ZBrushCentral

Is there a way to sculpt on hidden geometry

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Quick explanation. When I sculpt human faces I sculpt with the symmetry turned on. I will only observe the sculpts right side while working on it. I usually name this object “rightside”. When it’s close to my liking, I will clone this object and append the clone as a subtool named “leftside”.
Now I will rework the left side of the “leftside” sculpt with the symmetry still turned on.
What I would like to do is-
Hide the left side of the “rightside” object.
Hide the right side of the “leftside” object.

This way they would be lined up against one another and I could observe the “leftside” real time sculpt work in contrast to the original “rightside” sculpt.
Problem is when you hide the geometry it is not affected by the sculpting brushes. This can cause a few unwanted issues with the topology flow of the model. I know about Smart Resym. It doesn’t pick up the shape work very well, it washes it out a little bit.

I understand the “hide geometry” purpose is to keep that hidden geometry from being affect by the brushes, but it would be nice if there was a filter that allowed you to hide the geo, while still allowing that hidden geometry to respond to the brush work- so long as that brush work affects visible polys that are relative to the ones that are hidden.

So does such a feature exist?

#2

in a nut shell. no.

idea though…try a perfectly transparent material…not sure if they work in preview mode though…eh

#3

That doesn’t sound right at all, are you masking the good half? i use smart resym all the time, and have never seen what you’re describing here.

#4

spaceboy, i see what he is talking about on a regular basis…maybe 30% of the time I get wonkey results at the sym line, or sometimes farther out.

#5

Well I guess this is another feature request to toss into the Wish List. I can see a much wider application of uses for it than my simple needs/wants.

Here is a pretty clear example of the wash out effect caused by Smart Resym. If Smart Resym worked perfectly, that would also solve my problems in regard to my way of tackling head sculpts.
thewash.jpg

#6

As i said it didn’t sound right, i don’t know why you two are getting different results, i never have this problem. although i always sculpt with symmetry on, and if by chance the center line gets asymetrical its a easy fix with masking and transpose, perhaps you are doing something different than i am, i don’t know, please don’t take any of this as a attack or something i just have never had it happen to me. [ATT=]002091.jpg[/ATT]

Attachments

002091.jpg

#7

If you don’t mask the good side of your sculpt ZBrush has no way of telling which bits are important and will average the points on both sides during the resym operation. Masking the good points will mean that the calculations are all on the unmasked side and you will get the result you want/expect.

There’s no way of automating this, other than forcing the artist to (for example) only work on the left side before a resym with ZBrush then always calculating the right side.

#8

Ok now I understand. As Marcus said I was not masking over the side with sculpt work before using Smart Resym. So Smart Resym was averaging out the result based on both sides, both the clean side and the side with the text. Masking the side with the text “Wash Out” made Smart Resym work perfectly for the example test I did. I hope it will be just as good with faces. I haven’t tested that out yet. If it does. Then my issue is solved. I never take an informative responses as an attack. I love to learn and avoid needless mistakes. I feel like a nag when I ask questions, and I’m grateful that you guys take the time to answer me. When someone teaches you how to do something correctly so you get the result you want. How can you not enjoy/appreciate that. Thanks Guys:D

#9

glad you got it sorted, never feel afraid to ask questions.
also i did say the masking bit in my first post, i need to learn to be more verbose.