IMM proportions on a Curve

[bozoboy]

On the live stream, I asked @pixopaul about constraining the proportions of an IMM when it’s applied to a curve that has a size change. He said that constraining the proportions was the default. I don’t know what I am doing wrong.

I made an insert mesh brush and I made it a curve (Stroke > Curve > Curve Mode).
I selected tri-poly, weld points, and stretching (Brush > Modifiers).
I created two different polygrouops on my target mesh.
I applied the curve to poly groups. (Stroke > Curve Funtions > Frame Mash > Polygroups)
I changed the size of the IMM as is apples to the curve using the Stroke > Curve Modifiers > Curve Falloff.

In this example the Insert Mesh get distorted as the falloff gets smaller. I would like the circle to stay circular.

[PixoPaul]

Hello

When using the Size option for the curve you will not be able to maintain the sphere shape along the curve. I misunderstood what you were asking specifically.

Depending on exactly what you are doing, Array Mesh can do items like this but you won’t have the control you do with a curve.

Is there specifically something you’re trying to create. I may be able to give you a specific workflow.

[bozoboy]

Thanks Paul!

I am trying to make stylized ridges like you would see on the belly of a snake. It’s a complicated shape with a large change in size.

[tobor8man]

FWIW - I’ve been working on a snake recently. My snake has about 10000 scales and judging by your image is about 5 times as long as your model. Anyway here’s what I’ve tried. Might be useful for you.

Nanomesh

• Define a pose curve with a band of adjacent polygroups.
• Create a body profile shape with generally a single polygroup but with a separate polygroup for where you want the belly (or other scales) and turn into a curve brush. Use a different polygroup for the dorsal (upper body) scales and the ventral (belly) scales.
• Extrude the profile along the curve (adjust the size in Stroke:Curve Modifiers)
• Create dorsal and ventral scales and apply as a nanomesh to the target polygroup which will have repeated nicely along the curve. Tweak the nanomesh settings. Add some randomness to orientation etc.

Micropoly

• Create a left and right side belly scale so they join along the centerline.
• Apply each to the entire snake and delete the strips (head to tail) that are not required. This is needed because if applied to the split polygon strips separately the verts at the edge of the neighbouring strip won’t match because the normal of a vert on a single poly is not necessarily the same as the normal of a vert shared by several polys (unless its perfectly flat).
• Turn all micropoly to real geo and weld points.
• Nice thing about micropoly is you can add up to 8 variations per micropoly so you get randomness in your mesh virtually for free.

Body profile with scales as a curve brush

• Make your body profile and sculpt the dorsal and ventral scales on it as required.
• Needs a bit of effort to ensure the profile matches up when extruded. (Gizmo copy up/down, weld and smooth the joins to check).
• Apply the profile to your pose curve.
• If you’re inclined you can make a multi IMM body profile brush with variations of the scales but take care to keep the edges unchanged. In Brush:Modifiers:Multi Mesh Select you can adjust settings to, for example, randomly apply up to 25 variations along the curve.

I tried these in the order shown.

Nanomesh was nice because I could define a pattern so that the dorsal scales overlapped in a diagonal fashion. Ultimately gave up on nanomesh because I couldn’t figure out how to control the ventral (belly) scales to wrap more around the body.

Also spent a lot of time with the new micropoly. Pretty easy to do and liked the variablilty. Only down side is that it applies to all polys in the object. It does not respect masking or polygrouping. (Would be cool to respect polygrouping). So no problem to create strips of scales but when I tried to weld the mesh got screwed up ( Zbrush lowest weld tolerance was too large so points got welded that weren’t just on the adjoining edgeloop. Had to weld in Blender but then I lost my creasing. Have reported to ZBrush support).

Ultimately I went with the extruded body profile with scales. Worked perfectly. Only wish it had some random seed control so I could change the random outcome.

Sorry for the wall of text. Hope this makes sense. Maybe it’s useful.

[bozoboy]

Wow Tobor8man! Thanks!

That’s a lot of info and it will take me a bit to work through it. I haven’t used Nanomesh or Micropoly that much.