ZBrushCentral

Question about brush spacing during sculpting.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

So, I understand all of the brush settings, including the freehand, mouse average, lazy mouse spacing, and all of that. “Skipping” during a fast stroke may be related to my hardware:

Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz cpu 2 gigs Ram My question is: how directly related to my hardware is it? I draw, paint, and sculpt really fast. That's how my ideas best flow, and that's how I remain efficient. I can't stand sculpting like a damn turtle just to prevent skipping in the stroke. In Photoshop, you can set the brush spacing to 0%, which the frequency of an alpha just like ZBrush. If your computer can't handle it, there's a delay after each stroke, but NO SKIPPING in the results of it. I would much rather experience a slight delay after each fast stroke than experience these little retarded dots! :rolleyes: Simply put: The speed of a stroke should not affect the brush spacing in any art application.....EVER. That's an odd philosophy. Only the menu settings should affect it. Will RAM help the smoothness of each stroke, or will it be more related to high polycounts and such? In fact, with maximum hardware available, is ZBrush even capable of 100% smooth strokes at really high speed? The brushes work great for meticulous sculpting, but when I want to roll, it's just holding me back. :confused: In fact, I've been 2d speed painting more lately because it fits my style of brushwork. I like to fly, man. I would rather ZBrush for illustration, but I hate impatiently waiting on it to catch up. Every time it slows me down, it hinders my creativity.

I just got a job as a full time digital fine artist, and will be using Photoshop and Painter only until I can figure this out. We have the means to step up the hardware, I just want to know what to expect. We already support speed painting, will stepping up support speed sculpting :qu:

#2

“cough” bump “cough”

#3

Im very interested in this question too… in fact, ive been thinking about ask to aurick but my english its a bit rusted (as you can see) and im lazy :rolleyes:

I noticed this lag in strokes and ive been looking at Ryan Kingsley using claytubes brush in videos: looks smoother than in mine (maybe lowering “mouse average”?)… i have a Q6600 G0, GA-X48-DQ6 board, 2x2048 RAM 800mhz and Seagate 7200.11 32mb cache

Lately I’ve been experimenting with OC cpu and ram and i will like to know whats exactly related with smoothness in brush stroke, ¿RAM speed o latency?, ¿CPU speed or number of cores? I noticed that in high density meshes (5 millions) if you draw with claytube (for example) really fast, the the stroke even desapears. I know that general performance in ZB depends of CPU, RAM and HD speed (in that order)

Sorry again for my english, hope this make sense… i think Jamez explained better than me (Thanks Jamez! :slight_smile: )

#4

(re-reading) :rolleyes: However… for me that slight delay after each stroke in high meshes is precisely what bothers me and want to avoid…

#5

You see it as a hindrance, but in fact it is a design feature.

First, all of ZBrush’s strokes are a series of points. Among other things, this allows brush strokes to be recorded and played back.

Beyond that, the fact that cursor speed influences dot spacing gives you yet another level of control in your work. Want a nice, smooth line? Move the cursor more slowly. Want something more randomized? Move the cursor very quickly.

If you want fast movement without the dotting effect, simply turn on Lazy Mouse mode. To see the difference it makes, try drawing a stroke fast enough to get the dotted effect. Then press Ctrl+Z to undo the stroke, turn on Lazy Mouse, and press Stroke>Replay Last. You’ll see a very dramatic difference!

In the end, ZBrush comes down to offering as many options as possible for your work. It operates under the philosophy that it’s better to have more choices for maximum freedom than few choices which can end up restricting you.

#6

I still see it as a hindrance because spacing, just like pressure sensitivity, and ALL other tablet and stroke results, are better set in a menu, not set in stone. Having the spacing based upon speed is in fact restricting my freedom of choice. I cannot sculpt as fast as I think, and am less efficient because of it.

The lazy mouse does help the smoothness of a stroke, however, with a fast stroke, the radius extends out much further. The radius, like spacing, is also controlled by speed, which I can agree with here. This is quite inconvenient for accurate, fast strokes, but a fantastic feature for straight, smooth ones. It also is more dependent on slow strokes for accuracy. So take note that it is a hindrance to this artist. To offer me freedom of choice would require an option to control whether or not speed of a stroke affected spacing. In the end, I have no option. Also take note that this artist loves ZBrush, and has very few complaints about the program. Some of my best work is a result of using this amazing tool you all have provided. I just prefer a different style of brush work than the program is built around, and think it should be considered a valid point given the options in Photoshop, Painter, and other brush based programs are more accommodating to my style. My assumption from your response is that, even if I upgrade the entire system to the max, this spacing issue, or design feature, will still occur. So if you think of it, pass on my vote to the genius developers that I would like the option to truly speed sculpt with smooth results from fast strokes. Thanks for your input and time.