Masking by "element or poly selection" in Edit tool mode ?

[system]

I’m wondering if it is possible to use the Masking features of Zbrush by selecting one element or poly selection when editing a tool ? … the idea here would be to be able to have a model with its props (clothes, jewelry, etc) and edit only the visible part of it’s skin using its props as constraints references without having to go through the hasle to Mask those by hand with the brush.

What I did so far is exporting my 3ds max character as an OBJ, it is composed of several “elements”, each one of those is properly UVWMapped previously in Max, but out of all those elements included in my .OBJ file I will only edit “one” in Zbrush, using the others as references to deform and paint the main element properly regarding the topology of its props. Those props should be “masked” for easier edit as I don’t want them to be affected… not such an issue anyway as I will split the object again when importing in Max later on, but just to be accurate I don’t want to deform them in ZB and find out afterward in Max that the whole thing don’t match together. Sure hope I’m clear enough ;O)

is that is not possible, wouldn’t it be cool to have such possibility in next update or release ?

thx,

pe@ce

[system]

Hey guys, can’t anyone just tell me if Zbrush allows to select by “element” in the tool edit mode ? …I just can’t believe none knows such thing aroud here… any moderator/admin ?

Thanks,

pe@ce

[aurick]

Since each of those elements belongs to a different object group, it’s very easy:

Ctrl+Shift+Click on the group you wish to work on. The rest of the mesh will be hidden.

Ctrl+Shift+Drag on an empty part of the canvas and release. (Don’t select any points with the drag box.) The mesh visibility will be reversed.

Ctrl+Click on the canvas. All visible parts of the mesh will be masked.

Ctrl+Shift+Click on the canvas to restore full visibility. The group you wish to work on will be editable while the rest of the mesh will be visible, but masked.

[system]

Thanks a lot man, very useful indeed, It would have been surprising that such feature wouldn’t be available already, my bad.

I had issues anyway cause I collapsed all my elements into one poly in Max before exporting assuming “.obj” wouldn’t handle export of several splitted elements… and obviously ZB was recognizing the OBJ as one big poly. I corrected that and exported the splitted elements in my OBJ and they’re now all available separately in ZB using the shortcuts you mentionned.

Thanks a bunch,

Adriano

CGTalk Master and Servant Entry http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=230236