Need a few tips

[Chris Watkins]

Im working on a body, using upham's great tutorial as help and of course, I ran into a thing or two.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1013061106znp.jpg

As I pulled the head up and legs down they extended past the borders of the canvas. When I zoom it just zooms the whole canvas so it'll be awkward detailing the head. Should I have started with a much smaller sphere or can I change what the 'camera' is focused on?

Heres the other one.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1013061258dqm.jpg

When I hit control so I can draw a mask, instead its drawing a box with a circle inside to apply as a mask. Im not sure what Im doing, because I know I've drawn the mask on straight before. Lil help? :)

[Stonecutter]

For one thing Chris, trying to stretch one sphere into an entire body is a difficult proposition at best...I personally make a head, a torso, upper arms, lower arms, upper and lower legs, and hands, and or feet seperately. The reason for this is that you would end up with a badly stretched mesh, which would be difficult to paint or texture...

If you have the demo, you can't save tools, but you can, I believe, save the document...
(I could be wrong, and if I am, trust someone to correct me) My point is, you could make a torso, save the document, then reload it, add a torso, and repeat...

I do know it would be quite an accomplishment to make an entire body out of one sphere... :)

[Chris Watkins]

Well Im pretty much just seeing what I can do. I do have the demo. Maybe if I can use masks to subdivide the mesh I can do something interesting :)

Nice member number Stonecutter :)

[Stonecutter]

Thanks Chris...I am on the side of light however... ;)
BTW: I think your masking 'box' results from your selecting Edit->Move, rather than Edit->Draw...(Once again, I stand to be corrected.) I have never used 'Subdivide'...I just set the HDiv and VDiv according to what I need...If you like, email me tomorrow, (I'm leaving my studio soon), and I'll be glad to send you info and scripts to help you out... :)

[Chris Watkins]

Ahem, nevermind :) I still dont know about the first question in the first post though

[upham]

Hey Chris
Yes you can zoom into an area on the mesh by using the tools in the TOOLS >DEFORMATION subpalette.

http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1013082570soo.jpg

A: I want to add detail to the face of a Max model I made and imported. I use the OFFSET slide to move the red crosshair to the face of the model. You'll find it strange as the crosshair doesn't actually move but the model behind it. Turn the X and Y sliders off and on to move the model up and down (y) and left and right (x). If you have your model on the document window in EDIT DRAW mode, you will also see it move! Otherwise draw your model on the screen and you will see the red crosshair is actually the center of the model!

B: Then use the SIZE XYZ to make the model bigger. Slide the SIZE slider to 100. It is kind of like a "zoom". You may need to do this a couple of times if the mode. It gives you the result you want. When finished you reduce the size and move the crosshair to a different position.

Second Question:
I still do this silly mistake. As StoneCutter mentions above, you are in EDIT and MOVE mode. This produces the drag-box you see above. You need to be in EDIT-DRAW mode (and hold the CTRL keyboard key down) and you'll be able to draw a mask onto the model!

Also as Stonecutter mentions above, makeing a whole body mesh out of a single sphere is a bit of a hassle. You end up with stretched polygons and it gets very messy quickly. Pixolator or Zuzu has dropped a hint on this board, that this will be fixed in an upcomming version of ZBrush and you'll be able to spread the polygons more evenly over the model in the future! We'll have to wait and see?!!
Take care
Upham :)

[kelly_b_c]

One other way to move the model is to use the move gyro (or whatever it is called.) Just hit "t" to switch between deform and position modes (these are my terms not necesarily the official ZBrush terms.) With the move gyro you can position the object in just about any way you can think of. Be sure to reenter deform mode by pressing "t" again or else you will drop your object on the canvas and it will be stuck there.

I believe that there is a good ZScript for this that is included in the demo download, check you ZScript library for a primers folder. It shows exaclty what I am trying to say.

I only mention this because if you use the method of moving the red cross hair, you are actually changing the center of rotation of the object and then it makes it a little less intuitive when you try to rotate the object.

[Downwrdspiral]

The way I zoom in on a certain area is to simply use the + and - number pad buttons. To direct where it zooms into, just point your mouse to the correct spot. To adjust it hold space use your mouse to move.

[aurick]

Adding a couple minor tidbits:

Don't be afraid to move the gyro outside of the canvas. It is still fully functional, so long as it remains on the area surrounding the canvas. This means that you could actually zoom out to create a large gray space around the canvas, move the gyro to position and size the head where you want it, and then zoom back in. Of course, it will quickly get "interesting" when you try to rotate. You may find yourself doing a lot of zooming back and forth. The easiest and most effective solution really is to model in several pieces. For one thing, it allows your mesh size to be smaller, which makes each individual piece easier to work with.

FYI, markers also continue to function when placed outside of the canvas.

For the masking, I generally prefer to use an alpha with hard edges to get good clean masks. There is also a second major difference between Edit>Draw masking and Edit>Move masking. Edit>Move applies the mask to both the front and back of the object at the same time. Edit>Draw paints it only where you're actually painting.

[Stonecutter]

Thanks for the tips guys, and Aurick once again you amaze me with the tidbits you offer...I didn't know about that 'front and back' deal, and already have a use for that particular function!! :)

[Chris Watkins]

Im glad my own clawing for knowledge can help others too :> Im starting to get the hang of this, busted through confusion with low res textures, brush strokes being a line of dots rather than a line, and done a few more experiment models, maybe I can try something serious now :) We'll see. Thanks for the help guys!

Oooh, 10th post, only 990 to go ;p