ZSphere and Transpose Tool problems

[system]

I formed this snake body using ZSpheres starting from the neck down to the tail. I then added to the first ZSphere to start the head with 3 more ZSpheres going in the opposite direction of the bone hierarchy (Not sure if you should add to the initial ZSPhere or about how specific the first ZSPhere is in relation to the other ZSPheres.) I am having several issues up to this point.

The first is the twisting of the topology when I preview the Adaptive Skin. I made every effort to not rotate the ZSpheres but there is some twisting especially towards the neck. For some reason I cannot rotate the individual Zsphere like I have done in the past, without rotating the rest down the hierarchy. I have tried to rotate it starting from the top and the smallest rotations twist the geometry even further. I can probably mask the good parts and try to twist it out after its converted to Adaptive Skin but I foresee problems down the road and now seems to be the time to fix it.

The second problem is just trying to align the Tool with the floor and rotate it close to true XYZ vectors so I can snap to view along the XYZ axes with shift RMB etc. The Transpose Tool (I still hate this thing) just seems to rip the geometry apart and will not rotate the whole Tool for some reason, please refer to the uploaded pic.

The final problem I am having is when trying to add more ZSPheres to the head with symmetry enabled. I understand that it may have something to do with it’s alignment in the XYZ but it should still add them connected to the surface of the ZSPhere intended. ZBrush is attempting to add one of them in some arbitrary location and not on the ZSphere itself like it should. Please refer to the pic again.

Please help!! I find myself continuously having to halt my progress due to the unfriendly modeling process of ZBrush and the many errors that occur. ZSpheres are very quick and I would prefer to use them in ZBrush but I have my doubt whether I should just model everything in 3DSMax and import even if it is more time consuming.

Attachments

[system]

Here is a pic that shows the twisting a little better

Attachments

[Doug_Jones]

Tried a snake here not too long ago. Root ZSphere should probably be the skull. Symmetry depends on global coordinates to build this and retain your hair unless you are bald. But may not work out the best when trying to pose your adaptive skin later with this if used in the rigging panel. Armature selected>rigging panel>select mesh and then bind mesh once certain the armature is hidden inside of it.
Very fun project to attempt.

[Thor]

For the twisting/smoothing problem be sure to experiment with the different zsphere sketch brush types. The different smoothing brushes can help line things up for you.

… and for general zsphere sketching, I think you’ll get best results with a brush size of 1.

If your brush size is larger than a sphere, you’ll rotate more than one sphere.

[system]

Thank you for the feedback, lowering the draw size to 1 helped untwist my topology a little better. I think I am just going to do the head separately and will merge the subtools. I have done some rigging with ZSphere armature but I am not worried about that at this point. I am however not seeing how to use the other ZSphere brushes. I have tried in quick sketch mode as well and all I can do to the ZSpheres is manipulate them in the same manner as free form sketching. Even if I change the stroke type it still draws them in DragRect. It doesn’t seem to have any effect on the Zspheres or Adaptive Skin and I can’t even figure out how to exit Quick Sketch mode or why I would use it for ZSpheres or if I am in sketch mode already when Draw is enabled? Either way, everything I do to the ZSpheres is just normal sketching and all I can do is drag out a ZSphere to append and move/rotate/scale. I am missing something here and don’t know what’s up. I have spent many hours with this and have not made any progress and am just frustrated. The transpose tool just tears my geometry apart so I cannot manipulate this tool how I would like to. I am pretty good at manipulating the the topology and sculpting in Zbrush but when it comes to manipulating the actual form of the geometry and using ZSpheres this program eludes me and I hate it. I don’t understand why it can’t function more like 3DSMax or any of the others that seem to have more of a standard way of doing things. Any way you could provide me with examples of how the other ZSphere brushes work and how to actually make them work?

[Doug_Jones]

http://docs.pixologic.com/reference-guide/tool/zsphere/zsketch/

[system]

Thanks for the link, I had forgotten about ZSketch mode and am trying to learn all I can about it and how it functions.