ZBrushCentral

Is there any way to completely turn off the Align (brush alpha) To Path, completely

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

In the Brush pallet , under Alpha and texture, there is the Align To Path slider.
You can set this from 0 to 25. This slider changes the rate at which the brush alpha will orientate itself to the direction of the stroke. I want to totally turn off any alignment of the brush alpha to the stroke, and even with the slider set to 25 ( the least amount of orientation to the path) the brush alpha still aligns it self to the stroke pretty quickly. I want to draw on a surface with a rectangular alpha and get a calligraphy line type look, where the line goes from thick to thin. So I need to stop the alignment to path completely. Any way to do that?

Thanks

#2

Hi @zolly!

If there’s a way to do this easily with the 3d brushes to the degree you want, I’m unaware of it. For your sake, hopefully someone else will come along and dunk on me here. :wink:

However, a number of the 2.5d brushes behave like this by default. To make use of this, you would use Projection Master. You wouldn’t be sculpting in real time, but rather “stamping” in the detail. Since this is an effect you’d generally want for a more deliberate design rather than freeform sculpting, it could do the trick.

Basically orient your mesh facing where you want the detail to be stamped, then Click the PM button in the Plugin menu. Disable “Colors” and click “Deformation”, then “Drop Now”. This will freeze your mesh, and it can no longer be rotated. Use the simple brush (active by default) with a freehand stroke and a suitable alpha, and draw out your shape. You may have to adjust the “spacing” setting in the stroke menu. Adjust Z-intensity as desired. Then hit the PM button again and click “Pickup Now”.

callig

:warning:One note. PM doesn’t see as much use these days, so you should probably save your file before using it. Sometimes weird stuff can happen.

#3

Thank you Spyndel, I would like to be able to do this with the 3D brushes for real time drawing. I want to do some relief sculpting that would be able to create this type of calligraphy line (think Arabic writing). If only I could turn off Align To Path completely, then one could really take advantage of different brush shapes based on their brush alphas. So if you had a rectangular brush alpha you would be like using a flat painting brush. But when the brush keeps aligning to the stroke path, you loose all the nuance you could get with that brush shape.