ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

■ Photoshop Compositing 283

Figure 8.31 A selection mask image

created with the flat color material

and different color selections

Figure 8.32 The specular render pass

Finally we will create a specular pass. This will help us accentuate
the fine details of the sculpture by creating the impression that they are
catching small highlights along the surface of the sculpture. To create a
specular pass, fill the sculpture with the color black. Select black and,
with RGB on, click Color → Fill Object. Now select the basic material
and under the Material → Modifiers menu, turn the Specular slider up
to 50. Create a best render by clicking Render → Best. The best render
will give you a more refined edge to the highlight. Export the image as
spec.psd (Figure 8.32).
This concludes the process of creating our render passes. You are
now ready to go to Photoshop and put everything together. Each of these
images will be a separate layer in a Photoshop document. By combining
them, you can create dynamic and compelling character renders.
The accompanying DVD contains many bonus videos for this chap-
ter. Please be sure to see the Chapter 8 folder for videos on BPR render
passes as well as subsurface scattering renders.

Photoshop Compositing

In the following sections, we’ll take the render passes from ZBrush and
composite them in separate layers. Using various blending modes, we’ll
create a rich and dynamic image quickly without the need to render in
other software.

Loading the Renders as Layers

I have included the separate render passes on the DVD if you would like to
follow along with this exercise. I encourage you to experiment with dif-
ferent settings and see what kind of results they yield. Different combina-
tions of blending modes can often create unexpected and exciting results.
While they may seem unpredictable at first, through trial and error you
will develop your own feel for the Photoshop blending modes and how
they affect your images.

The following process of loading images into a single document is easier

in Photoshop CS5. Simply click File → Scripts → Load Files Into Stack

and browse to your file exports from ZBrush. Select them all and they

will be loaded as named layers into a single Photoshop file. Be aware

you will need to manually add the depth image later or process and save

the file before loading them together since it needs to be resized by half

and converted to RGB 8 bit. See the section “Depth of Field” later in

this chapter to see this process.

1. To begin, load the basicMaterialColor.psd image into Photoshop.
   This is the render using the basic material with Polypaint on. This
   will serve as our base (Figure 8.33).


2. Now load the occ.psd file. This is the ambient occlusion render
   with only shadow information. Select the entire image with the
   Ctrl+A hotkey and copy it using Ctrl+C.