Hello. In Mudbox you have the option of setting a topological axis to you 3D mesh and instead of using X symmetry, you can use Tangent. The difference is that when you sculpt on your mesh using tangent symmetry, the centre line of your mesh can not move left or right (along the X axis). I was wondering if Zbrush 4R8 had any of the same options for keeping the centre line of my mesh perfectly straight when I sculpt on it? Thank you for your help.
What do you wish to model?
Not sure if I understand your question but I think you you can try using topological symmetry.
I’m not sure I understand either but if poseable symmetry (as beta_channel suggests) is not what you want then you might want the Set Pivot/Clear Pivot of the Trnasform palette. That will temporarily move your mesh to the world center so that you can use symmetry. Clear Pivot will move it back to the original position.
Hello and thank you for all your responses. I am trying to model/sculpt a human character. In Mudbox, when you set a topological axis to your mesh, Mudbox uses the line running down the centre of your model as the line of symmetry (this is Tangent Symmetry). In order for this to work, Mudbox keeps the centre line perfectly straight when you sculpt on the mesh, while looking at the mesh from the front view. You can still move vertices forwards and backwards along the Z axis, but you can not move the vertices left or right along the X axis. I prefer keeping my centre line perfectly straight as I sculpt on it, because it makes it easier to mirror sculpted detail perfectly from one side of the mesh to the other. If any one could give me specific details about how to do this in Zbrush 4R8 I would appreciate it. Thank you.
Activate Symmetry, also M(Mirror), you can disable axis(s) you don’t want to move. HTH
Hello and thank you for the information. I just wanted to know about mirroring. I saw in a tutorial, that when you mirror sculpted detail from one side of the mesh to the other, Zbrush can only mirror sculpted detail from negative X to positive X. I was wondering if there was any way to mirror detail in the opposite direction, from positive X to negative X?
I am aware that you can mirror the mesh itself in ‘Deformation’ > ‘Mirror’, but for some reason you can not do this with a mesh with subdivision levels.
The other option is to mask one side of the mesh and use 'Smart ReSym, but trying to mask one side of a highly detailed mesh is quite difficult. If I mask the mesh at a lower subdivision level, it does not mirror the detail properly, when I go back up to a higher subdivision level.
Is it possible to mirror sculpted detail from positive X to negative X? Thank you for your time.