How to make rocks with Zbrush, Maya, and Substance Painter

[@3dextrude]

Special thank you to Wayne Rhodes, weeb, Itay Michaelly for joining the Patreon group recently! To join : www.patreon.com/3dEx

[@MZONE3D]

Great, which brushes did you use? I saw MalletFast02 but what were the other ones?

[@3dextrude]

Mostly that and trimsmoothborder

[@etheriondesigns]

Retopology isnt necessary for a non-moving object. Its better to just decimate it in zbrush for the low-poly generation, as it guarantees maximum detail for the amount of triangles you use.

[@HenrichAchberger]

thats true, my eyes were burning when he started to retopo it

[@PolyPixxel]

it depends on the application of the asset, if for a mobile game you want low low poly for movie makes 0 diff, if for game depends on the engine if for printing you want low poly

[@theycallme_X]

@@PolyPixxel no, if its for games it gets triangulated anyways, therefore you don't need to retopo something that doesn't move. the reason we retopo something is because triangles are harder for human usage to move and create "rips" when animating.

[@PolyPixxel]

@@theycallme_X please read what I wrote slowly... also its not always the case games get triangulated... its 100% on the engine and graphics renderer AKA openGL doesn't trianngulate automatically. (btw I have a degree in Animation and design and work in the industry this isn't a hobby for me its a career) movies can 100% have millions of poly with things like nuke ideally you can go from Zbrush to nuke if you want, its 100% dependant on the application.

[@theycallme_X]

​@@PolyPixxel i have a degree and career in video game development and design. please share your wellspring of knowledge towards what game engine doesn't auto triangulate meshes on import. i also wouldn't expect an animator to know any of this. you stare at the graph editor fixing curves all day. the reason animated objects have quads, not tris, is because its easier to manipulate. when riggers have to paint weights for you, triangles and Ngons are way too difficult to move smoothly and don't always move uniformly. a static mesh that is not animated will not require perfect quad topology. the only reason it would be modelled in such a way would be for easier to follow edge flow and easier to UV. go ask your soup.

[@BigHeavyLove]

i preferably make a block out mesh in maya first then take into Zbrush so i have something safe to bake down to. But great video.

[@damian8051]

Thank you for sharing your process. Just for my information, you decimated the mesh in zbrush, which is what we see in substance painter in the end, but you did the retopology in Maya. What was the purpose of the stage in Maya? was that for having tidier UVs? And finally, did you not choose to project the mesh to avoid increasing the poly count too much? Thanks

[@Fizzlecris]

Noticed no one answered you. Decimation makes it so it retains its shape enough for you to project the high poly in Zbrush back onto it. Without this, any attempt to export/import your asset without decimation could kill your PC. Although you can use this as your low poly (with fairly decent unwraps) it would be more beneficial and efficient (depending on the purpose of the asset; for example a game asset) for you to take the now decimated and projected high poly into Maya and quad draw a low poly where you have full control over how many polys you want AND where they are in 3D space. You also hit the nail on the head, the unwrap will be much better done this way. Edit: What you see in Substance painter is the Retopology he made in Maya with the decimated sculpt baked onto that

[@damian8051]

@@Fizzlecris Hi Christopher, thanks very much for your detailed response, I understand.

[@vanillatography1544]

@@Fizzlecris I second Damian, thanks for your explanation

[@mmarinham]

Great video and super rad sound selection... you had me shaking to the beats on my balcony while eating a pizza on this one ;))

[@3dextrude]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@RonnieMirands]

The correct title would be: How i did. Cause its so fast for teach someone ;)

[@IGarrettI]

Dont retopo rocks. Just decimate them. Good enough

[@3dextrude]

That's true and that is usually what I do, but it also doesn't hurt to retopo.

[@duanesantos8138]

There's a time and a place for both me thinks. And it's good to show people how easy it is to retopo for other models.@@3dextrude

[@ntn814]

A retopologised model is easy to UV.

[@everInfinity]

@@ntn814 A rock is always easy to UV.

[@ntn814]

@@everInfinity oh is that it? sure, decimate a rock and then try to UV it with continues loops running through all UV seems or islands.

[@cbf9881]

Plz make a slow video

[@Birendraart97]

cool t shirts .obj was cool

[@3dextrude]

Thank you!

[@Illustratingfashion]

cool work! is this a custom brush though? Cant seem to find it in my kit

[@3dextrude]

it comes with zbrush, should be in one of the folders

[@Iris3dcg]

Wow, how great rocks! Isn' t it?

[@vas_studio_3D]

just a question, why are you doing this kind of "retopo" after the sculpt if you are not following any rules of professional retopology? ZRemesher would work better and faster than doing this by hand...

[@3dextrude]

yeah there's no reason to manually retopo a rock. I did it mainly because this was the first video I made where I used the retopo tool, kinda wanted to use it in a video. For practicality you are correct, not needed for something like a rock.

[@vas_studio_3D]

@@3dextrude I forgot to mention that the sculpting and painting work is great!!! So congrats.

[@1999leleo]

You finally show some retopo ! Thanks a lot ! Could you show retopo on your next stylized assets ? Thanks again this helps a lot ! And nice music

[@3dextrude]

Maybe in the future depending on the model :)

[@TheDorianTube]

Awesome. I was wondering if you plan, in the future, of making stylized characters as well?

[@suvigyamishra4604]

Amazing video. But which song is it???

[@3dextrude]

Thank you! names of the tracks appear on bottom left corner of screen when they start playing

[@Евгений-м5и3б]

Круто, аж хочется взять этот булыжник в руки))

[@esteniogarcia7790]

Hey man, great job. Where you found this brush for Zbrush? Do you can send to me link for download?

[@3dextrude]

They come with Zbrush, I mainly used trimsmoothborder and malletfast2, you can find them under the brushes folder

[@esteniogarcia7790]

@@3dextrude thanks u so much

[@nec8050]

Just a question I see you do a custom retopologized model for the low poly, I normally just decimate the high poly to get my low poly, yeah it's a lazy way but how big is the quality impact doing it that way? Doing a custom retopo could take time to learn how to do right and just doing it for every rock model/structure/cliff just wondering if it's worth it.

[@3dextrude]

Its not always necessary and really depends on what the prop will be used for. Decimating is acceptable, though I recommend to clean it up after decimation since sometimes you can get some ugly geo from just decimating.

[@colonelconnerie5217]

I really appreciate your content !

[@3dextrude]

Thank you!!

[@Moby41]

Would this be possible in Blender? Would love to see a video of you giving it a shot if you can :-)

[@shougarifi8336]

I’m still a beginner in 3dmodeling so if you don’t mind me asking what did you exactly do in maya with the polygons?

[@defmaka]

he performed retopology: it's used to create a lowpoly model which is more manageble then a decimated high poly and you can UV map it way better

[@shougarifi8336]

defmaka thanks a lot!!

[@MrJakut88]

Блин, сетка с треугольниками, это же замечательно

[@ApexArtistX]

i got a vehicle model which has too many pieces in substance painter, can u do a rewrap tutorial ?

[@kidehoward93]

nice video as always! are you gonna do a video on the pros and cons so far on 2019?

[@3dextrude]

Not sure since there's not much to talk about, it's almost the same as 2018.

[@RDD87z]

beautiful! how can i get this tutorial in your patreon? do you have a non stylized assets series? like a wooden table or viking or middle age stuff looking realistic like this rock? for game assets in unreal.. if you 've i am gonna pay for them ! this rock looks exactly how i need it in my game.

[@3dextrude]

The full video is on Patreon, but it's not narrated. This is the only video I have made for non stylized assets at the moment.

[@RDD87z]

@@3dextrude give me the link. And if you start a realistic assets series. I will be happy to be part of your support.

[@mitomen2000]

I can't believe you retopod that by hand...ZRemesh?

[@3dextrude]

yeah, it really wasn't necessary, zremesh or even just cleaning up a decimated mesh would have been fine

[@PropheticGamesProductions]

Nice tutorial, but i'm begin in Zbrush, where I can find the brush you use please ? Thanks

[@3dextrude]

They come with zbrush under the brushes folder. Look for trimsmoothborder and malletfast

[@PropheticGamesProductions]

Thanks :D @@3dextrude

[@andrewfowler117]

What program do you use to spin 360 your final model at the end. Would it be possible to do a video on best ways to show of your models for portfolios or demo reels?

[@3dextrude]

Marmoset Toolbag, there's a video in my channel on how to render

[@player11en]

hey loving your videos 😍 did you creat a displacment map in zbrush to keep the details ?

[@3dextrude]

I baked a normal map in Substance Painter.

[@evema4695]

I am new to 3D Modeling. Now, did you create the model in Zbrush and then modelled it in Maya, then used your zbrush design to texture your model in Maya? Can you talk about a little bit about the process cause I am kinda confused.

[@JustDecentArt]

He sculpted the high res model and decimated it and export that into maya to retopo into a lower res mesh as an extra step along with making the UV unwrap for texturing. He used Substance Painter for texturing and it can generate normal maps and curvature maps from the high res model and place it on the low res model.

[@evema4695]

@@JustDecentArt Thank you for your response. To be honest, I did not understand anything so help me out please, again I am a newbie. what is a res model? UV unwrap? what the high and low res models and whats the difference? if you can write your response one a basic level I would dearly appreciate it.

[@JustDecentArt]

@@evema4695 Sure! So when I say res I'm referring to the models resolution meaning how many polygons make up the model. For game engines, and other 3d software, having a model with too many polygons can lead to poor performance which will lag your pc. In order to prevent that but still have all the detail from the high res (high polygon mesh) it is standard practice to make a low res (low polygon mesh) through retopology. Retopology can be looked at as rebuilding the model. In the video he does his sculpting in zbrush and retopology in maya. UV Unwrapping is the term for turning the 3D mesh into a 2D texture map so that he can paint the textures inside Substance Painter. It sounds complicated and it will be the first time you do it. Hopefully my comment helps a little. There are many tutorials around for each step.

[@evema4695]

@@JustDecentArt YES thank you so much, I understand now clearly! If you have any references I will be sure to check them out. Again, thank you

[@MustafaBerkeGureltol]

At 3:16, you use MalleFast2 brush. How did you get that brush?

[@3dextrude]

It comes with Zbrush, its in the brush folder of the browser

[@MustafaBerkeGureltol]

@@3dextrude Thanks a lot!

[@АнтонСбитнев-й9щ]

Great videos! Please don't stop...

[@IgorSinitsky]

Hi, how do you match the UV's of the high poly mesh (baked textures in Painter) with the UVs of hand made and UV'd in Maya model ?

[@3dextrude]

The uvs are set on the final low poly which is done in Maya(in this case the decimated mesh). The high poly doesn't need uvs.

[@DemonSonic95]

I watched other videos how they would tackle there approach when creating a rock/boulder, this is one of the best ones.

[@3dextrude]

Awesome! Thank you

[@murtuzakashyap4685]

I love ur channel Can u make video on best way character making using maya for animation

[@graphicsline9193]

how can we get full detail video of this?

[@LisHard4]

How many degrees do you recommend having the "Soften / Harden edges"?

[@3dextrude]

Just set it to texture borders, no nees to mess with the degrees

[@-Alexey-]

В сабстансе вы использовали свой готовый материал?

[@wilmercortez]

Why retopo on maya, 2 second on Zbrush.

[@specter929]

link for rock material doesn't work

[@3dextrude]

Really? I just tested and it works

[@vladimiraleksandrov9561]

Если я подпишусь на патреоне, у меня будет доступ к полным версиям видео, правеильно? А в каком формате видео, в смысле они тоже на ютабе или где то на другом сайте?

[@3dextrude]

Да, вы получаете доступ к полным видеороликам. Видео не озвучиваются. Видео транслируется через KZbin

[@elitekitten4054]

Great work..Big thanks

[@Diallo268]

what version of zbrush is that? You know the upgrades are free right?

[@rhittikgarg9144]

Is it possible to make materials in painter too? ...

[@3dextrude]

It is, but it's a little more limited than Designer.

[@kevinpopescu9741]

I feel like you didn't benefit that much from the retopology except when it comes to selecting loops while doing uv's The decimated low poly was much more true to the shape of the high poly rock and seemed to only be a little more heavy in polycount than the retopologized version

[@3dextrude]

Yeah that's a good point

[@damian8051]

Hi Kevin, I'm new to this and working on a mesh myself. Would it be a fair assumption to say the benefit of the retopology in Maya was for the UVs? I'm only confused because at the end of the video you can see the triangulated wireframe in Substance painter at 14:22, but it must still be using the tidy UVs created in Maya. I suppose as long as the retopology is close enough to the triangulated topology, the UVs will work all the same.

[@damian8051]

Ok ignore that, apparently what I thought he was doing isn't possible.

[@dylanqueen2759]

@@damian8051 Seeing the triangulated mesh in Substance is a little confusing. The benefit I see when retopping is getting a final, quadded (no tris), proper model that will properly subdivide when being rendered. Bringing the retop into substance, and then baking the hi res sculpt onto it would be ideal imo, to get the desired normal mapping, etc. However it does seem that he managed to do that somehow on the decimated sculpt rather than the retopped one hmmm...

[@moldysann7083]

So epic. Thank you!

[@k.g.ylmazer7519]

Rock Material link wants to sign up and nothing comes or goes to mail, tried multiple times not working, can you please open the material or upload it to substance share

[@3dextrude]

Really, can you double check the email didn't go to your spam folder? I just tested it and seems to work

[@k.g.ylmazer7519]

@@3dextrude hi thank you for your reply checked the spam, junk and inbox multiple times, tried different mails, and seems like not the only one experiencing this problem, it would be great if you guys could share the material some other way, would be really helpful.

[@duanesantos8138]

I tried finding the "Get free rock smart material" on your site from that link you posted but couldn't find it - any help? I also searched the freebie download page and didn't see it there. Thanks.

[@3dextrude]

Sorry there are some technical difficulties going on with the site at the moment. In the meantime use this temporary link to download it gum.co/rockMat

[@nec8050]

@@3dextrude Says the product isn't currently for sale :(

[@3dextrude]

It is fixed now

[@nec8050]

@@3dextrude Thanks :)

[@duanesantos8138]

@@3dextrude Sorry to bug you again but I tried adding your Rock smart material and I keep getting this error: [Data Preset] Invalid preset 3dex_Rock_Material Any thoughts? I bought your stylized smart material recently and it worked perfectly. I put the new Rock smart material in the same place and no worky. Thanks.

[@vipinsrivastava86]

How to get this brush you are using for sculpt..

[@3dextrude]

They come with Zbrush in the brush folder look for the trimsmoothborder and malletfast

[@3dextrude]

They come with Zbrush in the brush folder look for the trimsmoothborder and malletfast

[@moneymakers1509]

Nice Design bro

[@my_shit_thickness]

very helpful to study. thanks

[@harumybenancio4018]

If it's to fast you can put it slower in settings 😉

[@MrAnishraaj]

What brush did you use to put the volume roughly?

[@3dextrude]

Main brushes I used were malletfast 2 and trim smooth border

[@MrAnishraaj]

@@3dextrude Where can I get or buy those?

[@3dextrude]

The come with Zbrush in the brushes folder

[@MrAnishraaj]

@@3dextrude oh! I actually did not know that. Thank you.

[@sekarpracoyo9964]

YOU GOTTA TRIS

[@lauch8844]

can i buy the rock material you use in substance painter?

[@3dextrude]

You can get it here : gum.co/rockMat

[@moonyeah4560]

Omg the music from HOME !! Pyxis !!

[@RDD87z]

theres no course for this?

[@3dextrude]

Not at the moment, would that be of interest?

[@RDD87z]

@@3dextrude I think yes. The quality is realistic. Which is exactly what I'm searching to learn.

[@och70]

Maya 2019? Better/Worse/Pretty much same as 2018?

[@3dextrude]

Pretty much the same

[@leoleo1035]

Circularize is the only praise-worthy tool I believe. just cuts a couple secs/mins from workflow when needed

[@3dextrude]

Yeah, other than that it looks like they focused mostly on performance for animation and arnold viewport.

[@kevbri11]

this is too fast to be a "how to" tho, this is just like all your other videos, they dont really show much other than you doing your thing

[@clandido4390]

Realistic 3d wohoo

[@TYIIAK]

крутая работа !

[@3dextrude]

Спасибо!

[@petervatamany]

Why retopo Rocks?

[@sergiyb.9046]

I guess there are missing some stages like mesh projection and taking normals map out of an object.

[@3dextrude]

maps are baked in Substance Painter, not sure what you mean by mesh projection

[@sergiyb.9046]

@@3dextrude I mean that step when You project High polly mash and details to the low polly mesh. I will add a link to this step in my comment lower, but there might be link filter at Your KZbin channel and that link might go to the spam section. In case it happen you may just search video "Zbrush Projection video 1" here on KZbin

[@sergiyb.9046]

@@3dextrude Here is the link kzbin.info/www/bejne/anOaqKVuecadqqs

[@3dextrude]

That step was not necessary here because I didn't start with a low poly model.

[@nikitapilipenko6883]

amazing

[@KingofSkulls]

Whenever i see your work i give up on 3D designing

[@3dextrude]

If I can do this you can too!

[@KingofSkulls]

@@3dextrude Thanks for cheering me up! :)

[@silviohauptmann7080]

i love the rock

[@arashi8876]

Wish You are my Mentor !!

[@xjchen2489]

好厉害。

[@3dextrude]

谢谢！

[@yuguhtrrh8753]

Making a rock is like doing whatever you want and it will finally render something good Kidding, it is so hard my duds

[@yggrassildigital8483]

Deym son! ❤️

[@RomixV]

smart material link is dead? :(

[@3dextrude]

Use this one for now gum.co/rockMat

[@V-95K]

This is to fast to teach someone, better call it “How I did”

[@i5ten]

youtube provides a replay speed option just for your pleasure ;)

[@wasimsaifi7684]

Please make some/same video in normal speed.

[@dorael_]

I hate that Blender has literally the same instruments and brushes to do this exact thing but they just don't work this good

[@aleDMart]

Is the material for free?

[@3dextrude]

Yes, here is a temporary link gum.co/rockMat

[@anshumandash4510]

can u upload a slower version of this

[@3dextrude]

The regular speed is on Patreon; you can also change the playback speed here as well.

[@ReddoFreddo]

Can someone explain to me how the title of this video is not clickbait?

[@jochenfong3056]

hi ， I can‘t find the rock materia

[@3dextrude]

Here is another link to it since the main site is having some issues gum.co/rockMat

[@ZhengYuanz]

@@3dextrude This product is not currently for sale? couldnt get..

[@3dextrude]

:( I'll look into it, might not be available until tomorrow

[@3dextrude]

I think the link works now

[@ZhengYuanz]

​@@3dextrude [Data Preset] Invalid preset 3dex_Rock_Material [Resource Import] "D:/Downloads/3dex_Rock_Material.spsm" cannot be imported as 'smartmaterial'. [Data Preset] Invalid preset 3dex_Rock_Material [Data Preset] Invalid preset 3dex_Rock_Material am i the only one having this prob? :(

[@atlantisr5017]

好快!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Fortunate_Son979]

does anyone have the same video but with explanation of steps? Becouse this one is useless for noobs like me

[@3dextrude]

sorry, I didn't really make a tutorial from this :(

[@Fortunate_Son979]

@@3dextrude So you definitely should. I will be extremely useful for a lot of people. P.S. I thought it is a tutorial because video could "How to make" not "How I make" i think you got an idea. Please, make a tutorial, man.

[@andi-ge6zh]

But teach the tutorial

[@Aaron-he6fy]

that easy, uh?

[@StephenWebb1980]

This is not a how to video. It's a demonstration of skill. Well done, but not a tutorial.

[@snap-n-shoot]

Too fast to learn anything

[@grimdiablo119]

not a "how to", too fast lol

[@seansopata5121]

Is this a joke? Meant to be satire or something? This is a timelapse. You aren't showing anyone anything.

[@Niko_3D]

Most of these tutorials don't teach you much Which is sad it feels like most artist are witholding their knowledge in fear of creating competition . You're better off watching people like Grant Abbit at least guy takes minute to explain whats going on.