35 replies to this topic

[ThrandyBanned]

Hello, i bought zBrush few days ago and i dont know how to use it so can someone help me?I saw Nazgul's models and my mouth were wide open!
HELP

[MattTheLegoman]

Hello, it would be better to ask in the zBrush community or find tutorials for 3d sculpting. A lot of techniques are the same for sculpting in various 3d programs.

[ThrandyBanned]

Well i asked there,and i didnt get any answers.So i decided to make a topic here.

[MattTheLegoman]

Then try watching the tutorials. =D

[ThrandyBanned]

But i cant find Bfme specific ones.

[ThrandyBanned]

So yesterday i was trying to make A head of azog(tought it was easy when bought it). I made almost everything fine ,the only problem is how to make a body

[MattTheLegoman]

There will be no BfME specific ones for zBrush. There are BfME modelling articles on T3A, Revora. http://www.the3rdage.net/

[ThrandyBanned]

Well,there are no zbrush tutorials there,only 3ds max and renx(i used them before,they get boring over time)
If someone can just send me or make a tutorial for Bfme using zBrush,i would really apreciate it

[Mathijs]

The question you are asking can't be answered by us. Zbrush is a high poly sculpting program, unsuitable for a 2004 RTS game. Nazgul can only use it because he severely lowers the detail of his Zbrush sculpts before they can be used, and only because he doesn't know how to use 3ds Max 8. We are not a Zbrush community, we don't use it for modding, and so we don't have any tutorials (nor do any BFME-Zbrush tutorials exist). However, there are plenty of other websites with PLENTY of tutorials for using Zbrush in general. Just not here. 

 

My suggestion: If you want to model for BFME, learn 3ds Max. Nazgul is an exception to the rule, because he is a sculpter in real life and has taught himself how, through some processes, make his models fit for BFME. 

[ThrandyBanned]

Okay,thanks for help

[ThrandyBanned]

But in zbrush you can lower the number of polys

[Mathijs]

Yes, you can. But not to a degree that is usable in BFME. Nazgul manages it, but only for a few models. Most of the models in SEE are still low-poly, traditional 3ds Max-made models. If they were all as high poly as his Zbrush work, the game would drop to some abysmal, unplayable FPS the moment you created more than 3 battalions.

 

Using Zbrush for BFME is just not a good idea. Zbrush is a program meant for high detail cinematic sculpts. No game developer or modder (except Nazgul) uses Zbrush for models actually used ingame; they use Zbrush for creating high detail meshes from which details are baked onto textures used by models made in programs like 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, at least that's how it used to be. Maybe these days, current gen game developers use retopologized Zbrush models, I don't know, but not for a game like this.

 

Zbrush is a great program and you can do a lot of awesome stuff when you learn it (and have some creative talent), but you can ask anywhere on the internet and they will tell you the same thing I am telling you. 

[Valheru]

How many polys is considered low & high? Nazguls 5000ish on wagon. EA's wagon 2000ish

[ThrandyBanned]

I only want to make heroes using zbrush,not units.And those heroes are:
Elrond
Azog
Bolg
Dain
Thorin
Glorfindel
Aragorn
Gandalf

[ThrandyBanned]

If i would start making units using zbrush,they would be special units(low number of battalions)

[Lauri]

Go right ahead, nobody's stopping you. We're just telling you a couple of things, and all of those things relates to BFME:

1. We don't have any tutorials for ZBrush here. There is none now, nor will there ever be. You will have to find the tutorials in other places, even if it appears that nobody gives you an answer.

2. The quality you can get with ZBrush is soooo much higher than BFME supports without lag, which means that learning to use ZBrush is counter-productive. If you learn to model in Max (you don't even need to model from scratch) you'll be way better off.

3. When Nazgul makes a model in ZBrush, he usually has to remove about 80-90% of the polies afterwards, because they're way too detailed for BFME. I've only bound one of his models, and that was just a head, but I managed to shave off 60% of the polies on that head alone. Even if sculpting seems easier, there's a lot of work afterwards to make sure it can be used in-game without lag.

 

So to sum up, if you want to make models for fun, ZBrush is great. If you want to make models for BFME, ZBrush is unnecessary. It doesn't matter if 3ds Max becomes boring, it's the most efficient way. But you are free to do whatever you want to do.

[Mathijs]

How many polys is considered low & high? Nazguls 5000ish on wagon. EA's wagon 2000ish

A BFME2 mod I once made started lagging really bad when standard horde units were around 2000 to 2500 polies. The hordes were smaller than vanilla BFME2 and the game slowed down significantly starting at 5 hordes on screen. Once these hordes engaged the enemy (who used the same hordes), the game became unplayable. We tried to locate the source of the problem but nothing fixed it until I made a new model that was around 600 polies. After that, no more problems.

 

Having heroes with the amount of polies Naz uses isn't a big deal (there's usually only one or two of them in a whole game), but standard units will cause big problems. In Shadow and Flame, standard units are generally at around 800 to 1200. That's BFME1 though, meaning hordes are much smaller. 

5000 for a single unit that doesn't show up much (like the wagon) is quite high, but it won't break the game (for most people). In your case though, Val, using it in a patch... I might think twice and test it thoroughly. 

 

@Thranduil: Like Lauri said, I'm not trying to stop you from using ZBrush. I'm just saying that for BFME, it's a bad choice.

[Valheru]

Alright thanks. His goats in demolisher =10 000 polys

[Nazgûl]

Yeah, but there is seldom more than a few Demolishers on screen at one given time, luckily. ANd I agree. zBrush is not really good for BFME - even if it's awesome for modeling per se.

[Valheru]

I just tried polygon cruncher, super good. Way better than optimise tool in max