Android Jones- Shape Theory in Z-Brush and Painter

[Jason Manley]

We would love to hear your thoughts and will be around to participate in discussion. Please feel free....

[octavian]

Andrew's video was cool, especially since I didn't get to go to insomnia. I think what I like most about his video, as with Marko's video, is hearing their philosophy regarding art and the creation process. It's nice to hear the artist talk so candidly about setting intentions for the day, approaching the creation process with as little baggage as possible, and creating for the love of creating. I think a lot of us forget these crucial elements in the heat of "trying" to make something cool.

You can watch all the tutorials in the world, but unless you have your mind in the right place, it's hard to make good work. I believe Andrew also touched upon the idea that no matter how much "theory" you know about art and it's application, unless you practice it, theory is relatively worthless. (this is my loose interpretation.)

The content itself was awesome. I've never used Zbrush and I like the way Andrew encouraged the viewer to experiment with digital mediums in ways they are not meant to be used.... in order to come up with something refreshing and original.

Overall, I'd say the presentation was excellent, the price was very reasonable for the length of the video, and the artists philosophies regarding the creation process were invaluable.

thanks for a great product.

[Ray of the Dead]

I agree with Octavian, hearing Andrew talk about his philosophies and passion for art are truly inspiring. He speaks with an intensity that makes you feel the way he does about your craft.

Coming from a 3D background, I never thought to use a 3D application in that manner, it blew my mind. I'm still trying to figure it out, but I've only watched the video twice so another go at it should give me a better idea.

This method of creating thumbnails is just brilliant. Its a very chaotic method of creation that truly brings new light to the brainstorming / early production process. Its really wonderful to see how he cultures ideas from abstract shapes into a developed idea. Just awesome.

Worth the price, worth the watch, cant wait to see him in action in Seattle.

[Pau1Winslow]

I just bought this, and I really look forward to watching it.

[MurdokX]

I love Andrew Jones storytelling! I like how he and Jason Chan just "winged it" hehe

[INNOC3NC3]

anyone know how to set up zbrush 3.1 to look like andrew's. he's using 2 i think but i can't work out how he got a white backgound sounds simple but i can't work it out.

cheers in advance

[Jaku]

Android has been one of my biggest influence lately.
This demo is great, is one of the most mind opener i´ve ever seen, and Android explains his theorys making the creation proccess look very easy. Love it!

[-bloodstorm-]

a really great video, it not only changed the way i do the initial steps of a painting but the way i think about doing it.

[Studio Colrouphobia]

I liked this video alot.
Whilst it is interesting to hear Androids thoughts on painting, I couldn't help but being a bit discouraged by the fact that sometimes you can't see what tool he is using in zbrush.
Especially when one see him drag out squares that are two dimensional, and all I can get out of my zbrush is 3d squares that tilt..
As an example.

In general, the screen captures only the centre of Androids screen, and whilst the important part is to get the gist of it, I would sometimes want to know more aboout what he is doing "just outside screen"..


Otherwise this was perfect. Cheap, thoughtful, bringing me back to my roots.
When I was alot younger, I used to take out coloured pencils and scribble softly to get random patterns, then outline the edges of the readable shapes and start from there... I haven't created something inspiring in a long while, but now I feel I got a tool for it again..

[ArtZealot]

I liked the video a lot. I was there for the workshop too, and took notes, but didn't get everything. I was really happy to be able to see the demonstration again, this technique gave me a reason to start using zbrush to create cool shapes or textures. I recently got my work to provide me with zbrush, and have since then been using it in conjunction with photoshop for some truly awesome stuff. Thanks for making it downloadable.

[Sneaker]

Hi guys,
has anyone an idea what's the background music.

-Michael

[MeTaL-Mike]

When i saw the short video of the workshop i was like " fuck me man, i wish i was there"!! it looked so cool and well organized. there was a little of Andres giving the lecture there as well and i was really interested in what he was showing there. when i saw the lecture i was totally amazed. the dude is so original and inventive. you can totally see it in his work and attitude.
the lecture was very well done and the vids (as all released until now) were very cool.

so keep up the good work and keep em comin duded. it's a huge pleasure to view them and learn from you guys.

[Saturns Gate]

Downloading as I speak, Cant wait!! :) Will review soon! Cheers guys!!! :asspat:

[Benjamen Christ]

great work Andrew! i wish to blow minds one day as well, till then i shall continue to challenge myself. As you told me once " manifest greatness "

[Saturns Gate]

Finally had some time to check out the whole video tonight, and have to say it was awesome! :)

No real crits at all, I mean how the hell could you crit that! Just was great to see and hear someone talk out the way I have been thinking just lately. The whole looking for the shape thing, that is how I have preferred to work these days, no real solid goal on what the end product will look like, and Androids spot on in saying its exciting and surprising to see these strange and sometimes new creations pop out of the monitor at you. The whole Zbrush thing was great! Definently has inspired me to create some of my own to throw in my project, which I will obviously give props to Android for the inspiration and technique in my report at the end of the academic year. Pure Awesome!

Big Thanks to the guys at massive black and obviously Android for this!
Laters all! Onto Chans tutorial! :hugsmile:

[realitychek]

Excellent video! Really inspirational and great to hear Android talking about art and the like with such intensity- thanks much to Massive Black and Android too!

[insanitycomplex]

anyone know how to set up zbrush 3.1 to look like andrew's. he's using 2 i think but i can't work out how he got a white backgound sounds simple but i can't work it out.

cheers in advance

Same since its not in the vid its hard to work out

[Saturns Gate]

In the tools area, just select a flat plane and drag it out over the entire work area. Also set it to a white colour and material. Worked for me. :)

[insanitycomplex]

Ty for the tip,Love Andys style, did anyone see the pencil holster on his arm how did he get that? is it homemade?

[RogerAdams]

anyone know how to set up zbrush 3.1 to look like andrew's. he's using 2 i think but i can't work out how he got a white backgound sounds simple but i can't work it out.

cheers in advance

I posted this vid in another thread. YouTube compressed it to poo but you can still make out the menus. To get the white background you can draw a plane like Saturns Gate said or you can select White, then click "Back". Then play with the backdrop gradient controls like I did in the video.

I used this technique when I was hitting a wall in the COW100 competition. It really got the juices flowing again. Have fun!

kzR-ff05-0E

[Penumbra]

Same since its not in the vid its hard to work out

Go to the layer menu and select fill with texture turned off and white(or whatever color you want) selected in the color picker.

[thscgteacher]

I enjoyed the video but was left with a thought. Andrew made reference to doing the initial work in the process with Painter before He considered using Zbrush. I don't have Zbrush and wonder what brushes in Painter he would have used to replicate that process?

I've tried a couple things since watching the video but nothing (Painter brushes) seems to twirl and lay down opaque shapes like Zbrush did.

CG

[Lotet]

andrew jones shape theory changed my life! not directly, but it caused chainreactions,which changed my wholt style. i wanted to test what he did, but didt have zbrush at the time, so i used photoshop, and found the freeform pentool, which changed my life, so...in other worlds, i think hes shape thory was totaly awezomly inspiering

[thscgteacher]

Thanks, I'll give it a go!

[RogerAdams]

I enjoyed the video but was left with a thought. Andrew made reference to doing the initial work in the process with Painter before He considered using Zbrush. I don't have Zbrush and wonder what brushes in Painter he would have used to replicate that process?

I've tried a couple things since watching the video but nothing (Painter brushes) seems to twirl and lay down opaque shapes like Zbrush did.

CG

Andrew demoed a version of this technique using custom papers in Painter at the Montreal workshop. I remember specifically he had a paper made from a satellite image, like Google maps. Experiment and you'll get random chaos to start from.

[sandman]

Thanks so much for taking the time out to do this video Andrew.

Although I don't have a copy of Z-Brush, I have developed a technique which draws upon Painter's hidden 'Auto Dab' feature which can randomly place either Painter nozzle imagery or captured brush dabs and localize their placement around a selection as demonstrated below. Please click here (http://brushport.com/movies/shape_factory.mov) to see movie demo (requires QuickTime 7 (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/) to view).

http://brushport.com/images/shape_factory.jpg

What is happening in the movie is that I have a custom Image Hose variant selected in the Brush Selector Bar, and also the default Swallows nozzle selected. I then make a rectangular selection on the canvas and play a custom Painter script which applies in this example, two random images from the Swallows nozzle file. I then move the selection before playing the script again and so on.

The nozzle files themselves are easy to make as they are simple one rank nozzles made from a layer group and using the 'Make Nozzle from Group' command. In the case of nozzle imagery, orientation and placement are both random (localized to the selection), with size randomized up to the maximum original size of the respective element created in the nozzle file.

Applied dab numbers can be preset via the scripts, but in practice, 1 to maximum of 8 dabs give good results. Color, value and opacity of the nozzle image elements can be manually varied or the original colors and values in the nozzle image may be applied using another variant. Elongating the selection also allows dab placement over an elongated area. When the scripts are used in combination with captured dab variants, it is also possible to include the currently selected paper grain texture in the dab.

Another neat feature is that both dab placement numbers, color value and opacity changes, along with both selections and selection repositioning may all be recorded in a single script. When played back in a new image of similar dimensions, the canvas is automatically filled with several potentially unique and inspirational thumbnails, ready to be taken through the next stages outlined in Andrew's tutorial. With the associated variations in orientation, positioning and size variability, the chances of two Painter generated thumbnails being identical are quite small.

I'll post the resources here once finalized.

David

[Jorge Gecov]

RogerAdams: thanks! i would love to check this thread 3 days before, cause i've burn my mind to discover it myself hehe. But thanks!

I don't have Painter, just Photoshop, do you guys know it its can substitute Painter well? I'm not sure about the paper texture he used...but i think its not will be a problem.

[RogerAdams]

RogerAdams: thanks! i would love to check this thread 3 days before, cause i've burn my mind to discover it myself hehe. But thanks!

I don't have Painter, just Photoshop, do you guys know it its can substitute Painter well? I'm not sure about the paper texture he used...but i think its not will be a problem.

Hey Jorge,

You know, you can do something similar in PhotoShop. David Levy (http://www.vyle-art.com/) (aka Vyle) and his former UBISoft group built custom brushes based on geometric shapes instead of importing textures, but you can build brushes from that too. The brushes are set with wide spacing and to rotate, scatter, go thin and thick etc to create random choas. Mathias Verhasselt (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73169) makes his brushes available and they are a great place to start. Have fun!

[Tricknique]

This tutorial was so good that have I de-lurked after several years of browsing the site! Huge thanks to Andrew and MB for producing it.

Watching the video was fun, but did not compare to the shock I got when I fired up PS today to try out the techniques.

I was crude, I was rough, I screwed up big time, and still after 20 minutes I had more cool stuff in front of me than I knew what to do with.

The polygons and default custom shapes in PS worked surprisingly well and the brilliance of Andrew's approach pretty much guarantees interesting results.

Here's my first ever digital concept piece, the Space Whale!

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1613525#post1613525

[JonZ_]

Loved the tut, thanks Andrew!

One question here tho, for Z brush users.

My brushes produce a lot of white noises. Any ways to make it NOT happen on high definition canvas?

It act kind of weird, on default canvas, everything is smooth, no noise, but the alpha gradient don't work. If I work on larger canvas, or if I add a layer, or clear the first, then all become noisy and edges are too feathered.

Thanks:)

[Mr.28]

:wtf:

I got myself Zbrush 3 today to give this a go but i've hit kind of a big problem.
Getting the background white wasn't a problem but I can't draw anything flat. Nothing at all. I've got the whole 2.5d brushes thing going on and they're pretty and all but it only allows me to use deco brush in projection master mode. So I have to create a solid plane to draw on which means I have to have a solid background colour to my pictures. This doesn't appear to be the case on the vid and it's really inconvenient. What's the dealio? In the vid it seems like 'hey, try this tool' and the reality has been 'Hey, try to try this tool.' I don't mean to sound tetchy, it's just this program seems really cool but the one thing I got it for has been dicking me around for hours.

Please could someone give me some advice, i'm not a moron. Honest.

The vid is cool though, Android is clearly the daddy.

[K-bot]

He is indeed using a 3d plane to draw on, just draw a white 3d plane across the entire canvas then go to town.

[Pav]

Mr.28 try to press "Rgb"+"Zadd" on the main control panel

[Mr.28]

Fair enough. As you can probably tell, it was like 4 in the morning and I was getting pretty ratty. Thanks for responding.

[Jaycephus]

Select a desired background color, i.e. white (so dull)
Usually, you would want to select the Flat Color material for pure 2D work, but there are exceptions to this.
Press CNTL-F (shortcut for fill layer)
This puts a layer of pixols at just above the clipping plane
Now when you use 2.5D tools, they have pixols upon which to act.
Some tools 'create' pixols on the fly, but most 2.5D tools simply act upon pre-existing pixols. Generally, if you are only wanting pure 2D effects, you should turn on RGB (no M), and turn off ZADD. Many 2.5D tools affect the ZDepth of a pixol, which may not be noticeable at first, but depending on what you are doing, it could have some negative effects. Turning off ZAdd and all material effects means that all 2.5D tools will only affect the color information of a pixol, not the ZDepth or material info.

What is happening when you create a 3D plane is that you are producing pixols in the document. Unless you keep the 3D plane in edit mode, in which case you are painting polys, not pixols, OR you tilt the 3D plane, then creating a 3D plane is identical to filling the layer, just not as quick. (Tilting a plane in Z creates a background with depth, e.g., pixols on the left are more shallow than pixols on the right. I mention this just to highlight the difference between pixols and pixels. Since the whole reason for for Painter or PS is to manipulate pixels, you always start with a document that has pixels. That is not the case with ZBrush.)

(Also, if the 3D Plane is active, you can assign a texture to it, and then paint on that... you are then painting pixels on a 2D texture stored in memory and displayed on the 3D Plane.)


Here's a doc already filled with pixols on two different layers. It uses a certain material for transparency effects on the second layer.
SketchDoc_Quick_1280.zip (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/attachment.php?attachmentid=91660&stc=1)

See this thread (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=58614&page=2&pp=15) for info on how to make use of the transparent layer feature.

[inverse catheter]

for those who enjoyed that vid and process ( i am certainly among them ) : http://al.chemy.org/

[goran]

Very inventive approach ,thank you for awake the inner child in me. Cheers.

[kinjura]

Every time I watch this tutorial, I find myself feeling both inspired by what I just saw and starving for more. I'm positive that I could watch this tutorial every day for the rest of my life and learn something new each time. Thank you for that.

[Liam Harvey]

i showed this to a friend recently, it blew his mind. said it was the most inspiring thing he had seen in ages----and that he had to see more.