ZBrushCentral

"Parenting" a tool to another?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi everyone.

I have a mesh of an eye, with separate sub tools (one for the pupil, one for the iris). The outer iris has a material that is transparent, so it needs to follow the underlying pupil at all times (during resizing, and other transposing operations).

In my scene, I also have a head, and the eye needs to be placed into it (duh).

Okay, so how can I ONLY transpose the two subtools (the pupil/iris) without affecting the head? Transpose Master affects ALL subtools, right? I don’t want to transpose the pupil and separately transpose the iris because I fear they may not line up exactly. And if I combine the iris/pupil subtools into a single subtool, I lose the desired transparent effect of the outer material (it all becomes one material…looking like someone with severe cataracts).

Sorry if I am missing something obvious here, I just cannot make my brain work. Thanks for the help.

#2

Transpose Master works with visible subtools, so it is possible to pose only some of them. However, you may find that Contacts work for you best in this instance:

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/ZBrush4_Other_Additions#Contact

#3

Thanks Marcus, but this just doesn’t solve the problem for me. Here’s a scenario:

I have 2 eyes…each with 2 subtools, so there are 4 subtools total comprising the eyes. If I want the eyes to move as a pair (as would be the case in most examples), Transpose Master doesn’t work because I need to position the eyes in the head (thus the head needs to be visible). I am looking basically for a simple “shift-click” of multiple subtools and then transposing them.

Make sense? Anything like that in ZB4R2? If not…it might be a very welcome and useful feature.

#4

But you will always have to pose the eyes separately however you do it because they have different centres of rotation. I should have thought the simplest way would be to use Contacts to keep the two parts of an eye together and then rotate each eye using Transpose. That way you can have your head subtool visible without it getting in the way (switching on Ghost transparency is probably best).

#5

Marcus,

Not to be argumentative, but the Contacts usage only works for a very limited number of subTools. If I have 2 (or more…why not?) eyes, each consisting of a couple of parts (subTools), and want to transpose them all simultaneously, then Contacts doesn’t work at all. Even if it did, it would require a huge number of keystrokes (and mouse-drags) to operate. Not very efficient or even useful.

Centers of rotation for such an operation should be subTool based, as they are in Maya. A simple “shift-click” on each subTool, then transposing them, each with their individual world space, chould provide this functionality on an ad-hoc basis. Parenting subtools would allow for unlimited “daisy-chaining” of subTools on a more permanent basis and would place the center of rotation firmly on the Parent subTool. Maya accomplishes this without a hitch, as do most other 3D apps.

Forgive me, but I am a c#/c++ developer by trade and my logical mind is heating up. Your valuable input is appreciated and welcome, as always.

#6

Marcus,

Again, forgive my brain working overtime. Thinking further about my last posting…

The desired functionality I outlined above also nearly negates the need for TransposeMaster completely. I’ve always thought that TransposeMaster, while currently essential, is something that should be built into the core of ZB. The basic functionality of transposing multiple subTools simultaneously relegated to a plugin? Shouldn’t this be an inherent part of ZB?

TransposeMaster has other uses, to be sure, but my method of shift-clicking subTools or Parenting them as other packages do would be tremendously useful. Possibly color-coding a box around each subTool’s view in the Tools Menu could alert the user that some are Parented to each other as a group. Seems logical and simplistic.

Again, my $.02.

#7

I was making suggestions based on what was currently possible in ZBrush, not what it would be nice to have. :wink: That said, your comments and suggestions are appreciated. :slight_smile: