ZBrushCentral

Anyway brush or any way to bend meshes to the contours of another mesh?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’ve tried everything to get things looking good, but I’ve only been half successful in every attempt. I tried modelling the pieces and then attempting to use the bend and ffd modifiers in Max. It produced adequate results, but doesn’t snap to the surface like it should. Then I tried retopologizing to make the accessories and while they matched to the body like I’m wanting you can only do so much to add to the retopologized mesh once the shape is laid out. For example I extruded the faces but couldn’t really do anything else to get the round look of some of those elements. Plus it’s not accurate in terms of edge placement among other things. Then for some reason I thought maybe the Matchmaker brush would help, but that definitely didn’t work. So that leads me to my question. What do I do now? Here’s the reference of what I’m doing. If I need to post wips of what I’ve attempted I can.

Attachments

3iy9.jpg

#2

MatchMaker brush. Hit B and then M, it should be there. Didn’t see it listed here>> http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/sculpting/sculpting-brushes/

#3

There is a video tutorial here on the use of the MatchMaker brush. It’s called Matchmaker Basics.

#4

I was just using the brush wrong this whole time. :o So what does this mean when I need to make the low poly? I assume the mesh has to be dense enough for this brush to be usable. For this horse I’m baking the accessories to the body so I don’t need a low poly but if I wanted to make a low poly would I still be able to use the matchmaker brush or do I need to try the ffd and bend modifiers again?

#5

So I gave this a shot and it worked so so. As you can tell there’s a few issues.
rcth.jpg

One being the most prominent in that this brush only works in the view that you drag it out from. Since I need the harness to wrap fully around the body I’m wondering if maybe importing already bent by help? Then when I moved the harness closer towards the horse it didn’t entirely conform together. There must be something to fix these issues so any help I’d appreciate!

Attachments

horse harness.jpg

#6

Mask areas that are close to where they should be, use move or move points or maybe even transpose to get it closer.

#7

You mean masking the harness not the horse right? I just masked the ends off the harness, used the matchmaker brush for the unmasked parts. Then rotated the camera, inverted the mask and tried using the brush but the ends didn’t project to the surface like they should. Instead they projected maybe like half an inch. The harness is just a plane so not sure if that matters. You think bending it before importing and using the brush would work?

#8

Yes, I meant the harness. If you can model it elsewhere and import it, whatever works for you.

#9

Tried some different methods but just can’t seem to get the result I’m looking for. I really need this model to get moving along so do you think you might be able to give the matchmaker a shot with my model? If you have the time of course. I’d really appreciate it cause I’ve wasted enough time trying to figure things out on my own.

#10

Why not make a curve multi mesh brush?

#11

I could see that for the diamond and rectangle portion but then there’s the front part of the harness. I’ve never made an IMM but I could certainly try that. The other parts of the horse seem like they’ll be easier to use the matchmaker brush on, but this harness has proven more trouble then expected :cry:

#12

Another method could be to duplicate your horse
make it high subd
paint in a simple mask
extract it at reasonable thickness
make it a seperate subtool
then panel loop/ edgeloop the rectangle/diamond holes
either delete those hole groups
or invert insert mesh those shapes so they subtract from the strap mesh
then delete the duplicate horse
so that your harness fits exactly on your original

#13

This is what i mean
i think its in german but you can still see what he’s doing

http://youtu.be/ZThV0fVSvJc

#14

I tried that too but the mask wasn’t completely even which meant the extraction wasn’t smooth. There’s gotta be a way to use the matchmaker brush to get these ends bent. Thats the only realy issue. I ca. Fiddle woth the middle of it but the ends are the real issue. The same thing will haplen with the other accessories that wrap around the body and for any other model for that matter.

#15

If the mesh is high subdiv when you mask it will be smooth
i recommend masking with mask curve
after you extract you can always clip curve the sides (perspective off) to make it sharp and even

the other way would be to define a polygroup with a mask (mask /cntrl w)
then make edgeloops on perimeter
hide everything but center of the harness and then inflate it +

There is also a way to extrude with the transform tool

but you seem pretty set on the matchmover brush so good luck i guess

#16

I didn’t mean to sound unappreciative haha. Ive already made the model and just really need to get this thing moving along. Do you have any advice for the matchmaker brush and to get the ends bent right? This brush only wants to work if the mesh I’m matching is smaller then the mesh I’m matching it to

#17

No sorry
it too dependent on the view to work properly for most of the stuff i do
what i mean is it doesnt wrap around things very well

But honestly i think its the wrong tool for what you want to do

#18

Oh man I don’t know what to do then if its already modeled. I mean there’s more elaborate things that masking and the polygroup/panel loop wouldnt work with that would be bent like this. So that’s why I’m thinking there’s gotta be something. I have stacks in stacks of ffd modifiers bjt its too out of hand

#19

I dont understand what you mean
What are ffd modifiers

the method i described before is very simple and easy

#20

Let me try to explain again

correct me if i’m wrong
you have modeled a carousel horse in 3dsMax
you brought the horse into Zbrush

Now
you have one subtool = the horse
duplicate that horse so now you have 2 subtools= original horse + copy horse
dynamesh copy horse at high dyna res so you have at least a say 700k poly for the copy horse
hide the original horse and select the copy horse so that you are working on the dynamesh copy horse
with mask tool of your choice draw a simple solid version of the harness strap
adjust the extract sliders in extract menu to give you the thickness of mesh you want
if you mask isnt sharp enough ctrl+alt click the mask to sharpen it
extract your harness from dynameshed copy horse
accept extraction

now you have 3 subtools = original horse , copy horse, and harness
now select harness subtool
its is masked still probably
clear the mask or smooth edges or whatever
solo the harness strap
dynamesh the harness strap
grab the insert cube brush and where you want holes hold down “alt” while you draw a cube where the rectagular holes are
make sure the cube goes through both sides of the strap
using transform tool make the cube a rectangle shape
ctrl drag on the canvas twice to subtract a rectangular hole in the strap

Delete the copy horse
make visible your original horse and the harness strap will be perfectly fit to the contours of your horses neck

its really simple and fast
you could use this method to extract all the stuff hanging off the horse

i dont understand what your difficulty is and why matchmove brush is the only way you can do what you need