I want to create multi alpha brush from imported alphas which i want to use in my polypaint sketching workflow. And no, the “to mesh–>from mesh” method is not doing the job for me because the alphas are a bit more complicated ( mostly grayscale images ) and this ruins them. So … is there any other way, because i can create a single alpha brush with a similar functionality but having all of the alphas in one brush would be far better especially for design sketching.
Thanks.
Hi @SnowballWar
To my knowledge, it is not possible to do this in Zbrush at the present time. From the documentation:
You would first have to convert all your 2d alphas into 3d mesh objects.
There’s always more than one way to get something done in Zbrush, though. Perhaps if you told us a little more about what you want to do in general…?
As i said the problem with converting the alpha to model is that when you convert it back it usually ruins the alpha because the alpha itself is a bit more complicated. Maybe calling it an alpha is not a good description, what i mean is grayscale image like this one: ( it’s from wow )
tfdWoWork|635x749
If i just add it to the alpha of my RGB brush, i can project the image on a canvas like this:
Screenshot_44|1200x749
This is exactly what i need but i want to be able to have a lot of images like that in one brush. Just like the multialpha brush.
The reason for that is because when i am sketching something in zbrush i would like to have a brush filled with reference images like the orc one so i can quickly pull … lets say 10 random images under 30 seconds. There is already a random alpha option in the brush settings.
The other reason this could be very helpful is, for example … lets say that you want to sketch a face of some sort. You could have a brush for noses, or a brush for eyes, mouth … etc. And you can quickly use those in your sketch. Test 10 different eyes in your sketch under 20 sec. without the need to draw them … Something like this would be very powerful and great for concept design sketching in zbrush imo.
Well, as I said, what you want to do isn’t directly possible at present. You would first have to convert the images into real meshes which, as you say, will not produce ideal results for what you want to do.
However, as near as I can tell you wish to be able to use this tool for the purpose of establishing reference image views? Zbrush has a number of different methods for working with reference material. One of them may suit your purpose. Spotlight in particular is probably the way most would go about setting up a number of reference images like that these days.
Ok thanks.