Noob Questions re: brushes, sculpting in symmetry front and back, sculpting in radial

[system]

Alrighty just getting started learning brush for jewelry design. Here’s a few questions:

Is there brush that will let me clean up my edges? I have been using clay tubes, clay build up, and standard brush and then smoothing it back, but I can’t really make a clean line that’s sort of squared off on the top and the sides. I feel like I’m drawing with elmer’s glue instead of sculpting. Hope that makes sense…

At the top of this pattern of want to do some cross hatch lines. I tried the Dam standard brush and it looked fairly ok for the first direction, but when I got to cross hatching it end up with peaks at the intersections and that doesn’t look so nice. Any tips for what brush to use for this?

I got symmetry working in the X so my left and right sides are equal but I’d like the same pattern o be on the front as the back. I’m pretty sure I tried every combo in the symmetry box and I can’t get on to work. What am I missing?

I want to use the bottom half of the radial symmetry circle to make a U shaped pattern but I can only get the “active point” (the one the rest of points follow) to be on the top of the circle so the resulting pattern is a “sad face” instead of an U. Is there way to change this? It would be so much better not to have to do this part by hand.

Thanks so much!

Attachments

[Doug_Jones]

It doesn’t appear that you are using the ZB4R6 P2 version.

[Spyndel]

You might be looking for the Layer brush. It performs as you describe. If you save a Morph Target (Tool>Morph Target>StoreMt) prior to using it, it should displace to a constant level from the surface of the MT. Otherwise it will layer over top of existing strokes like the other brushes.

Assuming your version is up up to date, you can always use the clip curve brush to flatten the very top of any strokes you’ve made.

Some of those shapes you’re making would be better stamped in with alphas, rather than freehand brushing.

[system]

Hey Thanks for all of the replies!

I am running version 4R6.

I’ll try the morph target. I like having some tools with a lot of precision.

I also discovered that I can mask and area-> invert mask -> then inflate brush -> then flatten to shape it a little better.

Anyone have some ideas about my symmetry questions?

[system]

Spyndel,

When you say some shapes would be better with an alpha… are you talking about the crosshatching?

[Doug_Jones]

Please update to ZB4R6 P2

[Spyndel]

I’m not sure I follow the issue you’re having with radial sym. From your description it sounds like you should be able to activate radial sym along the y or z axis depending on your model, and just mask out the half you don’t want to affect.

As far as the alpha thing, you’ve got some precise shapes in there, like the perfect circle you’re trying to work by hand, which will always produce a handworked quality.

If you want a more precise machine quality shape, stamp the detail in with a circular alpha. Either attach a circular alpha to the brush you’re using, and assign a drag rect or drag dot stroke type, or use projection master and stamp the displacement in there with the 2.5 d tools. The 2.5 D tools have a “line” stroke type which you could draw out at the angle you want, then keep replicating with the snapshot (shift+s) control, dragging each one down over and over for the crosshatching.

Likewise, you could simply produce the pattern you want as an alpha in Zbrush, or use ZApp link to produce the pattern you want as an alpha in photoshop, then stamp it in.

Likewise, this being Zbrush, you could always set the shapes in as actual geometric objects, then simply remesh the whole thing together.

And yes, please do as Doug asks and upgrade to the most up to date program version before coming to the Q&T boards. It saves everyone a lot of time in trying to eliminate variables when troubleshooting.

[Thor]

I got symmetry working in the X so my left and right sides are equal but I’d like the same pattern o be on the front as the back. I’m pretty sure I tried every combo in the symmetry box and I can’t get on to work. What am I missing?

After you finish the front, you could go to:

Tool > Geometry > Modify Topology > Mirror and Weld (z-axis)

For other symmetry issues, you might try turning on L.sym, or unifying your object so it’s in the middle of your workspace.