Layers

[Kevin]

I decided I'd try something different and paint a stilllife. I made the three objects in the scene from spheres. I placed each on different layers and I painted them. I wanted to paint the "stalks" on either the same layer as the object they belonged to, or else on a new layer. I tried to use 3Dcylinder and deform it, but I wasn't getting the results I wanted so I decided to paint them. I'm not sure how ZBrush decides which layer it is going to paint on. I'm sure I selected the layer I wanted but sometimes it wouldn't paint and other times I think the paint went on to the background layer even though I don't think the background layer was selected. Is this because there were no pixols on the layer where I wanted to paint?

Also, I watched Auricks layers tutorial and it seemed to make sense, until I try it out. At first I thought that you could change layer placement by the panel off to the right, but later I discovered that was just an info palatte. So which number is which by the way. The top one - x, the next -y and the bottom -Z? So I guess you have to use the Z slider in the layers panel to move a layer. But I don't understand. I try a small number (+ or -) and nothing happens. I try bigger numbers still nothing. I try a thousand. Nothing. 1500. Nothing. At 2000 plus, the background layer vanishes. I think that was a little too far. I try a smaller positive number, but that doesn't help. Guess that's just moving it back farther? I go to negative numbers. Try small ones at first. Nothing. Then larger numbers. Nothing. Finally I go back to -2000 and the backgrounds back but its covering up some of my objects. So how do you adjust these numbers? What am I doing wrong? I just want to move the background back so it's behind my other objects.

And one more thing. I clicked on each layer in my drawing. (There are five) and I look at the numbers in the info palette and they're all the same. But it doesn't seem like they could be because some of the layers overlap.

[aurick]

Whew. That's a lot of answering to deal with.

Let's start with the last question first:

All layers occupy the entire available document space (including depth). In other words, objects on different layers can occupy exactly the same space. If you draw three identical spheres, one on each of three layers, all three spheres will be drawn at the same depth.

Regarding your sliders, the Transform palette Info menu controls object depth. The sliders in the Layer palette control layer depth. In both cases the sliders go (from top to bottom) X, Y and Z. Also, if you are only changing depth you won't be able to see any visible effect. This is because there are no cues to tell you that depth has been changed. Objects don't shrink as they recede into the distance. One trick that you can do to help see changes in depth is to turn on Fog in the Render palette. This will create a visual cue so that you can more easily see that an object is indeed getting farther away -- the farther back it is, the more hidden by the fog it will be.

As for how ZBrush determines where to draw objects, that depends on two things:

1) Preferences>Picker>Auto Front. When turned on (the default), objects are drawn at a depth of 0 unless the stroke starts on another object. If Auto Select is turned off, then objects will be drawn directly on the clipping plane (unless your stroke starts on another object).

2) The Picker palette also has controls that affect what layer is evaluated when you draw a new object.

Active means that the currently selected layer is the only one that will be evaluated. Objects on other layers will be ignored.

Other means that the current layer is ignored and only other layers are evaluated.

All means that all layers are evaluated.

Finally, one way that you can select which layer to draw on quickly and easily is by tilde-clicking (~) within the document. When you do so, the layer that the front-most clicked pixol resides on will be automatically selected.

[Kevin]

Thanks for your explanation, Aurick. I didn't think about there being an object depth as well as a layer depth. I'm think I'm beginning to understand.

[sirquadalot]

What I find difficult about Zdepth, and many of the other postion sliders is that they revert to zero. It is at times difficult to visualize zdepth, and I find I need to have a pen and paper at my side to try and remember what the previous number I tried were. :(