ZBrushCentral

Help regarding spotlight and relief sculpting (possible feature request)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, I’ve been using zBrush for a month now and have totally fallen in love with it, :+1: outstanding work you developers by the way.

If possible I’d like to request an improvement for relief artists like myself (assuming I haven’t missed this already).

In zBrush I enjoy working on a flat plane and building relief concepts.

If I have a design made in Photoshop and import the texture to spotlight is there a way to scale the spotlight texture in conjunction with the plane being sculpted? When sculpting I enjoy zooming in and out (like most of you) to get a better understanding of my work, but the spotlight stays static and does not move unless I rescale it.

Is there a way to pin the spotlight to the scaling/zoom parameters of the 3D object so I don’t have to constantly adjust my texture? I tried projection master but it won’t transfer the texture details like spotlight does.

Appreciate any help in this matter…I’m new to zBrush:confused: so it might be something I haven’t discovered yet.

#2

I’m assuming you’ve painted your spotlight image on your plane and that isn’t giving you the result you are looking for. Am I correct?

#3

What you are asking, regarding Spotlight, is not possible at this time. However, one option you might find useful is Mask By Alpha.

If the texture you are going to use is an 8 bit or 16 bit Grayscale image, then import it via the Alpha menu.

If the texture you are going to use is an RGB image, then import it via the Texture menu and then click "Make Alpha’ button that is also in the Texture menu to make an alpha and place it in the Alpha menu.

Select the Plane3D from the Tool palette and draw it on the canvas and subdivide it to where you want.

Go to ‘Tool > Masking’ and click on ‘Mask By Alpha’ to apply the alpha to the Plane3D. Click on the Alpha icon on the left side of the interface and turn off the alpha so you are not sculpting with it.

#4

Thanks for the replies, the mask by alpha option is a good work around that I wasn’t aware of. I’ve just given it a go and it’s proving very useful:+1:…time to play around with it some more:D.