I’m trying to simply set up a scene with two mannequins. I’ve duplicated one for posing. I want to rotate it to face the original but when I use rotate under Deformations it rotates around the original pivot point. Can someone point me to a succinct and clear explanation how to remedy this situation? I know that Set Pivot is supposed to be used…somehow, but I still can’t successfully accomplish this seemingly simple task. Thank you.
Mannequins are a bit tricky because they’re live Zsphere objects, which have their own rules and limitations about movement and rotation.
To achieve what you want in your description is fairly easy:
Rotate your duplicate mannequin subtool in the Deformation menu with the proper axis selected (probably y) until it’s facing the direction you want. Then use the Offest slider to move it away from the original. If you want more interactive control over movement, in Move mode, switch off the “dynamic” function in the Draw Size slider, drag the Focal Shift slider to -100 so you have one large red circle cursor, zoom out until the cursor envelops the entire mannequin, and drag it around by the root zsphere.
However, once you move it from its center axis, it’s always going to rotate around the center of the original subtool, which will make for some fussy repositioning. If you convert your mannequins to adaptive skins, they can be more easily positioned and rotated with the transpose controls, however they will also no longer be active, easily pose-able zsphere armatures. You can use the transpose controls on the mannequin in adaptive preview mode (A), but then there will be a disconnect between the preview, and the raw zsphere mode which will revert back once you exit the preview.
The Transform>Set Pivot, and Transform> Clear Pivot functions works differently on the zsphere armatures, than they would on a normal mesh with partial visibility. If you select “Set Pivot” on an off center Zspshere mannequin, it will temporarily be reset in position to the tool’s center, and you can then rotate it on the tool’s center axis. When you hit “clear pivot” it will return to the original position, with its new facing.
Sorry. That’s about as succinct as it gets with Zspheres. If someone else knows a better way to work with multiple mannequin subtools, it would be instructional for me as well. But your post had gone quite a while without any response.
Look into this. http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/modeling-basics/creating-meshes/zspheres/basic-humanoid/
Then work on using the original armature as a skeleton to pose your mesh with. See rigging. Keep model density low for posing. Many options for tool mangling as well as different workflows.
Spyndel,
Yeah, I resigned myself to rotating the mannequin at point 0 and then moving it, that seemed to be the only way I could do what I wanted. Thanks!
Doug Jones,
Thanks for that! That looks really helpful. I’m still a total noob at Zbrush, as most of the work I do is 2D illustration, I was hoping to use the mannequins to do some quick and dirty multiple character composition without doing anything more than posing, but this info look handy.
This might sound like noob whining, but I wish the mannequins were more user friendly for what I intended. I can’t imagine that I’m the only person that would like to use them to do simple layouts.