but wont be able to adjust them now- they serve as guidelines)

https://pixologic.com/zclassroom/lesson/timeline-blend-shapes-overview

- Keyshot

Render-> External Render -> turn on KeyShot

Then click BPR ( SIFT +R)

Left Mouse -Rotate
Middle mouse- move
Wheel- zoom

down in the bottom - open Library and Project ( book and page symbols)

A click and drag system.
Click on Material in project, drag it to the subtool.
To keep polypaint, hold ALT and drag.( It wont hold polypaint with some materials like Liquids, Glass etc.)

there are tabs for
|
Material

Environment ( lighting and Backdrop images)
Camera ( you can save views)
Scene( list of all Geo you have in scene)

In the Project menu on the right you can adjust all the default stuff you added from the library.

- Material-

Specularity- how shiny it is
Roughness - make it polished or rough
Translusency- aka SSS
Refraction- The higher refraction index distorts light more and makes the material itself more reflective than the lower refraction index on the right.

Some skin examples...

not keyshot renders, but gives you an idea what to look for in a skin render..

- Environment-

Gives you light ( from HDRI)
you can edit it, choose a new one (from Library on the left- click and drag to anywhere on the Doc), etc.

Pin- add Pin to add additional lights. Choose set highlight- to tap on the model to where you want the highlight to go.

Backplate- the BG picture (does not effect the lighting)
In Keyshot6 you can drag from the Library right to the tab of the Backplate. In KeyShot 5- import the file the normal way.

You can use Color for the background

For Lighting purpose, you can use actual geometry as lights... Like this awesome artist fe...
Click on Light material and drag to like a torus to make it be a light.( you can create the Light mesh in Zbrush and export it with the model OR you can create the geometry in KeyShot Edit-> Add Geometry-> pick. the Adjust the position in the right menu, Scene section.)

Emissive Light - subtle light

Ambient - for strong one

When you go to the Light Material, you can make it InVisible to Camera / Shadows/ etc...