ZBrushCentral

How to use a tiling alpha?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have a tiling alpha I want to cover my object in. I’ve dropped it in Proj. Master and I’m trying to draw it so that it repeats, but the DragRect stroke only draws one, while I can’t seem to get the grid stroke to draw it multiple times without it over lapping or without gaps. There’s got to be a simple way to do this, can some one tell me how?

#2

Check the Built in intructions under Help. That tool has settings you can alter at will, most tools have settings that can be changed to suit. :wink:

#3

I’ve tried all sorts of settings. The closest I can get is it looking pretty matched at the the tile’s top and bottom meeting edges, but then the sides overlap. The image is 512x512, so it’s square, but still the sides overlap whilst the top bottom meet…

#4

Also, try different Tools such as the Directional brush.

#5

Thanks for both your replies, the closest I’ve come is the Deco brush, but I can’t get that to cover the area without having to over draw my strokes, which leads to seams…

#6

  1. Select your alpha and then choose Alpha:Make Tx.

  2. Select Flat Color Material and then press Texture: CropAndFill. Check that the texture wraps without seams by pressing the tilde [~] key and click+dragging the canvas. Correct any seams using the smudge brush or whatever. Grab the result by pressing Texture:GrabDoc.

  3. Clear the canvas (Ctrl+N) and select the plane tool. Draw on the canvas, hold Shift so that it is oriented squarely. Go into Edit mode (‘T’) and press the period key [.] to set at a good size.

  4. Select the texture created in (2). It will be displayed on the plane. In Tool:Texture set the H Repeat and V Repeat sliders according to the number of repeats you are after.

  5. Press ‘T’ to exit Edit mode and select the MRGBZGrabber tool. Make sure RGB is pressed and in the Tool:Modifiers upress SHaded RGB and press AutoCrop.

  6. Drag the tool across the whole canvas.

  7. A new texture will have been grabbed with the tool. With this still selected press Texture:Make Alpha. Use this Alpha with the DragRectangle stroke in Projection Master on your model.

Another thing, to repeat a stroke in a different position use the snapshot: draw the stroke, press the Move button to activate the Move gyro, snapshot (Shift+S) then move the stroke to its new position, snaphot again and so on.

HTH,

#7

Thanks for the help. Guess I’ll have to tile it again… Would be nice if that was part of the DragRect tool.

#8

Sorry for the late reply: you’ve probably got yourself sorted out by now, but for anyone else with the same question…

Use the DirectionalBrush, with a DragRect stroke. Adjust the TextureRepeat in Tool/Modifiers.

This works the same in both ZB2 and ZB3.

Cheers,

R