I tried sculpting a rock for the first time. It was interesting to learn—from gathering reference images and inspecting the small details in rocks that are essential to make your sculpture look believable—to learning new sculpting techniques to create rock-like shapes.
Knowing the fundamentals of rock sculpting is very helpful to become familiar with. It can assist in creating more unique and customized environments.
I start by roughly blocking out the scene for the project. It's important to set the scale correctly from the beginning, using a familiar object like a human model for proportion. I take a cube and use the move brush to shape it. After that, I begin with low-resolution dynamesh to minimize artifacts and make the mesh easier to manage. I increase the dynamesh resolution at each step when I feel the need for more details.
I mainly use the trim smooth border, a powerful brush, but it takes a learning curve to get used to. I combine this with changing the orientation picker—whether it's set once for a consistent orientation throughout each stroke, set to Continuous Orientation to move along the stroke, or manually adjusting the orientation to have full control.
Getting the small details was definitely the most challenging part of the process, and it's something I've marked for improvement in the future.
After completing the high poly, I begin working on the low poly, which is a straightforward process. I decimated the mesh until ZBrush loses the volume of the high poly. Then, I used TopoGun to adjust some edge placements, ensuring that the low poly captures the high poly silhouette accurately. For unwrapping the models, I used Rizom UV, aiming to minimize seams while ensuring there are not too many areas with stretching.
In Substance, after completing the, for me, stressful part of baking the high to the low, I don't know why, but after finishing this stage with no baking errors, I do feel a sense of accomplishment that things are going according to plan. It's weird.
Texturing organic rock and making it look realistic is also a challenging step of its own. I start by creating a few color variations, each with a specific purpose, incorporating different roughness values and heights to enhance light interaction and create visual interest. I use a curvature map to capture edges and cavities, adding more normal details. Finally, I render the scene in Redshift and include ground texture for a better presentation.
This project was new, exciting, and challenging, with some parts being frustrating, but I guess it's part of the learning process. Overall, I'm happy with the results, and I can clearly see areas for improvement in the future.
