ROPE - Stylised Or Realistic, A Simple Technique In Zbrush

In this video, we look at a useful technique to make rope for our Zbrush sculpts. This can be used for both realistic and Stylised sculpting.
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Music:
Sofa Stories - Copyright Chillhop Music - chll.to/185703b6
Axian, falcxne, Makzo - Airplane Mode chll.to/2261e752

[@RianBee]

I feel like I have been using Zbrush like a neanderthal after watching this video. Thank you for showing me the light!

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad I could help! 😂

[@GillTony01]

Thank you, really helpful tut✌

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad it was helpful!

[@evilweenie5743]

I forgot to say thank you for this tutorial. Thanks man.

[@RobotArmy3D]

No worries! 😁

[@deltahexagon]

I've been trying to find a viable alternative to the curve brush and this is GREAT! Thank you so much for the tutorial, it's helped me figure out an easier way to wrap some simple twine around my character's antlers in a way that's MUCH less frustrating!

[@RobotArmy3D]

That's great to hear! You may also want to look into the anchor brush, its a great addition to add to this technique that i didn't know of when making this video. Good luck 👍

[@IBIS-3D]

This is absolutely fantastic, can't believe it's free on YT! Thanks for sharing

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad you like it! 👍

[@dastudios88]

I am already used to this technique, but I never used that 'smooth' that blue arrow. this is gold. awesome tutorial!

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad it was helpful!

[@razorback7828]

This is a very smart technique!! THANKS!!!

[@IspyrGameDev]

Solid alternative to the curve brush, I find it frustrating to work with as well, so I'm quite happy to see this clever solution. Well done man.

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad to help! Its always good to have alternative solutions.

[@anand_pg]

Great tutorial! I'm gonna use this method. Thanks for sharing!

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad it was helpfull

[@cristhianperez8215]

clever & so satisfying to watch, thanks mate

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad you enjoyed it 🙂

[@DenisMukhametshin]

wow, thx for this free tut, its awesome

[@RobotArmy3D]

You're welcome!

[@Beliolas]

thanks for the new guide! it will come in handy for me

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad I could help!

[@arydroger9760]

thks your tutorial very helpfull,keep going on,

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad it helped 👌

[@chungthaily1867]

thanks you for share your skill bro, keep going 🥰🥰🥰

[@RobotArmy3D]

Thanks! 😊

[@jkasso7]

Awesome video, character is looking great!

[@RobotArmy3D]

Thank you! Cheers 👌

[@kbkim1694]

thank you amazing tutorial

[@RobotArmy3D]

Thank you!

[@mangonewbie7085]

Nice😘

[@RobotArmy3D]

Thanks!

[@Cactuspractice12]

Great tutorial, thank you so much.

[@RobotArmy3D]

You're very welcome! 😊

[@therealKrak]

How do you retopo and uv map those ropes? That's the tricky part I still haven't figured out.

[@Damian_h]

robot bro can u show how u tackle a very complex bake with let say ropes, accessories, clothing. Can u show the decimate process the clean up mesh and then the bake im kind of struggling to get it right.

[@abdallah_4056]

I'm not so good at this but for the rope just use a simple cylinder as the low poly and use the curves to match the high poly. I did it before but it took me for ever to match the high poly.

[@Damian_h]

@@abdallah_4056 oh man... sounds painful af!. Ill give a try then i guess is trial and error in these kind of stuff. Thanks homie.

[@RobotArmy3D]

As Abdallah says, you can use a cylinder for ropes, it doesn't need to have many edges lengthways as it should smooth shade nicely. Just make sure to have enough cross section edges for any smooth curves so that you don't get any clipping of the details when you bake the high poly. Think about breaking the character down into groups and tackling each section as if it was its own asset. All skin on one map, all leather straps and buckles on another, etc. Im working on a character at the moment with lots of little parts, once its done, I may do a break down of this. The only other thing I can suggest is take a look at the baking section of my Oilcan tutorials as there are some tricky making areas in that.

[@Damian_h]

@@RobotArmy3D oh man if u can show me the process of your character it would be so dope. Because im also currently working with classmates in our seminary project im doing stylized enemies but i went through a lot hard times because i was used to model from real references they scold me saying "is looking too real" make it more round shaped but those corrections didnt help much at all... until i got help from reddit user that told me stylized is just exaggerating certain aspects that reinforce the main concept of the model that u are working on. Now the style is there i model an skeletal minotaur with chains and axes but the teacher told me to skip it for now is gonna take awhile to finish it and make small enemies such as goblins etc. So yea im looking for a work flow to bake specific things such as axe details, ropes, clothes, gloves, scars, shields, chains etc etc. Btw man ur channel kick ass so many helpful stuff i just insta subscribed when i found it thanks for everything u do. Im looking forward to see your character tut.

[@3danmensional0000]

great tutorial! i was wondering if you have any techniques on how to UV this type of rope when you want to transfer it over to substance to texture it!!

[@RobotArmy3D]

Its going to vary depending on what type of low-poly mesh you end up with, if the rope is fully cylindrical - like if you have an actual length of it - it might be a good idea to straighten the UV's, align them horizontally on your UV tile and make the ends touch each border of the uv tile, that way you can tile a rope pattern along it endlessly. If you struggle with this concept let me know and ill try to explain it better. But if it is rope around a character or something and it hugs it tight, chances are it will be embedded in the low poly mesh and come through more in the normal map. SO the detailed "fibers" of the rope would have to be either derived from the sculpt, or painted in. That's easy enough for stylized stuff, not so much for super realism. There is no super easy solution, and that's why a lot of character sculpts you see in peoples portfolios don't often have any detail on the ropes, this way you can use a very simple cylinder that's easy/pre unwraped, and then you can use a tiling map to add the details along it. Hope that helps, Thanks.

[@da_drood-digitalart]

Hey this seems like an awesome tutorial but i feel like the dumbest as judging from the comments here nobody is struggling at the beggining like me XD I'm at 4:40 and I absolutely can't figure out how to line up my two pieces of ropes nicely like yours. And i repeated the steps like 4-5 times already *_+

[@RobotArmy3D]

Did you manage this? if you mean the twist- it seems like I just did it by eye, if the cylinders start of perfectly straight and your pivot orientation is square (unlock icon, reset orientation, lock) then from a side view, twist until it looks like they will align, you can always duplicate it twice first and move those duplicates one to the top and one to the bottom and then use those as a kind of guide to line up with. Hope that helps.

[@da_drood-digitalart]

@@RobotArmy3D ehy thanks for the reply! I still don't understand how you managed to make them match perfectly just by eye picking XD but i managed to overcome that problem after i found another similar tutorial in which they explain exactly this potential issue and how to manage to get the perfect alignment, by simply resizing vertically the primitive cylinder up till 2,0. This way it is granted that'll work :)

[@leothomeart]

Thank u so much u don't know how do you help me,i doing a game asset that has a rope but i could find any good tutorial so i had to sculpt but the result was not the same

[@RobotArmy3D]

Glad I could help!

[@arielshtern4125]

Awesome video, thank you! My ZBrush can't handle this tool, way too slow :(

[@RobotArmy3D]

Sorry to hear that, the only thing i can suggest is simplify the mesh as much as possible.

[@arielshtern4125]

@@RobotArmy3D It's because I still use the 2018 version. I tried it on the 2021 version and it works well

[@itsastraycookie8717]

This is nice and all, but wouldn't be the verticy count be astronomical

[@RobotArmy3D]

This is a high poly model to be baked down to a lower poly. If its the point count in zbrush that may be a concern causing large file sizes and slow operation, this technique can be used with any resolution of model, I just happened to be using quite a detailed one here, it could also be a very simple tube for sure.

[@beeloobhai9200]

Great great tutorial but how you gonna retopologize it ?

[@RobotArmy3D]

Thanks, it's tricky and depends on the limitations of what the model is for. If you are limited on polys, then make sure to lay details like this quite snugly to the arm/clothes that they are on, that way you can just kind of ignore them in the mesh and they will be picked up by the normal map(the easiest option)could even add a few ridges to help the silhouette. If you want it more detailed then its a case of taking more time - If you are going for max detail and individual ropes then I would probably use a cylinder in Maya and work my way around each length of rope. - Alternatively if you don't need to be super neat you could Zremesh and clean that up, or if there is no animation then decimate and clean that up. Nothing will be super fast though.

[@buffwarriors]

This is a horrible way to make ropes! What's wrong with curve brush?

[@RobotArmy3D]

Nothing, I do say in this tutorial that their are multiple ways to do thus type of thing, and i find each technique more useful depending on the situation.

[@buffwarriors]

@rmy3D I say you are right. After trying your technique, I saw there are some applications in some situations.

[@512design4]

is this rope easy to unwrap is it possible to unwrap the rope after

[@RobotArmy3D]

Hey, as is , no. Its a high poly mesh - you would need to retopologise it first, and depending on how you do that will make it easy or hard to unwrap.

[@cferahzade]

Mine mash not twist as like yours :(

[@quyenvo7454]

Can you share your zbrush ui link ?

[@RobotArmy3D]

Its in my zbrush UI tutorial on my channel.

[@yashthombare4239]

Can you share your z brush ui link ?

[@RobotArmy3D]

Its nothing special, probably needs cleaning up a bit. -drive.google.com/file/d/1_lQTPW6d5vh1Pvtc7UJTSPFMy85Z3U3p/view?usp=sharing

[@theycallme_X]

Omg what is the weird noise in the background. It’s so annoying

[@RobotArmy3D]

Do you mean my pen on the screen? this is live sculpting, not much I can do about it.

[@theycallme_X]

Sorry - not sure what it is but it drove me nuts lol. It’s like scratching. If it is the pen, yes there is plenty you can do with noise cancelation and changing your microphone from omnidirectional to cardioid would get rid of the noise. Omnidirectional picks up the room. Cardioid is what is in front of the microphone. I have recorded myself doing sculpts and the pen doesn’t break the noise gate. Stand alone, webcam or headset.

[@HorrorMysteryxxx]

hey when I use bend curve, does it break the rope's form?

[@anand_pg]

Great tutorial! I'm gonna use this method. Thanks for sharing!