hiyas i was wondering if its possible to wrap an alpha somehow to a mesh? i tried dragdot and dragrect but the alpha makes uneven deformations when the model isnt directly facing me 
any help would be appreciated thanks 
Also when i use mask by alpha the alpha ends up stretched?
Brush strokes will âwrapâ to the surface in 3d mode to an extent until the stroke extends beyond the area of the mesh that is facing the userâŠthen youâll get distortions.
To wrap all the way around a model youâll need to apply the alpha as a texture. Youâll need functioning UVs adapted to the specific alpha for this. It can then be converted to color, masking, or displacement.
anyone else notice an issue with alphas appearing too too large or rounded in 3.5r2 in comparison to 3.1? also there is a big difference in thinckness for the mesh extract; in 3.1 you could make the mesh thickness much thicker via the thickness selection. 3.5 you seem to be tied to a 1/8" max thickness.
I am new to Zbrush, I started using Z right before the upgrade to 3.5. I think Iâm lost in the cracks somewhere.
The reason I ask this, is because I am trying to do the âMake a Swordâ tutorial in the classroom and 3.5 alpha masking dose not look the same as it dose in the 3.1 alpha masking. I am doing the same operation in both programs, but the result is very different. I am trying to create a square Guard by extracting a mask made with Alpha 28, mesh extracting it from a square plane. the guard has some diamond patterns in it that cut all the way through. Otherwise i think the instructor would have had you use just a cube base.
this all has a point honestâŠ
So my end result in 3.5 leaves me with a rounded square guard instead of a sharp fine edge square guard that i get in my 3.1 attempt. I would rather further learn the Ways of Zbrush in 3.5 considering that its the newest version.
The default alpha in 3.5 (alpha off) has a strong radial fade effect. 3.1 was a perfect square. This affects the strokes in all the brushes.
We went through the same thing with 3.0, to much community opposition, until they fixed it to be a square in 3.1, so Im confident theyâll address this in a subsequent update again.
In the meantime, the only thing you can really do is dial the focal shift of the brush all the way to the left, and maybe select a square alpha that is far enough inwards from the edge to avoid the radial clipping.
I see, thank you Bingo. Maybe i should try to create a new alpha in an image editor then import it? would that help?
ahh ok cheers bingo 
in that case i have another question 
is it possible to put a texture onto a mesh and push it around? i mean a bit like smudge without the smudging then i could stop the texture warping with the uv.
Thanks again
If you use Projection master to apply your color, youâll get a couple benefits:
2)You can tweak or reposition any single stroke immediately afterwards by making the stroke, then selecting the move, scale, or rotate button on the top shelf, to move that stroke around.
However, this is still only good for working on one âsideâ of an object at a time. What you want to do, wrapping a texture all the way around an object, would be best done with a UV projection and a texture. ZB has some basic spherical projection, but youâll have much more luck getting exactly the wrap you want laying out your UVs in an external application.
cool thanks a lot man