ZB4R4 ZClassroom videos by Michael Pavlovich

[Gareee]

I used to work trade shows.. I feel for ya, man!

[dominicqwek]

Thanks for the great tutorials Michael, they are a fantastic help.
One question I do have about the new topology tool, is that I don't see any way to tweek / move the points created by the topology brush. For me this, would be a very handy thing. Is it possible? Or can you send the topology created by the new topology brush to a Zsphere Subtool somehow. eg., like the Zsphere - SubTool > Rigging - Select mesh > Topology - Edit topology way, so points can be moved and still be snapped to the surface of the sculpt?.

Thanks,
Sam.

You can sort of tweak the topology by selecting any curve brush and adjusting the topology lines and then switching back to the topo brush and finish up.

Micheal - I do have a question with regards to the draw size when generating mesh with the topology brush. Since there is no negative value for the draw, is there a way to quickly have the mesh extrude inwards instead of outwards? I know we can always extract it but was wondering if there is a quick way of doing this?

[Pavlovich]

Sorry about the late replies guys, hopefully this will clear some stuff up:

@Gareee:

Maybe you know of a trick that can project the same uv mapping on each of those replicated parts?

In Maya what I would do is break up the duplicated curve parts into their own objects (like that bandolier, for example), UV one of them, then do a transfer attributes (with UVs selected) to transfer the UVs to the other identical objects. Hopefully future iterations of Zbrush will allow you to maintain UVs, but in the meantime you can give that a try (not sure what the equivalent of that process would be in 3DMax or XSI, but I'm sure there's similar functionality). As far as the UV Master, it's been a while but you should be able to flatten then use your move brush to move points around, if that's what you're asking.


@andreseloy

Can I use the insert mesh replacement with the IMM brush?

If I'm understanding the question correctly, yes! My zombie brush is a IMM brush that all utilize the insert mesh replacement (just make sure there's one and only one hole on your replacement object)

@Jharford

I wouldn't mind if you could upload them somewhere please. They are just too slow on the zclassroom site for me. I really don't know why.

Also - the topology brush accesories video is not on the youtube yet, hopefully that will go up soon ?

let me go back through my older videos and make sure they have the right encoding, and I'll see if I can get them down to a reasonable size. The topology brush accessories video wasn't on youtube last time I checked either...hmm. Maybe give Pixologic a few days, they've had a busy week at siggraph lol. Hopefully soon though!

@moth3r

...I wanted to explore every possible way of converting existing brushes back to subtools? I hope there is some simple way to do it because recombining libraries without original tools files currently looks pretty hefty to me.

The easiest way I've found (that Paul showed me) is to select your polymesh3D star geometry (in the upper right of the tool menu), select your MMI brush of choice (with the part of the brush you want to extract), then go to Geometry > Modify Topology > Mesh From Brush. This will replace the generic star with the mesh from the brush.

I know it's kind of a process to do this for brushes with tons of subtools, so one other method you can try is to make a polymesh plane, choose your MutiMeshInsert brush of choice, go into the picker menu and set your orientation to draw out straight from the camera, then go into the brush menu > Modifiers > MutiM (Multimesh Selector, the small slider) and choose the "1" option. This will cycle through muti meshes in the brush. Draw them out on the plane, then when you're done, delete the plane geo, separate all the muti meshes into their own subtools, then run a deformations > unify on one of them. Then choose the "repeat to other" option at the bottom of the deformations menu, to get them all similar. This should allow you to take lots of the meshes from big insert brushes and make them into subtool libraries, which you can then mix and match and save out.

@SammyD

One question I do have about the new topology tool, is that I don't see any way to tweek / move the points created by the topology brush. For me this, would be a very handy thing. Is it possible? Or can you send the topology created by the new topology brush to a Zsphere Subtool somehow. eg., like the Zsphere - SubTool > Rigging - Select mesh > Topology - Edit topology way, so points can be moved and still be snapped to the surface of the sculpt?.

One way you can do it is to draw out your topology lines using the topology brush, then switch to the CurveEditable brush, turn off Zadd and Rgb, and move the curves around that way (make sure you have bend and snap on). Then switch back into the topology brush. Or like you said, you can get most of the topology done, make that into a mesh, then just load that mesh into your Rigging > Select mesh topology using Zspheres and clean up using that method. Hopefully there will be a simpler approach to moving verts around in later iterations of Zbrush.


@dominicqwek

Micheal - I do have a question with regards to the draw size when generating mesh with the topology brush. Since there is no negative value for the draw, is there a way to quickly have the mesh extrude inwards instead of outwards? I know we can always extract it but was wondering if there is a quick way of doing this?

Oh man good question, can't believe this hasn't come up yet. Hmmm. Shoot, I'm stumped, I'll have to ask the Pixologic guys on this one. Sorry about that!

[Gareee]

Thanks for the reply, Mike!

Unfortunately, my other main tool is lightwave, which is sad when it comes to uv mapping tools.

Looks like I'm stuck for now until zbrush hopefully can add uv mapping options with the curve insert brushes, but ya can't blame a guy for asking!

[SammyD]

Thanks for the explanation, I see how to do it now with a Zsphere via >Topology - select Topo, then edit topology.
I will check out the curve editable brush with the settings you have suggested.

Thanks again,
Sam.

[patrickZbursh]

Firstly thank you for your excellent tutorials.
I need to build a decorative bead around a piece of armor. I have made the bead but I would like to keep the string of beads the same size for most of the curves length but would like to taper it toward the end. much like the 'tentacle' in your tutorials but not a constant taper.
is there a way to insert a maker of point on the curve to start the taper other than from the start point?
thank you in advance
Patrick

[moth3r]

Mike, thanks for the reply!

Even though, I had some idea how to deal w multiple insert brushes, I have definitively missed a lot hints from your guide so I ended doing a lot of extra steps. Considering that's now the fastest way to do it that's really a great great help!

[moth3r]

Mike

I now have another issue with curve settings. I would like to keep them but all the settings get lost in process of converting of subtools to multi insert brush. So each time I have made a new multi brush I have to set the right curve setting for my brushes and then re save it. These settings are important for meshes which are repeating itself like ribbed pipes, hoses etc. It would be just great if you could easily update the multi insert brush (edit, delete or add) without loosing any brush curve settings.

[Kanga]

Hi Michael

I don't have any questions, just wanted to swing by and thank you for making these illuminating tutorials.

Cheers man.

[Pavlovich]

@patrickZbursh

I need to build a decorative bead around a piece of armor. I have made the bead but I would like to keep the string of beads the same size for most of the curves length but would like to taper it toward the end. much like the 'tentacle' in your tutorials but not a constant taper.
is there a way to insert a maker of point on the curve to start the taper other than from the start point?

For sure, if I'm understanding the question correctly, make your curve like the one in the attached image to have a taper that isn't gradual (and if you want it to taper from the other side, drag the curve points from the bottom to the top and vice versa on the opposite side). Remember you can grab the orange circles around any point and pull them in / widen them out to sharpen / soften the curves. You can also add more points to the curve by clicking on the curve, or delete points from the curve by clicking on the point and dragging it out of the curve window.



@moth3r

I would like to keep them but all the settings get lost in process of converting of subtools to multi insert brush. So each time I have made a new multi brush I have to set the right curve setting for my brushes and then re save it. These settings are important for meshes which are repeating itself like ribbed pipes, hoses etc. It would be just great if you could easily update the multi insert brush (edit, delete or add) without loosing any brush curve settings.

Hmmmm...did a little playing around with this. Looks like you can have IMM (insert multi mesh) brushes that have curve modes saved, but it's saved globally for each of the meshes...if you're ok with that global setting, if you want to append another shape (say you've got a library of pipes with all your curve modes correct and you want to add another type), you should be able to have the brush selected, have the object you want to add (make sure it's oriented correctly), hit the "create insert mesh" button, and a dialogue window should pop up asking if you want to append this shape. Say yes, and it'll add that shape and keep your curve settings intact.

However, like I said the curve settings appear to be global, so you can't mix curve mode brushes with simple insert only brushes. Also, if you want to add bunch of subtool pipes at a time, hitting "create insert multi mesh" won't bring up the dialogue window asking if you want to append, so you'll have to do them manually one at a time if you're appending.

Hope that's ok :-/ Let me know if you find a more elegant solution!

@Kanga

Thanks Man!

[film_guy01]

I was able to follow this until the very end. At the end however, you attached the zombie arm to the sphere (I assume it was a dynamesh sphere). Then you ctrl-dragged twice on the background and it fused the two together. I know how ctrl-dragging the background remeshes your dynamesh objects, but mine don't look like yours did. Mind didn't add a seperate polygroup loop where the two groups connected (yours added a green loop where the two objects meet). It just looks like when I do it, it doesn't really do anything.

It also seemed to fuse my seperate polygroups into one polygroup. I clicked the "group" button under dynamesh menu, and that keeps the polygroups intact, but it doesn't really look like it merges the two objects the same way it does in your video.

Hope that question makes sense.

Please advise.
Thanks!

*edit - Awesome tutorials btw!!! I'm learning a ton! Thanks!

[Pavlovich]

@film_guy01

It wasn't a dynamesh, it was just a polymesh3D sphere; this workflow allows you to add geometry without having to use dynamesh (they both have their strengths and weaknesses); the steps are:

--drag out a polysphere, make it a polymesh3D
--mask off an area, and hit ctl+w (polygroup masked area / clear mask)
--drag an insert brush (make sure you drag it touching the new polygroup you just made, and make sure there's 1 and only 1 hole in your insert mesh, for example the hole in the back of the arm; you can use the hcylinder insert brush for another example)
--position your mesh if you need to
--ctl drag once to clear your mask
--ctl drag one more time to have zbrush interpolate the geometry from the hole in your insert mesh to the polygroup you dragged out on

If you keep watching the videos, I explain in more detail when I start creating my insert mesh creature using my zombie bodyparts (I think it's the next video). Hope that helps, once you get the hang of it, it feels natural!

[film_guy01]

Thanks!! That seemed to work. Although I swear I was doing that before and it wasn't working.

Here's one last question though. Does the mesh you are inserting have to have a hole in it in order for it to connect to your original mesh in a sensible way? Because when I try to insert a cube or a cylinder it connects it in a pretty weird and unhelpful way. The only thing I could think is that it doesn't know how to connect it logically since there isn't a hole in it it doesn't know where to make the connections.

[Gareee]

It just uses the new polygroup you create as its joining location... maybe fiddle with that selection for the best attachement?

[film_guy01]

Well I've been fiddling but it still doesn't seem to be working the way it was in Michael's video. Here is a picture of what I mean.


Two very simple shapes but it just doesn't seem like it should be inserting the mesh that way. Am I missing something?