Hi there ZBC!
Still lovin’ me some ZBrush, but I see a ‘hole’ as it were in the program that I think is low-hanging fruit for a killer new feature; the TUNNELING BRUSH!
Here’s the need I see, trouble with existing-methods and the concept in-detail:
The current-methods of making holes are not very good, and are incongruously-difficult compared to the awesome power of Dynamesh and ZBrush modeling in general.
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Insert primitives are awkward, and put you into translation/rotation/scale mode which isn’t very fluid, exciting, etc. It would be easier to simply use a brush which can ‘tunnel’ through a mesh in exactly the same way you would sculpt normally, with scale/intensity features per normal.
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Extraction is non-ideal, because of the nature of extraction. This method is already there and may be useful for some things, but a brush that one can switch-to for tunneling whilst sculpting would be better!
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Shadowbox works, but it’s not something everyone likes to use just because of how it works. It’s an option, but not intuitive like a brush.
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Trim or sculpting is ok, but doesn’t punch through the mesh…even in thin spots.
TUNNELING BRUSH CONCEPT!
Ok, so here’s how I envision the tunneling brush working.
Basically, you would set size and intensity as usual, except a tunneling brush eats away at the mesh as you go. It’s not just flattening it, but carving away at it as you sculpt. So, if you went far enough into a Dynamesh sphere, the tunneling brush would eat through the other side, like a boring machine. Making shallow depressions is quite easy right now, but a hole all the way through the mesh is just more-difficult than it seems like it should be.
So, let’s say someone is carving a figure out of a single Dynamesh primitive. Start making your figure, and you find that you need a hole where the arm comes away from the body. The insert primitive is ok, but it’s a little fiddly. Imagine a tunneling brush where you could just start carving a hole right where you need it, and in a way that’s intuitive and satisfying. Bam. Now you have a bonafide hole. Swipe your stylus twice times to re-project (Dynamesh) and you’re right back to sculpting.
The INVERSE of the tunneling brush would be a positive tunnel or ‘tube’, which would be a great way to create limbs, fingers, tree branches, etc. This would be like clay-buildup, but always using the last built geo to stack new geo on top (making tubes, basically, in a more intuitive way).
It’s good to have a few ways to do things, especially since people work in different ways. I never use the shadowbox, because I just don’t like working like that (though I am sure it has its uses and that some people swear by it). I prefer not to use the insert meshes if I can help it, and I find that they sometimes don’t work. It’s not ‘immediate’ enough feedback for me, and not as satisfying as sculpting. Also, if you don’t need a very precise hole (Dynamesh), then a quick and dirty ‘tunneling brush’ hole would be better than a fiddly negative insert primitive.
Waddya think?
Thanks for listening!
Dan Burke
