ZBrushCentral

Mask ALL polygroups borders

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I would like to mask all the polygroups’ borders. Is that possible with a simple button click?

I’m making clothing for a character and I want to make polygroups according to the seams of the cloth. If I can mask the borders of all groups, I could inflate the rest to make it look like the cloth is thick.

Thanks!

#2

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Mesh_Extraction_with_Masking

#3

There’s not a single button solution but there are two things you might try:

  1. If you select a polygroup (so all others are hidden) you could then use the Tool>Visibility>Outer Ring button to show just the border. Ctrl+click the background to mask.

  2. If you can change the topology then using the Tool>Geometry>Edgeloop>GroupsLoops button may give you more control. You will need to experiment with the settings to see what suits your requirements.

#4

Hi Doug Jones, I’m afraid you did not understand my post.

Hi marcus_civis, thanks for your reply!

I tested your first idea and the main problem I get is I end up with 2 verts wide masked. I need to only have the border verts masked. Also, it’s only for one polygroup at a time. Here’s an image to show what I’m trying to do.

I basicaly go to the highest SubD, hide one polygroup, mask everything, flip visible polygons, invert mask… and I end up with only the border selected. The problem with my method is I can’t do it for all polygroups at the same time. Even if I took the time to do this with every polygroups, some borders would get reselected again and get even more inflated inward.

PolygroupsBorderSelection.jpg

#5

Ok, so I found a way but I’m still getting a problem. Instead of trying to mask right from the start, I simply polypainted with black on white with the intent of converting this polypaint to mask. I did the polypaint needed but now I have no idea how to transfer polypaint to mask. I was thinking of going from polypaint to texture to mask but when I make a texture from polypaint, I get a fully black texture even if it’s all uved…

Any help?

Thanks!

#6

I redid the uvs and I can now transfer the polypaint to texture to mask. I baked it on a 8k map to have the best transfer possible but the mask I get isn’t good. It’s a bit noisy and not as precise as the polypaint… Is there another way to transfer the polypaint to mask??

Thanks.

#7

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Tool:Masking_Subpalette

#8

Thanks silent Doug Jones! The answer was in the link. The solution was to simply do a “mask by intensity” without any texture applied. What did not help me is I was sure I had tried that before… oh well, I’m back to sculpting now!

Thanks again!