ZBrushCentral

How to use the Stroke Modifiers?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m trying to experiment with some custom Alphas to see how they affect the brush strokes. I’d assumed that the settings for brush spacing in Zbrush were perhaps similar to Photoshop, were you would be able to alter the smoothness of a stroke by narrowing the spacing. I thought that I would be able to alter how a circular Alpha was applied to the surface by narrowing and widening the spacing to get either a series of dots or alternatively a smooth line .
However, after loading quite a few brushes and trying out all the different stroke types I still find that most of the options for the Stroke Modifier are greyed out apart from; Replay Last, Roll, and Roll Distance – I’ve included a screen shot of the palette in question and how the rest of the options remain greyed out.
I’ve checked on ZBrushCentral to see if anyone else had raised this issue and found a similar thread by eslautin titled “Can’t Access Spacing Options in Brush Modifiers”. Doug Jones replied to this thread and mentioned that the spacing options were context sensitive so they will remain greyed out until you select the correct brush. Whilst I understand this, I haven’t yet been able to find a brush that allows you to alter the spacing modifier settings in the Stroke Palette?
So which brushes do these settings relate to and under what context?

Attachments

StrokePalette.jpg

#2

Lots to read and experiment with.
http://docs.pixologic.com/reference-guide/alpha/
http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/sculpting/sculpting-brushes/

#3

Hi Doug, when I referenced your reply to eslautin I didn’t expect to actually here from you, so thank you to getting back to me! The links that you’ve provided are really useful, however I’m still uncertain about how I can get access to the settings for the modifiers in the Stroke Palette. Though I’m sure that you already know this, the settings that I’m referring to are in the Stroke Palette under Modifiers and are as follows; Directional, Spacing, Placement, Scale, Color, Flow, M. Repeat, S.Repeat, Square, and Centre. The only options that are ever active, which I experimented with quite a bit are; Replay Last, Roll, and Roll Distance. All the other options always appear to be greyed out and I’m unable to interactively alter them. Am I missing something? For example, should I be able to change the settings for the stroke spacing of the standard brush when sculpting on a subdivided mesh in Edit Mode? I understand that the settings for some brushes can be dependent upon another feature being active, such as with the Curve Mode. Should I simply be able to select a brush and alter the Modifier settings in the Stroke Palette?

#4

Notice that some options apply to some brushes, not others, this is important.
http://docs.pixologic.com/reference-guide/stroke/modifiers/

#5

Thanks for the link about the stroke modifiers and for the heads up about the upload limit for images. I’ve had a look at the info on the link and I’ve been able to start to understand some of the settings and how you can access them. I now realise that the Placement, Scale, Color, and Flow settings become active when you use a Spray Stroke for sculpting or polypainting. I’ve also discovered that the Centre and Square modifier options become available for brushes like the Clip Circle. So I’ve now been able to have a play with some of these modifiers.
The M Repeat and S Repeat settings remain a mystery to me as I don’t know what a Grid or Radial Stroke is? However, I’m not too concerned about them as I’m just trying to understand the basics for the moment.
I’d like to be able to try the Spacing settings, but I’ve not yet managed to discover a brush that will not leave them permanently greyed out. This is confusing as the settings appear to visually change to greyed out presets when you select either the Dots or Freehand stroke with for example a ClayBuildup brush, which suggests that they could be altered? I’ve included a fuzzy screenshot (resampled to keep under the 500k limit) so you can see what I see when applying strokes. Is this correct, should the spacing settings not be available in this context?
Anyway, thanks again for the information that you’ve provided so far. If you could let me know a context where I could use the Spacing settings it would be greatly appreciated.

Attachments

StrokeExampleSmall.jpg

#6

http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/sculpting/sculpting-brushes/strokes/

#7

The 2.5D brushes use radial and grid strokes, in case you haven’t found that bit yet.

#8

EDIT: LAZY STEP with LAZY MOUSE turned on achieves the desired alpha stamp spacing for me.

Howdy PAPER SPHERE

< Did you ever get the stroke modifier spacing settings to work? > I have the same issue. I was sent to the forums by support. This post reflected my problem so I didn’t start a new one, yet I’ve seen no answer so far in this thread.

Recreate in Zbrush // New file: Sphere to polymesh3d: Polymesh sphere drawn: Edit mode enabled: standard brush selected: stroke panel: modifiers: everything is grayed out: I can sculpt with this tool in dots/freehand/etc. I can add alphas to the brush. But never once is the ‘spacing’ accessible.

thx in advance. —h