ZBrush Tutorial: Submarine Hatch: Sculpting the Surface

Sculpting the surface of our hatch door showcases a few more cool tools.

In this tutorial we will use:

• Surface Noise
• Planar brush system

Lets start by creating the side of the door that connects to the wall.  To do this we will use the TrimFront brush.

Rotate the model to its side.  Turn on Y Symmetry from the Transform menu.  Make sure to turn X symmetry off so that it only effects one side.

Press ALT.  Click along the side of the model and drag up and down.  This will flatten everything under the brush and create a straight side that will connect with the wall.  You may also want to smooth this out afterwards.

We begin by brushing on some surface noise.  I do this in several layers.  First, select the Noise brush and the Spray stroke.  Set ZIntensity to around 4.  Turn on Brush: AutoMasking: Backface Masking.  Press very lightly over the surface.  This will create an good base for surface texturing.  Important: turn Spray stroke on or you may not see the effect of the brush.

Next, I turn on “By Brush” in the Brush: Surface tab.  If this is on then ZBrush will adjust the scale of the noise based on my brush size.  This will allow me to more easily replicate the complexity of real-world surfaces.

Then I clean this up using the HPolish brush with default settings.  If used lightly this brush can soften the noise and allow you to control which areas are smoother and which are rougher.

Lets, further adjust the surface of the hatch by creating a ChickenScratch brush.  Select the PenSketch brush.  Turn on ZSub.  Turn off RGB.  Also, even though the image doesn’t show it, turn Brush: Alpha and Texture: AlphaTile to 20.  Now brush back and forth on the model and you will get, hopefully, chicken scratch marks!

Finally, Lets create a weld line brush.  Select the Clay brush and Alpha 14.  Set Brush: Modifiers: Tilt Brush to somewhere between 30 and 50 and Lower ZIntensity.  Click in the space between the two parts you are welding.  Go slowly, just as if you were welding them.

Here we go.