WIP Monser Head: How to apply multiple materials?

[AdventDestiny]

I figured it was about time I started posting my work, have been experimenting with ZBrush for about a month now, though so far I haven’t done any serious modeling work, which I plan to change here. I’ve started work on a disembodied monster head, but I’ve hit a snag which may or may not be ridiculously embarrassing…

For the life of me I have no idea how to place teeth and eyes into it. I’ve looked online and through the documentation, but I can’t find anything about creating a separate sub-tool, then duplicating it and moving the copies in parallel to create the eyes. I have to assume that the reason I can’t find anything about the eyes is because its a simple procedure, and that I’m somehow missing a feature that’s probably right under my nose!

If anyone can tell me where I’m going wrong, it would be greatly appreciated!

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[dopepope]

Hey there. I was where you are once, so maybe I can help out. You must APPEND a sphere for the eyes. You then APPEND another sphere, or cone, for a tooth, then duplicate that tooth once you shape it into the tooth shape you’re happy with. Appending a new tool will make it a new SUBTOOL and will be separate from the head shape, making it easier to manage. the APPEND button is in the SUBTOOL menu, and once you press it, you’ll get a tool menu pop up. For the eye, pick a sphere and it will appear in the subtool menu under the head shape you have. click on that new sphere tool in the menu, and scale it to the size you need and movie it into place with the SCALE ROTATE and MOVE tools. once you have the eye in one socket looking good, hit DUPLICATE, then MIRROR. DUPLICATE is in SUBTOOL menu. MIRROR is in DEFORMATION menu. then you’ll have that duplicated sphere appear on the other side in the other socket. (assuming you sculpted that head with symmetry on).
The teeth will be lot harder. Try the eye out first.

[AdventDestiny]

It took a little while, but I managed to follow your advice and finally got the eyeballs right, thanks for the help! Now on to the teeth, most of them I plan to be asymmetrical, so it should be a piece of cake to insert them now!

[dopepope]

Hey, there you go. Now just do that for the teeth. Here’s a trick with the teeth. append a cone shape from the tool menu. Once it’s in, rotate it, scale it, and sculpt it into a more tooth like shape, then position it where you want it. Then, use the MOVE tool and hold down SHIFT and CONTROL (on a Mac anyway) and move the tooth. It will suddenly pull a new tooth out of the original, and keep the original tooth masked until you unmask it. you can do this as many times as you want to make all the teeth. Keep in mind, it’s technically still all one subtool. It’s a great technique. It’s much faster than appending multiple cones, or duplicating each tooth and dealing with multiple subtools.

[AdventDestiny]

I took your advice, and yet again it worked wonders! It was a bit of a chore to get the teeth the way I wanted them to be, but I think they look great! I merged all of them to form a top row and bottom row of teeth, so that once I’m ready to texture them I can do it all at once. I also did the same with the eyes.

I think for the next phase will be alphas, once I decide what kind of skin I want on it, then I’ll texture it. To do that, I’ll make a separate copy for color experimentation, leaving the original to eventually expand with an entire body.

[dopepope]

Excellent. I’m glad it’s coming together for you. Looking very cool. It’s complicated stuff, so I’m glad you got the hang of it. And with practice, it’ll get easier and easier every time. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[AdventDestiny]

Yes, me too. Thanks for your help!

[AdventDestiny]

I have a new question, in regards to materials; how do I change the materials for the subtools? I have the Fish Skin material for the head, but I want to use different materials for the two sets of teeth and the eyes.

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