an alien ship?

[Carlosan]

very very very nice

[Carlosan]

i was testing same procedure using 3dc....

Voxel room

Sculpt an object

Retopo Room

Retopo the voxel object

Merge into scene MicroVerts

Paint Room

Import a picture .exr from Textures, Import, Displacement map

how can i set displacement height ?

UVroom

Make some UVset face tweaks

At menu top right: choose checker, select custom texture...

because we cant open the .exr... just convert the .exr to .jpeg to use the jpeg for image reference.

Apply UV-set

finally

Paint Room

File, Export, select High Polymesh

The workflow Cycle begin again

Voxel room

Merge without voxelizing the High Polumesh exported from paint Room

--------

the new mesh is loaded, and we can continue adding details with LC

great technique ! ty for sharing !

[michalis]

Please carlosa, post some screen grabs.

I'm a little confused.

BTW, you can't convert a .exr to a jpg. You're losing all the rich information, this way.

[michalis]

You can use a 16 bit tif. Though 32 bit exr is much better.

Keep in mind that exr32 is a linear color space file.

The above last ~4M model, now at ~30k + normal maps. It took me a few clicks to directly bake it. Just UVunwrapped once more, as the previous UVs were for modeling purposes only.

[Psionic]

These are very cool, gonna try some experiments myself. Thanks for the inspiration.

[michalis]

Hey, thanks.

Here, trying on a simple box modeling, a basic chair. Then, started to make loops and used them as UV islands (blenderUVeditor, follow active quads method)

[Garagarape]

Funny! But I wouldn't sit on it!

[digman]

You are making some awesome stuff there, It is eye catching, including the chair...

My brain is so full of doing other things, plus 2D painting and 3DCoat, I think the old brain would burst if I tried one more thing but I promise Michalis, to get around to looking at this....

[michalis]

Thanks David.

Thanks Garagarape.

Searching for more clever and interesting panels. (voxels are great on this). Exporting a 2-3M decimated mesh in blender is a PITA. A depth map rendering? ( exr 32bit of course)

A support of such map in painting room?

Here, using a combination of two maps. One for real displacement, a second for bumps. It is a 400 faces only base. Displacement isn't much, sends ~500K in the render engine. The secondary bumpMap does the trick.

ahahaha final approach, Oops sorry for such a scene. but space Odysseys have an end, sometimes. LOL

[wave of light]

That's so cool. Really enjoying this thread.

[Garagarape]

Oh! That's verrry... (whisper) sexual.

Same for me Digman. My brain is about to explose (too much work at my company).

I'd like to give a shot (nothing to do with Michalis last pic) to Michalis techniques though.

[michalis]

I'd like to give a shot (nothing to do with Michalis last pic) to Michalis techniques though.

[Britain]

Had some time to play with this . Lots of possiblities. Still need to learn a bit more on follow active quads..just not getting this yet.

[michalis]

@Britain

thanks, I also learned active quads because of this. I had tried them in the past, good results, but never thought they are a so powerful tool.

Something very blrendish, just for fun. Though the famous suzanne monkey of blender is very old and has bad topology. Just to see if I can manage bad topology too. There're a few tricks. Another great tip to handle displacement on specific areas (where mesh is thin for instance) is weight painting in blender. Use it as value under the displacement panel there.

Funny when saying that blender has an awful UI. Everything is there, waiting to use them. There's a unique logic, behind everything. And, it's not the 3dmax logic, for sure.

[Britain]

Spent more time with the follow the quads. I think I have this down now. In my line of work I do film over molding. The film gets stretched when the plastic rolls over it when it hits a high or low spot . So we start with a grid checked pattern to see low and high spots on the steel. I will create the same and learn this UV .

[michalis]

Thanks britain. I just learned how to handle multiple UV sets on the same mesh, and in cycles.

So, from HRGiger to Gaudí

[Britain]

That is really cool!

[Garagarape]

Very impressive!

[ajz3d]

Your ships (and even the Blender monkey!) would be great assets for the next Alien film. I like the way in which you combine organic, round shapes with technology. Very impressive and unique. Great technique.

[michalis]

I like the way in which you combine organic, round shapes with technology

Thank you, all.

This is the essence of this workaround. There are no round shapes on such a panel-relief. What comes curved is because the topology curves. Follow topology.

On my last post, it's a 280K (resulting, after displacement, on the render engine only). It can go up to millions with no problems. But, it can go down to 70k, with similar results. It can be exported with UVs and bumps anywhere. Being a multires mesh, it can be down to a few hundred faces and bake normal maps directly from multires.

I mean, it's fully compatible with any workflow you have in mind.

[michalis]

Semi organic, more alien like stuff. Experiments.

A hires depth map 16 or 32 bit exr or tif export directly from render room, Please!!! (In 3dc)

[Britain]

Had some time to spend on the burning of the exr. Not as good as yours actually not really good at all but it did work. Need more practice there.

[michalis]

Had some time to spend on the burning of the exr. Not as good as yours actually not really good at all but it did work. Need more practice there.

I can only guess what issues you're facing.

Have in mind, this operation is scale sensitive. So, apply scale changes first (ctrl+a/scale), select both target and source meshes, reduce scale (or enlarge) and bake again. A tip! LOL

[Britain]

Yes one was scale! Thanks for the tip!

[michalis]

A funny ship.

Playing with retopo and loops a bit. A few 5poles or even some tris are compatible. (if you know how to handle them on a UV editor)

[michalis]

Here's another one, I really don't know what it supposed to be. LOL

And, a video tut from a friend, just the basics, I could say much more on the blender UV editor, on how to control displacement value via a vertex painting set, for instance (very important)

But, you have the basic idea behind this workaround.

[Garagarape]

Thank You Michalis! Nice work and video tutorial from your friend.

[TimmyZDesign]

Wow, finally a video tutorial! I have been very interested in this thread but quite a bit confused by it because I am not an experienced Blender user.

But in any case I want to thank you Michalis for sharing this! It is very kind of you. I am also enjoying the great thread you have going at Blender Artists!

And,,,

Mealea Ying's thread over at Zbrush is a wonderful treasure too! This has been some of the coolest stuff I have seen in a long while! Thank you!

[michalis]

Thanks, the video tutorial explains just the basics.

Much more to say on UV editing, on how these panels have to be... How to curve horizontal-vertical patterns.

My new experiments, psychonautic masonry.

And, a doodle, just to keep things in trunk. LOL

[Tony Nemo]

"And, a doodle," modeled in 3D Coat?