Anim Project

[KenH]

This is a character I'm working on at the moment. He's low poly and can be animated eventually. It's a compromise solution till 1.6 gets here, but I find manipulation of polys, verticies etc in zbrush very hard(the highlighter in zbrush is pretty much useless as you can't pin point a poly. So, I'd recommend they look at a FREE program called Wings3d if they plan on moving in that direction. I'd love to see such functionality in Zbrush.
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1041130756neg.jpg

[aurick]

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1041140233xgq.jpg

You mean masking specific polygons like this, Ken? :)

There are a couple of tricks to make this easy. The first thing to do is to turn on Quick 3D Edit mode by pressing the F key. You can also activate PolyFrame viewing if you like. The advantage to Quick 3D Edit is that the model is not rendered with subdivision every time you release the mouse button. As a result, you can always see the polygons very precisely.

Next, zoom in close to the model (Alt+Click+Release Alt+Drag) and shrink your Draw Size down small. I was at a size of 6 for the example, and zoomed in even closer to the surface.

You will notice as you run your cursor over the model that the red edit point locks onto the model's points. Choose the point at the lower left of the polygon that you want to select, hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key, and drag to or slightly past the center of the polygon. That polygon will then be masked. If you make a mistake, or find that due to your model's orientation you need to start with a different point to get the polygon that you want, just press Ctrl+Z to undo your selection and try again.

Using this technique, you can pick specific polygons with ease.

[s o u t h e r n]

Hi KenH,

Have you been able to make a model like this in Wings3D?

I have been using it (Ken B recommended it to me) and I find it hard going. The two programs differ wildly in many and varied ways.

G

[KenH]

Thanks Aurick! ;) I'll try that out! :)

....Just tried it. I guess that way brings abit more accuracy. But I had to make my model 3 times bigger. Also, alot of my polys weren't as well spread out as your example so it was very fiddly. I just brought it into wings and when the poly turned red I clicked to pick it...much easier! ;)

Glen...I've found Wings to be very intuitive. I didn't make this whole model in it though. First I made a very low poly basic shape with Zspheres and then I imported it into Wings. Here I arranged the vertices so that it will animate better and just generally added to or reduced the mesh. Then I brought it back into Z and did some more modelling...then back to Wings. And so on. Wings is good because it allows you to pick a line joining 2 vertices, press a key and then the whole loop will be selected...to be moved, rotated etc. Again though it's a matter of taste.
PS I was initiallly turned off by the "unprofessional look" of Wings. But once I worked with it, I saw the light! ;).