ZBrushCentral

Brushes apply via perspective?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, I’m trying to work with the planar brushes and I noticed a -very- annoying feature that wasn’t the case with the brushes in 3.1.

Depending on how I have my model turned, is how the brushes will apply, now this might make sense if I wasn’t using symmetry but for projects where I am using radial symmetry to apply effects on say the inside of a ring, the side I’m looking at gets flattened while the side I’m not gets pushed/pulled towards the side I’m looking at.

I’m not sure how to disable this to make it apply based on the surface as opposed to which direction my camera is pointing… any tips? Thanks…

#2

It sounds like you have turned off Transform > Mirror Symmetry, which will sculpt exactly how you described it.

#3

Mirror is most certainly on… What I’m looking for is… an option kind of like how move worked in 3.1 where if you grab a point and start to move it, then hold shift it would move it straight in and out regardless of the camera angle.

I need my brush to apply flat to the surface, regardless of my camera angle, because the object is a donut shape. I can’t apply a planar brush to the inner edges without it forcing the center ring out the backside of my object and making it lopsided. Is there a way to do this?

#4

The standard brush, and many others, will push out from the normal of the points you draw on, regardless of camera angle. The move tool in 3.5 works the same as in 3.1, at least in regards to the Shift hold functionality.

I am pretty sure I understand what you want but cannot understand why you are not getting the same results I am getting. Unless of course you are using symmetry or radial symmetry with Transform > M turned off.

Which brushes are you using to sculpt on the insides of the doughnut shape?

#5

How about using the Transform > Modifiers? With radial symmetry on the Z axis (for example) you could enable X and Y axis modifiers to limit sculpting in/out from the doughnut center.

#6

This is the object I am trying to work with. The inside flat edge is what I am trying to edit.

Work in Progress.jpg

When I try to use any of the planar brushes with more than 8 radial points, the result is a bullet hole effect. If you’re familiar with how a bullet works, entry point is small, exit is large. That is the case with this object. The side closest to the camera comes out like I want it, the side furthest, gets nearly wiped out because the brush cuts at a slant based on the camera angle. It is uniform all the way around, but it still cuts at a slant, which isn’t what I want. The effect I am trying to achieve is… Like a nut/bolt. But with more facets. And for some reason I can’t seem to figure out how to do this because of the issue I’m having :\

And if I turn on X or Y for radial, it turns the points into a big sphere.

#7

Some of the Planar brushes flatten based on viewing angle. Others flatten based on the angle of the line or path you draw through it. Others flatten based on Normal averaging (flattens based on the direction of the normals at the point of contact) which sounds like what you want. The Trim Normal brush is an example of this from the best I can tell.

I am not enough of an expert on the new planar brushes yet to be able to tell you which settings control this, and the documentation for it is not prepared yet.

I suggest you want the Zclassroom videos on the planar brushes where they go over the Depth palette, and the kind of changes you can make there. Look at the Trim Normal brush, figure out what makes it do what it does, and apply that to a custom brush.

#8

The inner ring looks like it has been sculpted previously and is a little bumpy. This is important if you change the radial symmetry count. A new radial symmetry count will have some cursor points hitting at different angles when the surface is bumpy like that. With the standard brushes the discrepancy is minimal but the planar brushes show the cursor angle differences more clearly.

Personally I would use the Layer brush, DragRect stroke, Focal Shift at -100 and an alpha of a bolt shape. Afterwards use the PlanarCut, DragRect stroke, Focal Shift at -100 and a square alpha. Using ZSub you can cut the top of the slightly rounded Layer Brush strokes. If you have indented bolt shapes use PlanarCut with ZAdd.

You could also smooth the inner ring and try whichever planar brushes you were using.

#9

Thank you both for the helpful answers. I ended up getting frustrated before I read these replies and decided to go with a different angle. I will try your suggestions on some other places in this particular piece and see if I can get it to work like I want it to :slight_smile: Trim normals sounds like the right one…

Work in Progress.jpg

I think it looks a bit better than flat edges would have anyway for this particular project.

#10

I see some of the issues you’re wrestling with. While I can achieve a normalized flatten , the brushes dont quite work as intuitively as they do flattering along the outer convex surface. On the inner radius the strokes dont make nice clean divisions where they overlap, they tend to eat into each other. About the best I could do with some trial and error:

[attach=159224]innerradialflattn.jpg[/attach]

I think a good solution might be in there in some combination of brush and stroke settings, but Im at a loss to tell you right now. One could always break down and simply model the object I suppose :wink:

Attachments

innerradialflattn.jpg