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drawing zspheres on top of meshes is very hit or miss...

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

so i’m using the technique where you append a zsphere into a mesh object so that i can use the mesh object as a reference “snap object”. for clarity, i am NOT trying to retopo here.

so i can usually draw out the zsphere structure i want to but it is very frustrating:

  • the last selected zsphere keeps becoming de-selected as i navigate the view around so that i have to re-select it in order to continue the zsphere chain i was drawing and it’s nigh impossible to select without accidentally moving/scaling/rotating/drawing.

  • sometimes, a zsphere will draw and continue the chain i’m drawing when i click on the mesh but sometimes, it will not and deselect and simply start rotating. and i don’t understand when it’s supposed to happen and when it’s not. for me, it seems like it’s completely blind luck with no rhyme or reason. is this correct? is there some kind of indication for when i will draw a zsphere snapped to the mesh and when i will not?

because it is so unpredictable, it ends up being pretty frustrating.

if anyone has any good tips or some illumination on what is going on, i would very much appreciate it.

thanks.

jin

#2

It is true that sometimes when you navigate that the last ZSphere will deselect. If that happens, just hold down Ctrl and click on the last ZSphere to reselect it, then continue drawing your ZSpheres on the surface of the mesh.

#3

ooooooh. now that’s a nice tip!

in draw mode with ctrl held down, a click on a zsphere does absolutely nothing except select! very very nice!

thank you!

jin

#4

HI. I was wondering if this is what your talking about when apending zspheres to a mesh? & I was wondering if you could let me know how u do this. In the video, you can’t see what he’s doing a hole lot cause the video is so blurry. So if some1 could help & let me know how to do this. It would be great. The video I’m talking about is in this post. Thx.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G6Aq4us8zQ

#5

hey,

actually, that’s a little different. but to do something like that chain, follow the instructions here: http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Mannequins#Making_your_own_Mannequin

basically, it’s all about the “insert local mesh” button in the adaptive skin section for tools.

and in that vid, the guy is not drawing on the human mesh so much as just using it as reference.

this http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/ZSpheres_and_SubTools is more akin to what i’m talking about.

good luck.

jin

#6

so while they should fix traditional zspheres so they draw reliably on subtool meshes, i guess if you really need to speedily do zspheres on a reference mesh now, you can switch to zsphere sketching… those paint onto visible subtools EXACTLY as they should.

jin

#7

Oh ok! Thx for the link. Helped alot. & I’m trying to get use to paint using spotlight. & As far as the body of the model & skin,
I’ve got down pretty well. Just the armor keeps comig out to cartoon like. But thanks for the link.