the background is the sketch I did that I want to make in 1.5.1 and the dinos are where I am at with the body so far…my question is why do the toes disappear into nothingness? Is there a way to skin them without them looking so pitiful or do the zifs have to be thicker when I pull the toes out? thnx
ron
lookin good, I cant wait to see this guy finished. As for the toe problem Im not an expert but if you make the zspheres bigger it should fix it, also I think that only happens under one of the 2 skinning methods. Someone else will probably reply with more info.
It is because the ending spheres are too small. When skinned there isn’t much surface area for an even distribution of polygons. This happens with unified skins. The cure is to increase the size of the spheres. You may have to experiment with a few skins and tweak the spheres until you get the results you are after. This is something to keep in mind when creating a Zsphere tool that will be skinned using the unified method. The adaptive method will not suffer from this but it will have other problems with the ZSphere set up that you have created with this dragon. When you get comfortable creating ZSphere tools you should keep in mind when creating them whether you are going to skin them using the Unified or Adaptive process. The choice you make will affect how you create the tool.
Also when you do the toes turn the rez up to max and the (goes to look for name. Great memory just really short) The skin smoothness right down to 1 that makes all the difference in the world with unified skin.
I found it easier to make seperate feet, because trying to get enlarged fingers or toes to proportional size once skinned I haven’t found easy. If you use inflate on the minus side you can shrink them, but then there is an awful ridge where the masking ends, that doesn’t easily smooth. Perhaps someone has a better method for down-sizing enlarged sections after skinning.
Coming on well though Ron.
Dave
thanks for the info everyone , I had the same problem , hand and feet are kind hard to create.
ps : Ron , I’ve been on that irc server a couple of times recently and I never see anyone in the zbrush channel ?
Nice first excursion into ZSpheres Ron…
I think you should consider the fact that although unified skins give you an automatic smoothness, you really ought to consider taking the time to study the relationship of the ZSphere tool to an Adaptive skinning method in low rez…Trust me, you will learn a lot better control over the final mesh you use. Although unified covers your mistakes with the ZSpheres, proper use of adaptive will eliminate those mistakes at the start, and give you an organised, and under control mesh…
Stonecutter,
I have seen so many of you claim to use adaptive skinning over unified. For the life of me, I still cannot get anything decent with the adaptive skins. If this is the way to get a better skin…I would really appreciate, as I am sure others would…a small tutorial script about how to make use of this elusive, and hard to get a grip on tool in Z.
Thanks
Loqutos
I don’t know whether it will help L, but if you look at the character in my ‘Trayn Of Thot’ wip, you’ll see that not only isn’t it a unified skin, but ALL detail in it comes from the careful organisation of the ZSpheres, using constant previewing to make sure the ZSphere position doesn’t cause the ‘creasing’ which I think leads to people taking the unified skin approach…I did NO additional modelling on that figure, except moving the odd point on the bridge of the nose for instance…If you watch the progression of the thread, you’ll notice the character skins change as I go…Well, I saved ONLY the ZSphere tools, and no skins…I have each of those tools saved, and only the last skin, since I can reload the ZSphere tools, produce a skin only when I need to, at low density, (2 is my choice), and then work directly on the mesh…
I don’t have a script but I’ll see what I can do…
My approach was to study what I could do directly in the ZSphere tool…I think people are in too big a hurry to get a mesh, and therefore they miss out on the real power of the new version, and I expect my future characters will be built a lot faster because I spent the time I did, patiently moving a single ZSphere, previewing, and then moving it again…Although it took a while, now I feel much more comfortable, and by not doing a unified skin, I keep the sharp edges, and details…
But, that’s just me… 
I agree with Miguel. There is some real potential for using the adaptive method, but it takes some practice. Check out Mentat’s thread “Wrong Way Nelson.” You can see some good examples (aside from SC Trayn of Thot) of how adapative skinning can be used. I, too, will attempt to do a script for those of you with trepidation. I will try to post it by this evening.
I am so upset, I could start bawling right now. I just spent the last couple of hours demonstrating the adaptive skinning/modeling technique, only to realize at the end that I did not have “Record” on! I am so sorry, but here is the pic anyway. I will start over and do something else. Maybe a monster, they are very popular. Anyway, I did try!
Awwe Slosh. I know the feeling. I don’t often make scripts but I decided I want to, and I did the same thing ~G~ But I get cranky when it happens. Dog and cat run and hide.
Figures look good though. Adaptive skin is hard… just doesn’t look “nice” when I use it anyway.
Sorry to hear that Slosh, but I have to ask…Since the default state is ‘Autorecord’ on, whyever would you have turned it off in the first place? You only save a script if you select ‘End Record’ anyway? :qu:
Under 'Preferences->ZScript, Autorecord is by default on…
The reason I don’t have autorecord on is because I noticed that a script recorded on opening ZBrush always seems to ***** up for me. But when I manually start “record” it works fine. I believe others may have had this problem too. I have even had auto on, then pressed stop, then started a new recording, but it doesn’t always work. By doing it manually, I know for a fact it will work. Ah well, stuff happens! 
thnx for the tips and advice…I was working on some feet for the beastie earlier but didnt like them…so they are still footless…but I did start learning about wings…so now we have them flying…the fire is a green neon picture tube from psp…( if anyone knows other neon colors that work the same way please let me know…I want red, blue, and yellow if at all possible) …i really dont know diddly about dragons, though i have drawn a few, most of my ideas come from you guys and your wonderful images on zbc…but here is my little dragon flight trial…i will have feet on them before daybreak hopefully thnx again
