Couple of ZSphere tools and a bug

[TVeyes]

Boy, the last couple of weeks have been a complete agony. I, like the rest of you, waited patiently for the release of ZBrush 1.5. Unfortunately I was due for a long holliday, visiting family in Wales. So I had just about 8 hours with 1.5 before I had to catch an airplane and endure long family discussions about how tall I have grown, eventhough I am 28 and stopped growing years ago. Luckily I had a little help from my friends Guiness, Murphy, Brains and H.B (not to mention Worthington and my late night pal Strongbow). So my longing for 1.5 was eased a little you could say.
Anyway I am back home and after a lovely game of "catch up with the others" at work, I've finally spent some quality time with my new favourite program.
Needless to say I've been playing around with ZSpheres, eventhough I only bought ZBrush a couple of months ago and was having a blast with the Sphere3Ds. Yes I am spoilt ;)

I've posted 3 ZSphere tools that I hope someone will find the time to modify/enhance. I'm especially having trouble adding detail without messing up my previous work. Note I want to work strictly in adaptive mode (Low Poly). Any hints, tips, pointers or slaps across the face would be much appreciated. Thank you.


Nearly forgot: The Bug I found occurs when you use preview mode while editing ZSpheres. If you load my Spaceship tool, draw it on the canvas, hit "t" to enter edit mode, hold down "shift" while you rotate in order to get an axis view, press "a", observe the shape of the model, hold down the "alt" key and move the model slightly, press "a" twice. Voila the last preview is how the model is supposed to look but the first preview is abnormal. This seems to occur only when you use ZSpheres to make an indent on another ZSphere, and of course when you use the "shift" key to rotate to an axis view. The soulution right now is to move the model slightly with the "alt" key or use the transform modifiers to limit movement along the designated axis(XYZ). In which case you never need to use the "shift" key.
I don't know if this bug has been mentioned previously, but I thought I'd post it anyhow.

Carcass Flying Dude:
This guy had the idea of taking a dead animal and hollowing it out so he had room to sit in it, and of course attach his twin jet motors to the wings.
Carcass Flying Man.zip (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1032821464axf.zip)
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032821140wpx.jpg

Spaceship in Atmoshpere:
The Spaceship does not have the ballons when in orbit, they are contained within the long pointy bits. Lots of work to be done. And yes, those are sandbags hanging from below.
Spaceship.zip (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1032821520fff.zip)
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032821283kmy.jpg

The Inquisitors Chair : No Image,not finished.
Inquisitors chair.zip (http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_file-1032821598dri.zip)

PS. Please feel free to use any of the tools for your own purposes.

[Stonecutter]

Nice modelling Mr. TVeyes! :tu: :)
Glad you survived your holidays, and sorry I can't help with your problem, but a great contribution on your behalf...I hope you're going to finish, texture, and render these puppies so we can see them in action! :D

:cool: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :cool:

[Frenchy Pilou]

Why this flying man catching on his head ? ;)
Pilou

[Grub]

Hey, great stuff Tveyes. The Carcass flying dude(dig the title, lol) is very unique. You should really consider finishing these tools off yourself, why waste some terrific zsphere models? There's plenty of people on the forum that can help you out, if you run into problems. :) :tu: :tu: :tu:

[TVeyes]

None of them are finished. There is lots to do if it is to be a 2D picture but I was aiming for low poly models for now (can always increase the mesh density and modify the Adaptive mesh from there.
Oh, don't worry. I am going to do something to all of them . I've certain things in mind for each of them, i.e three pictures. But first I would like to explore ZBrush a little more.
Thank you for the comments.

[KenH]

Nice modellig! They should make great images!...Is the bug you found a redraw thing. I didn't try out the instructions. But I find sometimes that when you press A sometimes the mesh can look too thin. Rotating it corrects it though.

[TVeyes]

KenH : When you use the Shift key in conjunction with rotating the model you are supposed to get a side view/top view/front/back view. When you do a preview it is then that it displays the preview incorrectly. Yes, rotating, preview off, preview on, fixes it.

It's not a biggie, but if you are not aware of it, as I was not, it can confuse while trying to learn the "rules" of ZShpere modeling. I.e how the Zshperea influence each other.

[rhom]

Pretty cool stuff here-especially hollowing
out a dead animal to sit in and attaching your jet engines to-you must use some kind
of clear coat to hold down the smell from this rapidly decaying beast-.

[JimMcKnew]

I think that flying man is on to something big. Cool tools. :} Jim :) :)

[TVeyes]

Thanks for the kind words.
Here is a picture displaying my problem more accurately. I tried recording my session but when playing back the ZScript the problem magically dissapears?!!
The models on the left are the buggy ones. The problem occurs when I rotate with the shift key held down and then do a preview (A key)
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1032964955tvg.gif

[aurick]

It looks like the problem you are encountering is the one discussed in this thread (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=007603). Let me know if that helps!

[TVeyes]

I did search the forum but didn't find that one, thanks Aurick. Alas that does not solve my problem. At no time have I resized the model as the thread you mentioned seemed to say was the problem.
Anyway I won't dig into this anymore. I only needed to rotate the model for a perfect side view in order to move Spheres along the axes (which is when the preview problem occurs). I'll just use the Transformation modifiers to restrict movement instead.

Thanks anyway. :tu:

[Karasuando]

Haha!, the carcass flying dude is a classic!. Fantastic ;).

[aurick]

Aha! I've spoken with the developers, and it turns out that you've stumbled across an experimental/undocumented feature.

:b2: Pressing the skin preview button while Shift is pressed will produce a thinner mesh.

:b2: Pressing the Make Unified Skin button while Shift is pressed will utilize a different skinning routine to create the mesh.

Please remember that this is an experimental feature that may or may not make its way into future versions of ZBrush. But for now, feel free to play with it and see what you can accomplish. Having access to this kind of undocumented information is one of the benefits to being a member of ZBrush Central. :cool:

[TVeyes]

Cool :cool: I was actually beginning to suspect it was a "feature", but shouldn't it be confined to the Preview/Make Unified Skin buttons?

Anyway thanks for the feedback. I've only been here a short while but I am beginning to really appreciate your presence here Aurick. Thanks.

Got to go try that Make Unified Skin button.