Editing skin before skinning... Why?

[Monkeyfarm]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I'm not sure what the advantage of being able to edit the mesh in preview mode is. I can see if the edits held up if you move the controlling spheres aroung (kind of like a bone system) but that doesn't seem to be the case. So why not just skin it and then edit the mesh?

I only ask 'cause I don't want to be missing out on something that may help me out.

Thanks?

[Mahlikus The Black]

the edit does hold up so one can pose their model. Then, when Displacement mapping is implimented, it will supercharge this function.
BTW to pose I believe it is better to rotate for posing because if you alter the zif and or mesh the morphs distorts or even vanish.

Look at Ken B's post Hammerhead. (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=010217)

The final is posed but the Zif shot isnt. ;) ;) ;)

I must admit though, I havent been able to get them to stay well so some clarification would be nice on this fact.

[aurick]

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1046503274rkk.jpg

This is an extremely simplistic example. The left is the original ZSphere model. The middle is the preview with some sculpting done. The right shows the preview again, after the spheres had been rotated into a seated position and the legs lengthened. As you can see, the sculpting still holds.

Really drastic repositioning of the spheres is generally bad news. And you absolutely cannot do anything that will change the structure of the mesh (such as adding or removing spheres or changing the inventory settings). But in general, here is a real-world example of how this can be useful:

Imagine creating the figure above. Once seated, texturing would be more difficult than when he's in a neutral pose. So you sculpt and texture the preview, then pose the figure, then finally skin him.

Also, as Mahlikus said, this feature will really come into its own once displacement mapping is available. :tu:

[Monkeyfarm]

Ahhh... I guess I was trying to move the ziff's around too much.

Thanks!

[Lobo69]

You can sculpt the preview skin? Does this mean that you do all your mesh editing and then pose the model? If so, wow!

Has anyone made a Zscript tutorial on editing the preview mesh? I would love to see that in action.

L