ZBrushCentral

Planar brushes problem/zsphere problem (answered)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I am trying to make a starfish with zspheres. I am having trouble on several fronts:

  1. Zspheres get twisted on the five arms. I am using radial symmetry (Y, M, R, and 5) for the arm creation. I need to keep them straight as the mesh is getting twisted.

  2. When create the mesh I mask half of it to protect the top portion that I want for my starfish and then turn it over to expose the editable side for the planar brushes to sweep away the unwanted mesh on the bottom. I make a hole (see photos) then have been experimenting with various planar brushes to no avail to get a flat bottom. As you can see from the screen caps the mesh is too high at some ends and is taken away even below the masking at the other end. I have made starfish after starfish and get the same results. I do Shift when rotating it to get a it on a flat plain for the masking and the mask looks pretty good. So what am I doing wrong??

Also, shouldn’t the mask protect the mesh not masked? The planar brushes are digging beyond the mask as you can see from the screen caps.

I have put the zipped .ztl starfish file here also if anyone wants to “dissect” it.

Please help, I really need to get this project off the ground!
thanks so much!
Karen
StarfishScreenCaps.jpg

#2

I used radial symmetry to create the starfish each arm should be the same.
thanks, Karen

#3

When creating something with ZSpheres that needs to be regular make sure you don’t use any more ZSpheres than necessary. This will help avoid too much twisting. You can add 5 ZSpheres to start, drag them out as far as you want then add a second ZSphere at the base of each arm to control the thickness. See the ztl included in the zip.

For flattening the base, the simplest way is to use the ClipRect brush (hold Shift+Ctrl to select). Just position the starfish square (hold Shift to snap to horizontal) then Shift+Ctrl+drag the rectangle over the portion you want to keep. See my version in the zip.

Your method means that any variation in the plane from the horizontal will cause problems.

[attach=220747]ClipRect.jpg[/attach]

HTH,

Attachments

ClipRect.jpg

#4

Hey, this works great, thanks a million!
Karen