ZBrushCentral

Stencil application won't turn off

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello all. I started using alphas for masking last week and turned on the stencil mode. All of a sudden, I cannot turn the Stencil off either using the button or the Hotkey alt + H. I also cannot get the the coin controller either. It doesn’t matter if I am using an alpha I made, or a pre-loaded one. I uploaded the new Zbrush 2019.1 last night hoping this would un stick things, but it did not. Here’s a screen shot of the Stencil button. You can see the orange color is not on the Stencil on button.
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Anyone have a thought how to fix this? I am using a Mac.

#2

The Stencil isn’t on. That looks like a mask. Try pressing Tool>Masking>Clear.

#3

Continuing our discussion from PM, there’s a new piece of information here. In PM you said you couldn’t deactivate stencil, but here you say you can’t turn it on. As Marcus said, that is not an active stencil. The screen will turn slightly greyish with an active stencil–it will look different than simple masking.

A alpha has to be made into a stencil before it will work as one. Alpha > Transfer > “Make ST.”

If you are doing this, and the stencil activates successfully and but wont deactivate across entirely different program sessions, tools, and alphas, then I would look to an installation issue as I suggested in PM.

#4

AH! Think I can see where the problem is. I was trying to do this through masking, not stenciling. I’ll try this. I am a green newbie with Zbrush, so I think I was confusing masking and stenciling.
I wonder why I cannot get the mask from being projected to the back of my modeling? I use the rectangle in stroke to get the one instance of my alpha texture ,( it was created specifically for my model shape).

#5

I did start off just using a mask. so maybe I am confused between masking and stencil.
I can clear the mask. But, every time I use the mask, it still projects onto the back. Can you point me to some good documentation that explains masking and stenciling?

#6

No worries. Zbrush has very some precise terminology, and some terms have specific meanings that can’t be used interchangeably. You’re learning a lot of new stuff all at once.

A Stencil is a specific feature whereby you first convert an Alpha into a stencil (Alpha .> Transfer> make St), then use a pop up controller to position the stencil, which will have to then have to paint over with the active brush to elevate.

Masking is just a fundamental part of Zbrush workflow where you can protect, or highlight, which areas of a mesh can be affected by operations. This masking can be applied in different shapes with an Alpha.

An Alpha is a 2d greyscale image which controls both the shape and transparency of an active brush, among a lot of other useful features.

#7

Masking created by DragRect always goes through the entire mesh. It is normal practice to mask the area that you want, then unmask the back side to remove the section you don’t want.

#8

Oh wow! Now I get it! Thank you.