@aminuts (aminuts) posted a new topic, subject "the Official Almost Monday NC 5/5 - 5/11". It read:

   Hi everyone,
    
    First off I would like to apologize for not having a challenge in the last week or so, I got pretty busy at work and in what little spare time I have had I am madly trying to get some tutorials together for the next newb challenge which dang it I hope to have up shortly.
    
    Anyway…
    
    This weeks challenge is Birds. 
    
    They are darn hard to do so I challenge you all to create a bird…your favorite if ya have one…someone else's favorite if ya don't.
    
    #1. As always it's preferred to be all Zbrush but you can start a base in your chosen program.
    
    #2. Please give us a timelapse pic or a script if possible.
    
    #3. You must show us your base mesh along with final pic.
    
    #4. Would be way cool to see it in a scene and colored up but not absolutely necessary.
    
    #5. Show us wips…it's fun to see how others tackle a problem/challenge.
    
    #6. Again while not mandatory…if ya can…share the base mesh, or a script, or anything you learned along the way…give a little back!!
    
    #7. Have fun or else!!
    
    Remember these challenges are open to anyone and everyone so …show us your new skills, newbies and you old timers out there…show us your stuff!!!
    
    This challenges is for fun and kudo's only. Pixologic has nothing to do with it other than allowing us to enjoy and abuse their program to death and host our fun here on their forums. Remember to give them a big thank you now and then for such a cool program!!!

So @Noggin (Noggin) replied

    I hope you'll allow my entry to bend the rules as I just wanted to show that Zbrush integrates well with other tools & how it fits in with my workflow. This model has been quite a long time in the making (well before time lapse I'm afraid)
    
    This model represents a yet to be released Poser set ‘Owl'.
    
    It's perhaps my third serious attempt at a model using Zbrush. Modelling a wing that can be folded and animated realistically has always presented a major challenge to me. In the past I've usually modelled separate open and closed wing versions of the model (using NURBs in Rhino) However for the first time I've managed to utilise the open wing mesh created in Zbrush and distort it in to the folded wing shape. That way I've retained the UVMapping of the original and (if I'd been smarter) could have used created morphs between my flying and folded versions.
    
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To which @aminuts (aminuts) replied

    Hey,
    
    Anyone who goes to the trouble to both not bend the rules that much and…and!! gives us a fairly detailed description of workflow…even if it's a tad old  is ok in my book!
    
    This is very cool…looks great too!! Thanks for sharing!!
    
    A great start to the challenge!!
    
    oh yeah will zb'ers get a discount?:rolleyes:
    
    edit…oh yeah…have you tried displacements in p6 yet? No time to play with it so am wondering if its any better…I have some projects for work coming up and poser/zb will definitely make my life easier if they work well together.
    
    edit: psssss can we have a closer look at the finished wings on that model…they look awesome and did ya do those in zb or rhino? I have been wanting to do some birds but have been thinking to much about how to do the detail in the wings…(i tend to overthink things rather than stick to simple) so am really quite excited by what ya did there. Any tips would be great!!

Then @souleat (souleat) said

    thats fantastic work!!!

Then @Noggin (Noggin) said

    Hi Aminuts_ thanks!
    
    I have started to play with displacements, more particulary in P5 but they look pretty much the same in P6. Although not 16 bit they do work. I think DAZ (my brokering site) look like they are happy for us to now include displacement maps with our models (Stonemason's deep see creatures have been well recieved and DAZ's beta Studio software supports displacement mapping) So I think we are about to see a little revolution in the quality of Poser content. Lots of users and content creators are getting to hear about ZBrushes amazing capabiliites.
    
    Here's an image of the wing_ I'm not sure it helps much but basically the leading solid edge is part of the original ZSphere body. The individual feathers are simple shapes planes (in fact they are paired and the central vertices slightly offset vertically from each other (so that they have can a different texture map) The coverts (middle part of the wing) is another plane that Ive just pleated to suggest a series of feathers.  
    
    
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After which, @sirquadalot (sirquadalot) added

    Very nice owl! Well done.

@Sebcesoir (Sebcesoir) replied

    Very nice!
    
    Maybe you could spend sculpt deeply the model, to avoid this flat effect…  
    Interesting workflow!  
    You didnt use any conventional 3d programm! Cool!

After which, @Noggin (Noggin) added

    Sebsecoir,  
    to clarify_ yes some of the wing structure and the ‘ears' , eyes where done in Rhino_ primarilly a NURBs modeller but has some limited polygonal modelling tools_which I used.  
    For me ZBrush is a means to an end-ie creating posable content for Poser and DAZ Studio… So I don't tend to get in to deep, high level sculpting (unless of course I'm using it for displacement mapping)
    
    One of the shortcomings of these entry/hobby level programmes is they don't do fur and feathers well. So the models do tend to have a rather flat look. I try to get round this a bit by using transmapped planes.
    
    Hence my ‘apologies' at the start of my post. It's not purist ZBrush and as such just touches on some of the capabilities and potential of ZBrush.

To which @Abyssis (Abyssis) replied

    Your “birdie” is one of my favorite birds, and you made it top, Noggin  I would therefore watch with pleasure your continuing work. Happy ZBrushing

To which @Jason_Belec (Jason Belec) replied

    Beautiful work. In motion it would prove breathtaking. Nice workflow and a good point about modularity, that I express to many. The path is irrelevant, the result is all that matters.

To which @Drummer (Drummer) replied

    I love the texture !!

To which @system (system) replied

    can you put more poses of your birds please?

So @system (system) replied

    Simply beautiful…I am inspired to practice more though I may never reach such mastery 
    
    Show us more!

Then @aminuts (aminuts) said

    Thanks again Noggin, the close-ups are just what I was looking for and the explaination …pure icing on the cake.
    
    I too agree, don't care what tools Michelangelo used, I just sit back and enjoy the end result. Although, sometimes it's nice to learn the tips and tricks of the masters!! The tools in one man's hands may be useless while another can “see” the shape in the marble and remove all the useless stuff. 
    
    Anyway Noggin, thanks alot for being so helpful…ya made my day with such a great beginning to the challenge!!

Then @jotajota (jotajota) said

    W.O.W!! :eek:  
    Bello trabajo, sin duda

Then @Moochie (Moochie) said

    So there I was … had my reference photos all ready, tested making feathers, had the whole thing planned in my head … and then I noticed that a flamingo's neck can bend into a Z-shape. The rest was obvious. Heh heh.
    
    This was a combination of lots of different bits of stuff, but basically it was create an alpha using bezier curves in Paintshop Pro, create a 3D body in ZB using the alpha, duff it up with extreme prejudice, bung some ZSphere legs underneath, and create a bit of water and ground.
    
    Just used existing skin shaders and default lights, plus quite a bit of postwork. So nothing to learn here. But here's a lil present instead … a wonderful resource of photos of birds' wings. http://www2.ups.edu/biology/museum/wingphotos.html  
      
    [attach=11116]flamingo_parts.jpg[/attach]
    
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Then @aminuts (aminuts) said

    Hahaha cool Moochie,
    
    If I lived in Florida I would have to have one of those for my front yard!!

So @Dickie (Dickie) replied

    Moochie: A Very clever idea. I can imagine Pixologic having a couple of these in the front garden…:lol: Thank you very much for the bird wing reference page. It went into the bookmarks immediately…
    
    Dickie

After which, @Frenchy_Pilou (Frenchy Pilou) added

    Pilou

To which @jasonrussell (jasonrussell) replied

    I finally figured out how to use the clone tool in projection master. Pretty cool.
    
    You may notice that the name is signed JCameron. Yes it is still mine, I just kinda buggered up the name that I wanted for my user name when I signed up.
    
    Cheers.
    
    The refference photo:  
    
    
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So @Moochie (Moochie) replied

    Yay! That's a sweet job. Excellent shape and colouring. I love kingfishers.
    
    Sorry you got your name wrong.

So @aminuts (aminuts) replied

    That turned out pretty cool!
    
    Thanks for posting!

Then @system (system) said

    Hi,  
    This is my first WIP. After fooling around for along time I thought I might actually make something. Not sure what material to make the feathers or the beak. I'm haveing a stupid newbie problem too. Some times when I switch to a new tool and change the material it also changes the material of an object allready droped that had the previous material. Am I missing something or is this a bug? ZBrush is taking over my brain.

So @lemonnado (lemonnado) replied

    Scene and bird look fabulous!!! I love it.
    
    I ‘bake' a lot. But I have to admit… I don't really know why either. I am pretty new as well. Baking helps… I experience ‘massive' challenges when I ADD materials to the material selection. Then everything needs to be baked down as it seems. I suspect (no evidence) that there is an internal numeric ID for a material and that's assigned to the pixols or geometry when you assign the material. If something is allocating that slot and is a different material it seems that everything linked to it changes as well. PITA !!. Baking is a brutal aproach as it prevents subsequent changes… Let's see if some other member has a clearer vision… Look for the material collections here in the forum. There are more than 150 materials hidden in the ‘pile'.
    
    Cheers  
    LemonNado


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