ZBrushCentral

Positioning Objects Question

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hi All,

I’m new to ZBrush and have been running Zscripts, reading the manual, and visiting this forum. I must say this forum has provided a lot of insight into the workings of this great program, and I appreciate everyone’s willingness to help out newbies like myself.
OK, I think I have the multimarker tool down, and moving/ positioning objects with the Gyro. My problem comes when trying to position individual objects created from a multimarker. There is no Gyro control in this case, and without a perspective view of the entire scene rather than the selected object, I can’t figure out how to align objects to each other. For example, if I have three ring objects at different positions on the canvas, I can’t get them to align to each other. It seems one is always in front or behind the other and I can’t seem to bring them into the same plane. I hope this makes sense, and would appreciate any help you can provide.

Thanks,
Spectre

#2

I have the same problem too. Unfortunately, I don’t have any answer for you. Hopefully, ther’ll be some improvements with the multimarker regarding positioning in the next release.

#3

This is by no means easy to do, but what I do is turn the collection of objects to an orientation that will let you align them, then press “Reposition MArkers” in the Modifiers sub-palette. Now move them (and reinsert the markers) on the canvas. To get things aligned you will probable need to look at the numerical position values (Transform :small_orange_diamond:Info). Good luck! :slight_smile:

#4

The technique that I have found works best is to work at right angles. Here’s how:

  1. Draw your individual pieces from a perfectly front-on angle. Get them positioned as closely as you can from the front, bearing in mind that two markers can’t occupy the same space. Make sure that each piece is rotated correctly from this angle.

  2. Draw the multiple marker and bring up the rotate gyro. (You can’t rotate individual object, but you can rotate the entire kit and kaboodle.) In the Transform>Info menu you will see sliders for X, Y and Z rotation. Set X to 0, Y to 90 and Z to 0.

  3. Enter Trasnform>Edit mode. You’ll now be looking at the multiple markered object from the side, perpendicular to the view that you drew things at. Since you had the rotation of each piece correct in Step 1, you will now only have to worry about position. Working at a 90 degree angle will help keep your repositioning easy.

  4. When you have the pieces aligned from the side, go back to the rotate gyro and change the X axis to -90, the Y to 0 and the Z to 0. Now you’ll be viewing the group from the top.

  5. Back in Edit Mode, move the pieces into position from this angle. You probably won’t have much tweaking to do at this point.

  6. Change rotations as necessary to fine tune the positioning further. By keeping your rotations at precise values, constrained to only one axis, you will have total control over the process.

  7. When everything is ready, make the polymesh!

The biggest mistake that people make with the multiple marker is that they rotate the group freehand. As a result, it becomes very tricky to get the pieces lined up with precision, and you can spend hours on a complex object. It gets to where it feels like every adjustment you make throws something else out of alignment. This technique will help you overcome that.

#5

Thanks Aurick ! Although it seems like a lot of manipulation it does make sense. I’ll give it a try. I always wondered what those XYZ controls did :slight_smile:
Even though Zbrush is not a totally 3D application such as Truespace or 3DS Max, for the 3D portion of it, it sure would be nice if there was a rotating camera control for perspective views.

Spectre

#6

Here’s a quick script that I worked up to show you just how simple the technique is. Easy Multiple Marker Positioning

#7

Hey Aurick, thanks for the Script, and you KNOW I’ll be checking it out…I’d love to be able to use the ole’ MM, and only the positioning hassles have prevented me from doing so… :+1: :+1: :+1: :sunglasses:

AN EDIT :Well, Matthew, I checked it out, and it’s exactly as you represent…!
A little foresight, and more precise manipulation were the missing elements in my previous procedure, and this will definitely encourage me to use this powerful tool…Thanx a million! :+1: :+1: :+1:

#8

here’s mine :small_orange_diamond:MultiMarker.txt hope this help has a few step by step pointers

#9

Thanks Aurick and EZ for the scripts. They sure put things in perspective… Get it? Perspective ? Sorry, just had to do it :slight_smile:

Spectre

#10

Thanks for the pointers, Aurick. The MultiMarker tool is starting to make sense to me. A few more questions if I may:

  1. When is it necessary to use the Tool, Modifiers, Reposition button when adjusting parts of a MultiMarker assembly? I notice you didn’t use this button when moving the rings in your script.

  2. When moving elements of a MM assembly, it sometimes feels that the screen-Y coordinate system in inverted. In other words, I must move the mouse forward to move the element down on the screen.

  3. I didn’t see the known bug in your script where the first marked element of a MM disappears when editing. Is this because you never freely rotated the view?

  4. When I attempt to assemble a character using Polymeshes I have already created, it seems that they never rotated the way I expect. The preview image in the Tools menu always shows them rotated, not head-on, as they were when I saved them. Is there a way to reset or zero-out my meshes rotations?

Thanks!

#11

Also …

  1. Why when I am in Edit,Draw mode, do the sidebar Move and Scale buttons rotate the view instead of Moving or Scaling the MM assembly? I came across this problem when one of my objects was so far “behind” another that it didn’t show up on the screen when viewed from the side, so I attempted to scale the MM assembly using the sidebar button so that all of the elements would show up. I have since found that exiting Edit mode and using the top Scale button works for scaling the entire assembly together, but I am still curious about the behavior of those sidebar buttons.

  2. I also am having difficulty reliably rotating individual MM elements in Edit mode. It seems that I can only rotate them in one operation, if I click and drag to rotate, then click and drag again, the element is reset to its original rotation. The only way I can see to use multiple rotation operations is to exit Edit mode after each one and use the Reposition button.

  3. Still getting unreliable results moving elements, I think what I need is the equivalent of the Reset XForm function in 3DS Max, which takes an objects transforms, bakes them, and sets all values to zero.

Thanks.

#12

Hi DB,

This is such an old thread that Aurick’s tips are for version 1.55b (I think, maybe earlier).

The disappearing first MM element is a “new” bug introduced in ZBrush version 2.

However, all the advice Aurick gives on the process is applicable.

Two weeks ago jkushwara posted a similar question concerning MultiMarker procedures in this thread. Read through it to see if the Moldy2 script might not be of help to you when using MM.

Sven

#13

Thanks, Sven. Moldy2 does look pretty useful. The buttons to swap views are very handy when working with MM. I still don’t get the rotation process, though. Constraining rotations to a particular axis doesn’t seem to work for me.

#14

Hi DB,

Rotation of MM objects is also a problem for me. It would be nice if there were some kind of axis contraint but I’ve never been able to figure it out.

Sven