ZBrushCentral

Possible to Generate "Crease" Around Edge of Mask?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Been searching for a simple way to generate a crease (think Dam_Standard brush) around the outside edge of a mask. I have a fairly complex mask that consists of sharp corners and flowing curves that is on a rounded shape, and I’d like to create an indentation/crease around the outside edge of it. Is there a way to do this?

My thought was that there might be a way to do this by creating a polygroup of the mask and creating some sort of panel loops, but I want to keep the crease on the original geometry. I also tried just free handing it with the dam standard brush + lazy mouse settings cranked as high as they’d go. After a few hours of re-drawing the crease about 100 times I gave up. I am hoping I’m just still too green with this app and I’m missing something basic…

#2
  1. Press Tool>Visibility>Hide Pt button to hide the unmasked portion.
  2. Press Stroke>Curve Functions>Frame Mesh. This will put a curve around the visible portion.
  3. Ctrl+Shift+click the background to show the whole mesh and clear any remaining mask (Ctrl+drag background).
  4. Select the Dam_Standard brush and in the Stroke palette turn on Stroke>Curve>Curve Mode.
  5. Check that Stroke>Curve Modifiers> Intensity & Size are OFF, then click and drag a little on the curve (the cursor should be turquoise). The more you drag the deeper the crease will be.
  6. When done, click on the mesh to delete the curve.

HTH,

#3

Marcus, from I can see when dragging you also deform the curve as you are moving it around, it is not as other curve brushes where you only need to click the line. Is there any way to avoid it or am I doing anything wrong?

#4

With a little tweaking of the dam_standard brush settings, that looks like it will do the trick- thanks marcus_civis !

#5

ryanc44,

You’re welcome. :slight_smile:

Altea,

Yes, moving the curve can be a problem when dragging. I found you can get the “click” behaviour by removing the alpha from the Dam_Standard brush. It doesn’t seem to make much difference to the result in this case as the crease is actually controlled by the Brush>Modifiers>Brush Modifier slider - higher values give more crease.