Hey there,
I need to do something but I have to know if ZBrush is able to do it.
I have a spiraloid pattern to be incised in a surface, like this one (white over black):
I need it to repeat radially over a cylinder, but I need it to flip every single repetition, like this:
Is there a way to do that with Array Mesh?
Thanks in advance.
Zbrush can absolutely do something like this, though Array mesh may not be the best way to do it.
With Array Mesh, it would probably be simplest to do as multiple arrays–create your first spiral mesh, mirror it to create a combined left/right facing spiral segment, then radially duplicate that combined segment, either with Array or otherwise.
However, based on your description of needing to negatively displace a pattern into a cylinder, I have to think Zbrush’s traditional alpha/brush-based modeling tools combined with radial symmetry would be a more straightforward way to go. If you wanted to get UVs into the mix, you can displace any complex pattern that you could create in an image editor by applying it texturally.
Thank you Spyndel for your suggestion.
I’d want to stick to a more procedural way of doing things because my client is pretty much “evolutioning” his designs based on what I do, so I always have to be able to touch and change things. That’s why I thought about doing it with Array mesh.
Right now, I have the Array mesh done, but the spirals are the same (obviously). The solution is pretty easy when doing a linear Array, but since it is a radial one…, I have to scratch my head a bit, lol.
Cheers.
OK, I originally had a much longer post here with some different strategies, but I figured out how to do what you want to do.
Position your Spiral element.
Create your array. It will depend on the orientation of your cylinder in the worldspace, but it will require a rotational component and a pivot component.
Once it’s looping around correctly, Append a new stage to the Array (“Append New”).
Enable one of the X, Y, Or Z mirror buttons on the new stage. In my case it was Y mirror.
From there you can enable Live boolean with the array subtool in subtraction mode, and see a preview of the cuts:
Man, that’s exactly what I need!
I guess the main issue is to have the first array with HALF the total number, and then use the second to make the symmetry pattern with the rest of the spirals.
I’ll try when have time, but thank you very much!
There’s nothing preventing you from setting up the multi stage array and then positioning it with the mirror component active, if you can make sense of that. I simply did it as a two part process because it was easier to understand what was going on.
Easier still is just to create a combined Left/right mirrored spiral segment, and create a single stage array to repeat it radially. That was my original solution before I actually figured out how to do what you asked. Complicated arrays often run afoul of my “keep it as simple as possible” philosophy, so I’m not an expert with them.
It would probably be easiest to bypass arrays entirely, and simply use radial symmetry to mask on the shape with a combined Left/right spiral alpha, then perform a mesh extract to create a radial sequence with thickness as a new subtool. That new subtool could then be positioned to cut into the cylinder with Live Boolean as above. This has the benefit of providing a normalized extrusion from the center of the cylinder, though you’d lose a degree of interactivity.
Good luck!
Thank you very much 