ZBrushCentral

New zBrush user/ Forum Memeber, please help!

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello, this is my first ever post. I have been trying to learn zBrush by viewing youtube tutorials and buy several how-to books. But, I am having a problem figuring out what i want to do…

I hope to make a 1/4 scale Predator trophy for my NECA Predator. See attached image below. I hope to make this 3D mesh, export it as an .STL and 3D print it. But, I need to create my mesh first.

So, could someone please provide advice (zBrush terminology to read up on, maybe a how-to) on how might remove portions of the Ryan Kingslien skeleton zTool provided with zBrush? How to remove or manipulate the jaw and other bones?

Please help me. At this time I am not willing to try and create a new mesh on my own and all of these tutorials and books don’t cover this topic on what I want to do. Even if someone could just tell me what the proprietary terminology is for this technique in zBrush so I can read about it on the internet or supply me a link, I’d truly appreciate it!

Thank you!

Attachments

trophy.jpg

#2

Hope this gives you what you need…


  • Load the tool
  • Open the SubTool pallet
  • Delete every subtool but the skeleton
  • Open the Polygroups sub pallet
  • Click autogroups
  • Hide every bone that you don’t want
    • [LIST]
  • Cntl-shift -click on the first one you want to remove
  • Click on it again to hide it
  • Proceed to click on each that you don’t want

  • Open the Geometry sub pallet
  • Open the Modify Topology section
  • Click delete hidden
  • You then want to group the subtools as you would want to manipulate them

    • So repeat the cntrl-shift -clicking as above to, for example, hide everything but the lower teeth and lower jaw
    • Click either cntrl-w, or in the polygroups sub pallet, click group visible

  • Once grouped as you want, an easy way to move/ pose the individual parts is to:
  • (see next post for an easier alternative, but if you do that you’ll need all the subtools to have the same number of subdivisions before you recombine them)

    • alt-shift -click on the groups as you want to manipulate them
    • cntrl-A to select all visible
    • alt-shift -click away from the model to make every poly group visible
    • cntrl-click away from the model to select the inverse
    • then use the move, rotate and scale transpose tools as needed (hot keys w, e & r)
      • [LIST]
    • if you’re unfamiliar with this, have a look on the zbrush.info page, but you can try clicking on the surface of the polygroup that you want to manipulate after pressing either w,e or r, and then adjust the pivot point of the transpose lines by moving the larger circles at the ends of the transpose lines.

    [/LIST]

    [/LIST]

    Jim

    #3

    … Or, after creating the polygroups that you want, you can also open the subtool pallet, open the split section and click Groups Split, which removes the need for masking, and you can always re-combine the subtools at a later point.

    Jim.

    #4

    Wow, THANKS A LOT, JIM!!! You are my hero!! I will let you know what I get accomplished.:+1:

    #5

    You’re welcome mate, glad I could help!

    #6

    ZBrush-ScreenGrab01.jpg

    Okay Jim, I figured it out… But, I ended up deleting portions of the tool, splitting up the pieces of the skull to remove the jaw, and then merging visible. Then saving the tool.

    I just need to figure out how to use the transpose ‘thingie’ to measure the size. so I can get the right scale. I find certain elements of this program highly confusing, since I am used to using vector based drawing programs. I wish I could either find /or wish there was measuring guidelines, and a grid.

    I truly do appreciate your help. I was ready to give up. Happy New Year to you.

    #7

    Hmmm… I don’t know about measuring size in Zbrush, especially for 3D printing purposes, but your work looks good and I’m glad I could help!

    Happy New Year to you too mate!

    Jim.