ZBrushCentral

Please help a noob!!

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi guys, please excuse this pathetic cry for help, but I have a problem thats really getting me down! And I know its gonna be a simple answer!

So, I open a new doc, select zsphere and drag one onto the doc. But when I hit A, only half of the polymodel is there. If I hit A again and go back to my zsphere and add an additional zsphere to the first, that one looks fine… its just the very first one I throw up onto the document stays in half, and distorts the model.

I cant figure out why! If anybody can shed some light on this I’d be very grateful!

#2

The root ZSphere is a placeholder. It doesn’t have any actual geometry. The preview shows half a sphere to let you know that SOMETHING is there, but what it’s really waiting for is for you to connect stuff to it. THAT is what creates the geometry.

Your ZSphere-created meshes can be open or closed. If you only build out from one side of the root, the result will be an open mesh. (For example, if you’re creating a tree, why cap off the bottom of the trunk, which will be in the ground anyway?) To close the mesh, simply add an additional ZSphere on the opposite side of the root from where you’ve been working.

Root->ZSphere or ZSphere<-Root = open mesh
ZSphere<-Root->ZSphere = Closed mesh

#3

Thanks Aurick…

but all I seem to get is an uncontrollable mess. When i used the trial version of Zbrush, a Zsphere created a polysphere, plain and simple… but now I have the full version, I just cant get it to work :confused:

If I add an additional polysphere to the ‘placeholder’ sphere, how do I stop it distorting? It just seems to screw up.

Also, if I import an OBJ, I seem to lose some of the faces in a similar fashion, and flipping the normals just means I get the same problem in reverse, as one might expect…

I’m really scratching my head over this. I feel dumb.

#4

Mothball,

The rule of thumb for getting started with Zspheres is to always "cap" the initial Zsphere with one on top (the pole at the top of the dark half) and bottom (the pole at the bottom of the light half.) Most likely you have got a "twist" going and maybe some other funky geometry which can get confusing pretty fast. :)

My starting procedure (learned from Ryan K) is to always draw the root zsphere, hit edit, turn on X & Z symmetry, draw a top zsphere, and draw a bottom zsphere. If I hit “a” and everything is OK, I can go on.

Why X & Z Symmetry? It helps me find the exact middle of the top and bottom (when there is just one green circle instead of multiple circles.)

If you’re really frustrated with ZSpheres, Gnomon Workshop has a three part series by Ryan for $6/part which is downloadable and pretty informative. http://gnomonology.com/group/28

-K

#5

Thanks guys, it all becomes clear now!

Keep up the good work, this forum is awesome!

thanks again

M