hello, wanted to ask about something that’s been bothering me for a while. i’m getting odd inconsistencies with the strength of the brush when sculpting, which tends to be annoying since i constantly have to change my z intensity as i move around the model. here’s an example:
notice the difference in the amount of strokes it takes to get the same shape. is this an option/feature that i can get rid of? any help would be great thanks
Hello @pleb
The first thing I notice is that your draw size radius appears to be changing from side to side. A larger brush radius will have a stronger effect on the mesh. I don’t know if this is something you’re doing manually, or the result of a program feature you have enabled, or a tablet feature. If it’s not something you’re doing manually, restart ZBrush and try again in a new session with the stock brushes on one of the stock models that comes in Lightbox to see if it is an issue particular to a tool or file setting.
The underlying topology will also play a role. If the topology is denser in places, that section of the mesh will resist displacement a bit more, and also produce more precise strokes. Lower poly topology will displace easier, and will result in broader strokes.
hey spyndel, thanks for the reply
i haven’t messed around with any settings yet. this is the standard brush. so even if i scale the brush size up, it’ll still have less strength. it seems to be based on the way i’m viewing the model. for example, if both of those areas while not moving the view, it’ll sculpt fine. but if i move the view to the side, it’ll suddenly make my brush small. if i scale the brush up, the intensity will still not be as strong. so i have to change brush size and intensity amount…
Have you tried what I said and restarted the program and checked to see how it performs with a stock mesh in ZBrush without any previous file loaded?
If the issue happens there as well, it may be an issue with your program installation, hardware or software environment, or your input device.
If the problem is specific to a tool or file, it may be a file setting or an issue with the active tool.
I don’t immediately recognize the nature of your problem, but I’m going to need you to narrow it down for me before I consider it in depth. I’m afraid there are a lot of demands on old Spyndel’s meager brainpower these days. 
Thank you!
i haven’t restarted/reinstalled the program. but i did find a fix for it. pressing “set pivot point” temporary while sculpting fixes the issue(feels like it fixes a lot of the issues). and then afterwards i just press clear pivot point and it’s back to normal position. so it might be an issue with the size of the mesh, which i can’t change because it needs to match one to one to outside program
Ok, just to be clear I’m not asking you to reinstall at this point. The only reason I want you to restart (close the program, then reopen it), is to make certain any settings that might be specific to the file you’re working in are no longer applicable.
Then you can work on a stock mesh, and see if the issue is present there as well. If it is, then I don’t have to think about file-specific or tool specific issues. If it is not, then we can probably rule out broader issues in the hardware or software environment.
Make sense?
How large is your mesh in Tool> Geometry> Size> XYZ ?
oh, yes i’ve closed and opened the program multiple times. and the xyz size is .51169
This is definitely small. Tools that are drastically smaller or larger than an approximate XYZ size of 2 will experience odd behavior in the program in regard to brush sizing. And if your subtool is like a ribbon or string that doesn’t occupy a lot of surface area within that bounding box, the effect may be amplified.
However, I don’t believe that’s the whole story here. If you’re working on a mesh that small, you might have trouble reducing the brush size small enough to work on it if Dynamic mode is active in the Draw Radius slider, and might choose to disable it.
Have you disabled Dynamic mode? Working without Dynamic mode will produce behavior not unlike this in certain scenarios, even on a properly sized mesh.
If you import a mesh that is sized as needed in an external application with either no active tool selected, or into a tool with a tool> Export> Scale setting of zero, like the default poly star, ZBrush will automatically scale the mesh to the optimal size , and record the value necessary to restore it to its original size on export. There is never a need to work on a mesh at suboptimal size in ZBrush. Obviously if you change the size or shape (for instance through sculpting) of the mesh in ZBrush, then the size will be altered–but it will be altered in proportion to its original size.