ZBrushCentral

Masking Question - Lasso Tool

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello all, I come from a photoshop background, I use the lasso tool a lot to create unique but specific shapes. When I try to mask with the lasso tool in Zbrush it also masks the back of the model, is there an option somewhere to turn backface masking on for the lasso tool? I know there is for regular brushes but it doesn’t work for the masking lasso tool.

So far I’ve just been hiding parts of the mesh and working like that, but it’s not nearly as efficient as just having a button that turns off masking on both sides for lasso.

Any help would be appreciated, cheers.

#2

Hello @Ojo

Backface Masking only applies to brush-based tools. Any brush that draws out a selection marquee on the canvas by design will select all visible points that fall under that marquee.

So you could use the standard masking brush ( Mask Pen) and activate Backface Masking for it by holding down Ctrl to make the current Masking brush active and then activating Brush> Automasking> Backface masking. This will work when the brush is being used to apply brush strokes to the mesh, but not when drawing out a rectangular marquee.

Otherwise, when drawing out marquees the mesh visibility functions can be used to control what is selected. If you don’t want to affect the rear facing side of the mesh, simply hide it.

:slight_smile:

#3

Appreciate that Spyndel, that’s basically the way I’ve been approaching it so far, was just wondering if there was a backface masking option for the lasso masking tool I was missing somewhere. It’s just so much faster for me to mask with the lasso tool in Photoshop, except in zbrush I have to constantly either hide the mesh or clean up the rear of the object repeatedly to make sure I didn’t mask anything accidently. Would be more efficient with just a button that enables it. Regardless, cheers for the prompt reply, and thanks again.

#4

Topology based auto-masking for brush strokes and point selection marquees are different scenarios that are not interchangeable for the purpose you are after.

If you find yourself having to frequently hide one side of the mesh consider making it a separate polygroup. Then isolating the side you want to work on is as easy as a quick Shift-Ctrl click. The mesh visibility shortcuts are very important for quickly isolating geometry in ZBrush, and I strongly encourage you to commit them to muscle memory as soon as possible.

:slight_smile:

#5

Yep, so far that seems the best bet. Will set it up right now. Thanks yet again.