When holding left shift to smooth, how do you control the strength of it?
This is driving me nuts.
You adjust the Draw >> Z Intensity slider.
Keep in mind that Smooth is a brush. All brushes have independent Draw settings, including Z Intensity. What you are experiencing is that when you adjust Z Intensity you’re doing it without having Shift held down. As a result, you’re adjusting the strength of the current brush rather than the Smooth brush. To adjust the strength of the Smooth brush, change Z Intensity while holding down Shift. That way, the Smooth brush will be the active brush while you’re changing the setting.
This is deliberate. It allows you to have different strengths for your sculpting brush and for the Smooth brush. That way you don’t have to sculpt, change the strength, smooth, change the strength, sculpt some more. Believe me… over time this system works out to be a LOT fewer mouse clicks and repetitive actions!
By the way, this rule also applies to your other modifier-activated brushes: Ctrl for masking and Ctrl+Shift for selection.
And while I’m on the subject, there’s another thing to consider: You can’t directly select one of these brush types. When you select it from the Brush palette, you’re telling ZBrush to use that version of the brush the next time you activate the key modifier. For example, the masking brushes include MaskCircle, MaskCurve, MaskCurvePen, MaskLasso and more. If you select one of them from the Brush palette, nothing will seem to happen – the Brush thumbnail to the left of the canvas will remain the same. But if you then hold down Ctrl to activate masking mode, you will see the thumbnail change to the masking brush that you just selected. This is also a time saver because it allows you to select a desired mode for each of your alternate brushes and instantly toggle them on with the appropriate key modifier. That way you don’t have to be constantly returning to the Brush palette as you work.