Zbrush time

Ok, so my current task for HaloWars is to create a dead tree. I've done several of the trees in the game, so I have a pretty good feel for what it takes to make a tree look good from game view (small textures, low poly count, and alphatest). I wouldn't normally us Zbrush for any small RTS type object because you lose all the cool detail Zbrush gives you when you have to crunch the textures down, but I need to start using it more so I'm going to be less productive than normal. I first had to watch all the tutorial videos from the web because all the teachings of Paul Warzecha had somehow managed to fall out of my brain. After watching those I got to it. Here is my model I imported in from Max with UV's already layed out. Added several SubDivision levels and got to sculpting. Zbrush is really cool and the hardest part about using it (besides the ui), is trying not to put too much detail all over the place. Anyway here is what I ended up with. After importing this object into Max to create my normal map (ZMapper=not nice) and working up the diffuse and spec textures, it actually turned out ok. Oh btw, I used alpha'd poly's to create all the branches in case you were wondering :) Sorry, but I'll post some images of the finished tree once the game ships.

Felt good to use Zbrush again and I'm itching to do more now. How about some rocks!