try thisswiss.TXT 
In brief: yes.
The SnakeHook brush is a tool that modifies pixols, not polygons. If you draw a 3D Sphere, then select the SnakeHook brush, the sphere is immediately placed into the canvas and converted into pixols. This will always happen when you select another tool, even if it’s another 3D tool.
When the sphere is in Transform mode, it can be modelled like any 3D object: rotated, deformed, scaled, etc. But once you place it into the canvas, it ceases to be a 3D object and is converted to pixols, which can then only be modified with the 2.5D tools (SnakeHook, etc).
Think of it like the Paths in Photoshop. You can create a vector shape and edit it with vector tools, but once you Rasterize it, it turns into pixels, and can then only be modified with paint tools.
However, the vector shape you created still stays in memory, so you can modify it if you wish. The same also applies to ZBrush: the modified 3D shape remains in the Tool palette and can be brought back and modified further. However, in Photoshop, if you have rasterized the vector shape and painted onto it, these painted changes will be lost if you decide to replace the shape with the new modified vector shape. Same with ZBrush: if you have already painted a lot of 2.5D detail onto the object, then decide to modify the 3D model, you will lose all these painted changes - because they’re not in the 3D model. They’re in the pixols.
It’s a one-way route:
Bezier curves —> Pixels
3D Polygons —> Pixols
Both Photoshop and ZBrush have tools that allow you to convert pixels / pixols back to a 3D shape: Make Path in Photoshop, and Make 3D in ZBrush. However, these do not work perfectly. A lot of detail is lost in the process, as pixel / pixol data is approximated and converted into vector / polygon data.
Speculatively said, perhaps a later version of ZBrush will allow you to keep more than one 3D object in a modifiable state on the canvas - just like you can have several shape-layers in Photoshop that stay in vector format until you decide to finally rasterize them.
Er, never mind. I should have read the second page of this thread before posting… :o
a bite of 3d-cheese for you, Washington 
:
[img]http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/uploaded_from_zbc/200306/user_image-1054495519ypu.jpg[/img]
i did this the following way:
:large_orange_diamond: create canvas 1024x1024 (or prefereably bigger - just as long as we are creating the alpha, its easier and quicker to do the modelling part at lower canvas-sizes - but right now we want to create as hi-res an alpha as possible). this is done via document>size>pro(portional)off>insert values into x and y sliders>press resize
:large_orange_diamond: fill with white (command+F)
:large_orange_diamond: select snakehook; drawpalette: press zsub
:large_orange_diamond: drill holes :D
:large_orange_diamond: do a best render (antialiasing, this is part. important if you want to use the texture that will be created for the cheese, but then you should have started with a cheese-color-fill in step 2; i didnt go for a texture)
:large_orange_diamond: tool>mrgbz-grabber (the tiny square with arrows icon) move cursor over all of canvas to do a mrgbz-grab. a new alpha and texture are created automatically.
:large_orange_diamond: clear canvas (command+N) and decrease canvas size for doing the modelling part (if wanted - see above; we are entering 3d-mode now)
:large_orange_diamond: select 3d-cube
:large_orange_diamond: deform via edit-move pushes
:large_orange_diamond: tool>modifiers>deformation> divide-divide-divide-divide (the hi-res the alpha, the hi-res the 3d-tool should be)
:large_orange_diamond: tool>modifiers>selection->alp(ha)-the grabbed one should be selected - invert this mask
:large_orange_diamond: tool>modifiers>deformation>inflate-100 and >smooth+100 applied several times
:large_orange_diamond: apply cheese-colour, material, lights, best render with shadows on... voila :)
before exporting do several tool>>modifiers>deformations>optimize to reduce polycount
- just a quick idea inspired by this thread. i think there are at least 20 better ways to do this
as for tentacles: the tool i would choose would be zspheres: these allow you to do editable tentacles - a zspheremaster might even be able to explain how to do holes into cheese the zsphereway, but i aint 
for tentacles the zsphere-way you might want to check out this thread and .pdf: octopus
- juandel
That was a very good analogy, Skaven252. Thank you.
To model something that looks like it has tentacles, ZSpheres work very well.
It’s a great thing to see such selfless kindness and generosity expressed by the members of this forum. I’m looking for a route back from cynicism, I arrived their from a different place some years ago, and never managed to leave (except for the very occasional holiday now and then).
There’s something here even for strange characters like me, and I… well thanks.
Apologies washington, ‘rude’ wasn’t quite what I was aiming for. I’m amused by your reference to “serious 3D artists” and by your choice of object.