Hi guys.
I’ve done some hefty searching through these forums but have failed to find anything created from zspheres that would be a half decent base mesh for modeling bat style wings.
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/bat-wing.gif
If I don’t get any promising replies to this thread I think I’ll just do a simple base mesh in 3dsMax instead. Pity, I had high hopes for Zspheres.
Strange and funny you ask this, because I was sketching out a bat on paper. I stopped and couldn’t figure out how to create the wing in ZBrush.
My thoughts were that you draw out a chain of the bones for the wings, and then manually edit the points to stretch out the skin for the wing.
You’d have to create additional edge loops on the skin so that it subdivids correctly.
I haven’t tried this yet, but wish there was an easier approach.
Actually this is very doable. Just make a zshpere skeleton of the bone structure, then in adaptive skin, crank up the Membrane Curvature until you see the nice arching membrane shapes between the “fingers”. You’ll need to manually pull the skin part all the way out afterwards, if you want something exactly like your image, but this will at least give you the proper base. I’m currently working on a model that will have bat-like wings and my tests at least showed this works.
ps: Probably you won’t want to have too many zhperes along the ‘fingers’ or the extremeness of the membrane curvature effect would be lessened i would imagine. Also since i only did a quick test of this, and can’t test it more in depth at this moment, there may be other settings to play with to get the right effect. But for sure i did get the shape the other day so yes it’s possible.
I’d post SS’s to help but i dont have Zbrush at work.
Will the topology of the wing hold up under subdivision?
I’d like to see your samples.
I don’t see why it wouldnt. Worst case, you would need to manually pull the skin back out if it receded in early subdivision. But it’s better than trying to pull a smooth curved membrane shape out of bony finger geometry right? I admit though i didnt try to subdivide it at the time so it may cause problems i didnt consider.
Like i said i don’t have access to Zbrush till i get home so have a go at what i mentionned about membrane curvature, and see what you can get. If i have the chance to test it later I’ll make sure to post here with more attention to the settings.
There ya go, duplicated my results with butter-like smoothness. Just by setting curvature to 80+ in this case. note the seprate joints per finger to keep things from getting messy.
Also divided the mesh so you could see the shape rentention.
Feels good to finally have something to contribute to the Zbrush community 
Have Fun
Many thanks Art Machine
I will try this setup asap, I think the problem was that I had too many spheres in my setup, the membrane wasn’t stretching between the finger ends as a result.
Another method you might try is to use Magnet-Spheres. What you do is add an ordinary ZSphere where you want the magnet to be, pull it out to position it, then in Draw mode, Alt+click on the gray Link-Spheres to create the magnet. The size and position of the Magnet-Sphere will affect how the mesh is distorted.
To convert a Magnet-Sphere back to an ordinary ZSphere, first highlight the connecting lines by clicking on the Magnet in Move mode. Then in Draw mode, Alt+click between the lines when the cursor is a little square.
Wow that’s great.
Can you post the ZBrush of this bat setup. It would be a great base model to create many other creatures from. Bats, Dragons, Birds.
Thanks,
I’ve added the ztl to my previous post. Use it in whatever way you want. 
That was cool of you. Thank you very much. 
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I’m going to play with it tonight and see what I can scrupt. 