Masking/Texture Question for Aurick or anybody else!

[8BIT BOY]

Hey Aurick.

When i'm masking an object, as in painting a mask, is there a way to make what i'm painting 100% opaque?

Basically i'm trying to paint individual polys on a surface to displace, size or inflat.

Also, i'm getting a 'blurring' of the texture/map...Is this down to the resolution of the texture map or is there a button somewhere that smooths what i'm seeing, a little like the meshsmoothing buttons?????

Your help would be most welcome!

Thanks

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[WingedOne]

Masks are always gray and semi-transparent, but as far as deformation purposes go, ZBrush still treats them as 100% opaque.

As too your second question, maybe try a higher resolution texture.

If your using Texture Master, you might want to try a larger document size in addition to a larger size texture when you are painting the texture onto your object.

[8BIT BOY]

Hi WingedOne,

I fully understand that the on screen view of the mask is semi opaque so you can see what you are doing, as for the Zbrush treating the painted mask as '100%' this isn't the case.

I made a mask then filled the inverse of the selection with a colour, i then exported the texture or the reverse of the map. I did this because when i was using my mask as a displacement map, instead of the masked polys extruding smoothly, there some edges or vertices that didn't extrude to the same level as others yet the mask was 100%.

To cut a long story short, the texture that i opened up in Photoshop showed that the mask i had made was not 100% all over as it appeared in Zbrush. In the end i fill in the bits, imported the texture back, made it Alpha and used that and it worked...

I'm just trying to cut out a load of tasks i shouldn't really need to do....but hey!

*8 :rolleyes:

[kokoro]

also when you apply an alpha as a mask, there is a blur setting in the alpha palette. its default value is 2 i thhink. putting it down to 0 and you will get sharp mask.

[aurick]

When painting masks, you will always be using the currently selected Alpha. The default alpha has falloff, but there are several which do not. Just choose the one that you want for the purpose that you have in mind.

[8BIT BOY]

Thanks Aurick, your a shining star above the Vegas skyline, I knew there had to be an explanation! ;) :tu:


Thanks to all for the input.

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[8BIT BOY]

Ok Aurick, this is the point where you call me 'a pain in the backside'

The Alpha brush thing worked as you said, but i'm still stumped as to how I paint the mask 100% opaque?

See below...I switched the material to flat so you can see the difference in the mask with out shadows interferring...

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200309/user_image-1063014499aja.jpg


Thank you

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[aurick]

Trying to mask individual polygons is a very difficult prospect. The only way I can reliably think to do it is by painting the mask in TextureMaster, with Transform>Quick 3D Edit turned on. That way, you can paint specific polygons to be black. When done, convert your texture to an alpha, and then apply that to the model as a mask.

[kokoro]

in such a case, i do export the alpha, import it to photoshop, choose color white, inverse selection fill black , save as .psd, import into zbrush as alpha. then you have a sharp mask. (and set the blur in the alpha to 0)

[8BIT BOY]

Thanks guys...I'll try your method Aurick.
If not i'll carry on the way i was doing it.

It's no big deal, just me being lazy!

Thanks to all again.


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