ZBrushCentral

Question about masking in tight areas

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello,

I’m still fairly new to Zbrush. What I want to do is mask out an eyeball so I that can drastically push and pull deformations on the eyelid area without affecting the roundness of the eyball. Or maybe, would using layers be the way to do it?
My base model is imported from other modelling software and UV mapped as if the skin were peeled off and rolled out flat like a bear skin rug, instead of AUV or GUV mapping. The eye is modelled as a separate ball with a portion of the lid interior modelled as well.
I’m continuing to search for a technique. Any tips or tricks are welcome.

Thanks,
Bill C.

#2

The easiest way is to use PolyGroups and Partial Mesh visibility to selectively mask just the eyeballs.

If you already have polygroups set up for the eyeballs then all you need to do is hold ctrl+shift and click one of the eyeballs. Now you can mask them by either ctrl+click dragging from outside the mesh or press Ctrl+A to mask all visible polygons. Hold Ctrl+Shift and click outside the mesh to view the entire mesh again.

Polygrups can be set up automatically by pressing Tool > PolyGroups > Auto Groups. This will assign PolyGroups based on extreme changes in the polygon layout of your tool. The eyeballs will most likely be seperate from the rest of your mesh and will be assigned a polygroup each.

You can also assign polygroups based on the UV layout of your mesh. By spreading your UVs over multiple tiles (0,0 to 1,1 and 1,0 to 2,1 for example) you can press Tool > PolyGroups > UV Groups to assign PolyGroups based on the tools current UV layout.

You should probably read a little about the Partial Mesh visibility function in the Zbrush help script and maybe take a look at this thread for Hiding/Showing polygroups.

#3

Excellent and extremely useful information. Just what I was searching for. Thank you very much for your reply.

Regards,
Bill C.