Hi guys I am doing a bit of modelling using masks. Lots of little spots need to be masked to then inflate and create little raised spikes. I am finding that sometimes the mask is becoming blurred becaus z thinks I am trying to do a ctrl click to blur the mask. Is there a way around this at all?
Many thanks.
Setting Preferences > Transpose > Mask Blur Strength to 0 will minimize the blur amount but not completely disable bluring from any accidental Ctrl clicks.
Instead of using the Dots stroke type try using the Drag Rectangle stroke. I would imagine it is far less likely that you would simulate a Ctrl click using that stroke type ?
I have also gotten unwanted blurring when using masks. You can at least to a ctrl z to undo the blurring.
thankyou very much that does help a bit. It makes sense that the blur works this way for making large masks and transposing etc. but at the minute Im working with quite a pitted surface using a reference image that needs to line up accurately. it can be a bit of a pain. it would be great if there was a way to override this in this situation.
The focal shift will also cause some bluring. If your model is of a higher sub-div and your focal shift is medium to high, then there will be some bluring from the focal point.
yep makes sense but dont think its the focal shift causing my probs tho. kinda imagine laying down 50 spots then when you’ve finished the last one you realise that all the rest are increasingly blured in the opposite sequence to which you layed them down. its quite funny really just laying down the last one then realising you need to do them all again :lol: .
I will try to put some images up tomorrow to show you what I mean. Though I think I may have found a workaround for the stuff I need to do. great thing about z being flexible and letting you take different approaches.
Please solve this problem or at least give us a real option to disable it. I myself get so many unwanted blurs in my masks. I understand the point of assign such function to ctrl, but it creates more problems than plusses it could provide.
not sure if this will help you kursadk but I found a way around it that let me do what I was trying to do.
I used zapplink to apply my photographic texture then when I was happy that the texture lined up the way I wanted I exported this back into photoshop then created a mask there that I loaded into my alpha. Then did an apply alpha as mask. bit of a long way around and ended up having to repair the texture afterwards but was happy with the results.
Thanks Embee, but problem is not really finding a way to paint masks. The problem is accidental blurring of masking. It is a good idea but bad implemetation. I think that blurring alpha should be assigned to “shift” rather than ctrl. Because it is a matter of keeping consistency through out the application. Shift is used to blur polypaint color and works beautifully. I do not know why ctrl clicking is thought for blurring while shift is used for blurring in another function.
I had the same issue. I needed to apply simple dots with ctrl masking. But every time you do that, it thinks you are doing a single quick control click to blur that mask. To me, if the click results in applying even a small amount of masksing, it should not auto blur it.
Sure, you can set transpose blurring to 0, but that seems odd. You’d think that’s only specific to the auto blur transpose topology masking does.
I wish I can just turn off this ctrl blur thing, but still have that slider control for just transpose masking, and just use the blur mask button on mask. But turns out, that slider also effects that button. So if you set it to 0, the blur mask button does nothing. I wish there was a different slider right in the masking window for that.
The one slider effects everything and is deep in the preferences
Setting transpose blurring to 0 does not do much for me. I tried that before as well.
I can’t test this right now. But what about lazy mouse. To do a simple dot with that, you have to move the cursor for some time before it begins. Maybe it will help stop the ctrl click blur issue. Though, doesn’t make things easier guessing when the mask will start drawing to prevent from going to far, unless you shorten the lazy mouse drag line.
have you tried to turn Tool:Masking:Blend down to 0 ?
Is your model too low in subdivisions?
I never have this problem, perhaps you are doing the key combo incorrectly.
It would be nice if there was a separate masking brush, one you didn’t have to always hold ctrl to use. And would work correctly with backface masking, not masking the opposite side when holding alt when you meant to unmask the front.
I have not tried blending to 0. I am rendering now. Once it is done I will try it.
I do not think that it is possible to misuse mask painting really, it is just control and paint. Blurring happens when you click inside your mask while you are pressing ctrl. This is likely to happen because wacom is very sensitive to clicking.
Exactly! My fingers get tired when I try to paint masks. I do not think it is good for anyone`s health at all.
It sounds very interesting, but I couldn’t manage to follow what you described. Can you provide step-by-step tutorial for that?
How to repeat accidental click
Draw a mask (make sure you use a sharp alpha to distinguish)
now while you have your ctrl pressed, try putting little mask dots all over the object. WHile putting the mask dots it blurs the previous ones.
And try on polymesh objects. It wont do it on primitives.
Oops, kursadk…
I was looking for EMBEE’s how to create mask via ZB-PS pipeline… 
About accidental blur issue, I was aware of that. It is bugging me all the times. All I can do atm is to do my best in minute handy motion to avoid put a single dot, and be ready for ‘Ctrl+Z’ if I made a dot… 
Rybeck