newbie sculpting question

[ArtisanCG]

I've been going through the Practical Manual, and when it shows a screenshot at mesh level 4, for example, it looks a lot smoother and more detailed than what I can get when I'm following along. Even when I change the draw tool to a very small size, it still looks chunky to me, and I can see the "square" pixol edges when things get extruded. I'm just wondering how people are getting the detail at these resolution levels before rezzing up.

The other problem I'm having is that I find I have to use REALLY small Z intensity values (like 6 or 8 out of 100) with the mouse. If I draw fast it has a minor effect, but if I draw slow to draw in the detail work, even these small values inflate alot. Is there a toggle for continuous/ non-conitnuous flow that I missed? My models keep looking lumpy because of this. I'm following the scripts that people have linked to, but I guess I just dont have the fine control over the sculpting as other do, and I'm wondering if someone has other Zscripts that they could link to showing how to go from low density, to medium & high density. Thanks.

[ElCheese]

Your "chunky mesh" might have several causes-first off, its possible that the renders you're seeing have had the "quick 3d edit" setting switched off, making them look smoother (the button is in the top right corner, next to the edit/draw/move etc. buttons). If you're finding that your drawing tool is affecting more of the model that it looks like it should, try scaling your model up a couple of times by using the tool>deformation>size slider, which should fix it. I had the same problem when I first started too, and its not very clear how to sort it out. It's also possible that the meshes your seeing have a higher level of division at level one than your version. If you are adaptive skinning a zphere model, try increasing the density slider to 2 or 3 in the menu before you skin it, meaning you'll start with a denser mesh.

As for your bumpy strokes, you can make them smoother by going into the stroke palette, and increasing the "mouse average" slider. This may give you a bit of lag on your strokes, but they will be much smoother.Hope that helps,
Cheese :D

[aminuts]

perhaps the tutorials are done in higher rez documents?......are you using the default doc size?

[ArtisanCG]

Thanks ElCheese. The quick3D edit isn't the issue.

Is scaling using the tool>deformation>size slider different than using the Scale Edited Object Icon on the right of the window (default)?

I'm just following along in the manual so I don't think that the meshes I see have a higher level of subdiv, or different adapting skinning values, since I am matching the text and pictures as I go along.

Aminuts, I am using default size doc. Why would that change the resolution of a tool?

[Rafael Hernandez]

About your first problem. Check if the draw smooth tolerance is set to 1 in the display properties tab. If is not set to 1 set it to 1. Quick 3d edit will have to be turned off to see the difference ( you can switch it on and off by pressing "f" key when the tool is active.)

Modeling with the mouse is a bit difficult and requires practice. You would be better off modeling with a wacom tablet. However, you can still get good results using the mouse. You'll just have to practice.

When using the mouse don't rely only on the "draw pointer" to modify your geometry. Use move and even scale as well. Move will allow you good control on creating the general form of your subject. When using the draw pointer make adjustments in zintensity and the size of the brush to get more control over the your stroke.

I modeled this head (http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=007305) using the mouse back when we did not have zspheres or high poly meshes. So it can be done with practice.

[skycastle]

ArtisanCG

Smoothness depends on the resolution of your mesh that you began with. When you subdivide a model Zbrush will take one polygon and split it into four. So for your
mesh it may take more subdivisions for your
mesh to look as smooth as the tutorial.

Another tip to just smoooth the display
of the model( with imported meshes or polyMesh3d tools ) is to turn off quick edit ( f key ) then goto tool:display properties :Dsmooth. Change that value to something other than 0. Try a value of 1 for starters.

As far as the Zintensity this will depend on the scale of your model. If the model size is realy small in world space your intensity ( sculpting strength ) may seam very strong by default.
You may need to dail it down a bit and there
is nothing wrong with that.

For scale Its my understanding that the deformers
will alter your actual mesh. The icon for scale on the right of the interface is just for zooming. The zooming can also be done with a hotkey.