Gnomonology Blog » Free

Gnomonology Releases 7 New Free Tutorials by Ryan Kingslien

RyanKingslien — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:20:56 +0000

Hello! Ryan Kingslien has released 7 new free tutorials for using ZBrush. Each tutorial is around 10 minutes long and centered around one point of interest and only a few ZBrush tools.

Here is a list of the tutorials:

Sculpting a Zombie’s Teeth Using Alex Alvarez’s Teeth and Gum Set. This tutorial quickly shows you how to use Transpose, Masking, Delete Hidden and Clay Tubes to create battered zombie teeth that smell like death warmed over!

Sculpting a Zombie Part 2. This tutorial shows you how to detail a zombie sculpt using Ryan’s Zombie Brush. The Zombie Brush is a modification of the Magnify Brush and provides an easy to use way to create wrinkled skin.

Sculpting a Zombie Part 1. This tutorial shows how to turn ZBrush’s DemoHead into a Zombie in 20 minutes or less! Using Masks, Clay Tubes and the Clay brush the DemoHead is quickly turned into the undead fiend we always knew he was!

Creating a Character Sheet. This tutorials shows you how to use the Character Sheet function in ZBrush’s ZAppLink. Character Sheet is a fast and simply way to get a rotation of your model into Photoshop for quick review.

Create a Turntable of your 3D Model. This tutorial shows you how to get the best results when using ZBrush’s built in Turntable feature and its a heck of a lot faster than exporting to a 3D application!

Sculpting Boot Straps. This tutorial shows you how to use 2D patterns to sculpt 3D shapes. Its a simple workflow that gives great results.

Sculpting Feathers Using the Slash2 Brush. This tutorials is the result of much trial and error. It shows you a quick and easy way to sculpt cool looking feathers using ZBrush’s Slash 2 Brush and very little else.

Maya Tutorial: Transfer UVs in Maya 2008

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:52:51 +0000

In this tutorial, Ryan Kingslien shows us how to transfer UVs from one mesh to another with the exact same vert order.
Maya Tutorial: Transfer UVs in Maya 2008

Maya Modeling Foundation Tutorial: Modeling a Basic Hand

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:49:03 +0000

The Maya Modeling Foundation Series covers basic modeling tools in specific real-world examples. Each tutorial is designed to provide a basic overview of the most important tools for a modeler working on a specific task.
Maya Modeling Foundation Tutorial: Modeling a Basic Hand

Maya Tutorial: Modeling a Heroic Human Base Mesh

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:47:59 +0000

In this tutorial, we use Maya to create a simple but very useful base mesh of a humanoid male that is 8 heads high. 8 heads is the ideal proportions for heroic figures and perfect for comic book characters.
Maya Tutorial: Modeling a Heroic Human Base Mesh

Textures: Elephant Skin

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:22:49 +0000

So I went to an amazing taxidermy place in Burbank, CA (Bischoff’s) to find some cool things to scan for textures. They had some elephant skin there that they were not allowed to sell (illegal), but they would let me rent. So I did… and here are high-res scans of four swatches. They are each 4k and are really quite beautifully rich in detail… great source material for skin.
Textures: Elephant Skin

Human Anatomy: Anatomy of The Arm and Shoulder

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:59:55 +0000

This tutorial focuses on the arm and shoulder region of the body. Ryan focuses on the primary muscles responsible for form and function. Many muscles are simplified for presentation. The Ecorche is sculpted in ZBrush 3. The musccles are created using ZSpheres and ZBrush’s sculpting brushes. Download this now for a fantastic demonstration of the anatomy of the arm and shoulder region and create your own ecorche today.
Human Anatomy: Anatomy of The Arm and Shoulder

Alphas: Collection of Organic Alphas for Skin, Scales, & Bumps

RyanKingslien — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:52:42 +0000

Here are some free alphas for everyone… enjoy. Let’s thank Sofia ValeCruz who actually put these together! Thanks Sofia. This alpha pack contains 62 512×512 PSDs.
Alphas: Collection of Organic Alphas for Skin, Scales, & Bumps

Maya Rendering Tutorial: Learn to use Subsurface Scattering

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:39:49 +0000

Translucency is a characteristic of many materials, both natural and man made. From leaves and murky water to wax, sandblasted glass or skin, many objects that may be opaque will still absorb light into the surface. Subsurface Scattering is a rendering technique that allows for the simulation of translucency in Mental Ray. This lecture introduces the misss Fast Simple material and gives an in-depth demonstration of how to set-up and work with the shader.
Maya Rendering Tutorial: Learn to use Subsurface Scattering

3D Model: Mouth, Teeth and Gums

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:36:24 +0000

This asset includes four poly base meshes: Top Teeth, Bottom Teeth, Top Gums and Bottom Gums. Total facecount is 2508, all quads. The asset includes four .obj’s and a single Maya .mb scene file. Perfect for any humanoid head.
3D Model: Mouth, Teeth and Gums

Maya Tutorial: Software Rendering Particles

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:32:18 +0000

The Blobby particle render type is a software render method that allows particles to be assigned standard Maya shaders. The particles are rendered with a hard edge as if each particle is a sphere. When the particles intersect each other, they can blend together in a manner similar to Metaballs. The Blobby render type can be used to create a wide variety of render styles including liquids, plasma or bubbbles. This lecture demonstrates the fundamental particle and shader knowledge necessary to control the look of Blobby particles.
Maya Tutorial: Software Rendering Particles

Basic Human Base Mesh by Alex Alvarez

RyanKingslien — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:03:44 +0000

This is an obj that works well as a humanoid basemesh for Zbrush/etc when you do not want to feel constricted by topology. It is what I usually use in Zbrush when making a humanoid figure. The UVs are laid out, so that you can export maps to your 3D app/Photoshop and read them. Granted, once you have a final sculpt in Zbrush, you may choose to redo the topology, but when sculpting it is nice to have something so simple.
Human Base Mesh - Simple by Alex Alvarez

Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Tileable Textures (Free) by Alex Alvarez

RyanKingslien — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:22:36 +0000

When texturing objects in a 3D application, it is often necessary to use a texture that can be tiled. This means that when the image repeats there is no visible seam. For example, when mapping an image around a sphere or cylinder, the left edge of the texture will touch the right edge as the texture wraps around. Or a texture may be repeated several times on a surface to eliminate the need for an ultra high-res texture. Regardless of the situation, it is critical to know how to take photographic source material and tile it using Photoshop. This tutorial demonstrates the process of tiling a texture and testing the results in a 3D application, in this case Maya.

Creating Tileable Textures

After Effects Tutorial: Image Sequence to Quicktime (Free) by Alex Alvarez

RyanKingslien — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:20:52 +0000

When rendering animations from Maya, Max or any other 3D application, it is common practice to render them out as image sequences (image.001.tga, image.002.tga, etc.). These sequences, however, can become difficult to manage, load, archive, preview or present to a client or supervisor. The most effective solution is to convert them to movie files such as Quicktime or AVI. This tutorial demonstrates how to convert a sequence to Quicktime using After Effects, including loading the sequence, creating the AE project and rendering using compression codecs.

Image Sequence to Quicktime