Anton Tenitsky shows a unique way to create a rock brush using shaders in 3DC.

Love them or hate them, you’ll inevitably find yourself creating rocks as a 3D artist, especially as an environmental artist. You can build rocks in any DDC, but it might make more sense to use a sculpting platform like Mudbox, Brush or 3D Coat — That way you can use alphas to create all the details that you need. In this latest tutorial, 3D Artist Anton Tenitsky shows a unique way to create these rock brush alphas by using 3D Coat toon shaders.

Anton uses the toon silhouette shader to create a sharp contrast image from 3D scanned material. Anton then shows how you can use this render to create a rock brush alpha. Rocks are a topic that Anton covers more than once. A while ago, he showed off some of his rock-sculpting techniques using 3D Coat. He also put together a Rugged Rocks Pack that is available for purchase. You can use the pack’s 17 high-quality rocks in your work, or as a starting point for new work. Anton is a mentor at the CG Spectrum College of Digital Art & Animation.