Hi there, something seems to have occured since last night, I was playing with stencil and imported images and this is what I get now after long hours without any problem ? it’s a basic plane with 6 subdivision levels (about 1 million polys) and shouldn’t be that bad with those strange lines (big red circle) ?
I’m no expert so I posted as soon as I spoted my problem, I checked the smooth parameters but as I said it doesn’t seem to come from there, as I have smoothed results using the standard sculpting tool (little red circle) ??
Any idea ?
I’m guessing that the falloff at the edge of the stencil/alpha is a grey ish colour and therefore is subject to deformation. Try using a hard edged black/white alpha and see if the result is the same… and then if it works as I expect , you will have to alter your stencil to ensure the falloff area isn’t affected.
Hope this makes sense.
El-d
edit: hmm - just realised I didn’t quite read that properly and answered a question you weren’t even asking. doh!
is your alpha image noisy?
Either the alpha used to create your stencil or the alphas used to add depth in Projection Master have steps/banding. It usualy occurs when simply resizing an existing alpha, be it imported or native zbrush alpha.
Add some Alpha : Blur to the alpha used for the stencil or to the alpha for adding depth.
You should not resize a texture to get a more detailed alpha for a stencil, instead just resize the active stencil using the Coin Controller (Spacebar).
Hey guys, I’m aware of alpha resizing, but I only touched the alphas with the scale spacebar, problem is for none imported alphas, like native brush 25 I still have the banding problem, which I absolutely didn’t have before this morning ? Strange no ?
Could you possibly make a terrain3d, subdivide it 5 times and use the brush 25 in stencil mode to see if you’ve got similar results ?
I cannot make the banding occur except if I resize the alpha.
Maybe you could record a zscript showing the exact steps you take.
sure here is the zscript, tell me if you have those squares ?
Well, I thought you were using Projection Master when you applied the stencil. With PM it works fine if there is enough polygons to take the details as you probably know.
Using stencils while in edit mode is not something I do. At lower polygon counts it works fine for adding uneven and lumpy features. But the higher the polygon density the closer you must match the stencils size to the object. Or the other way round, the closer you need to zoom the object.
You basically want to get as close as possible to a 1:1 aspect ratio between the stencil and the polygons.
I think it was Skycastle who explained how he creates an alpha that has, for example, alpha 25 at various sizes. He then scrolls the stencil to what he thinks is the best 1:1 fit at the models current zoom.
I thought one can use the stencil in edit mode, I’ll go for PM then, it works smoothly, does Dave Cardwell use the stencil in edit mode ?
THX a lot for your support.
My bad. I did a quick search and that jolted my memory. It was Bay Raitt who compiled different alphas into one for a stencil, mostly because he did not like the need to create a stencil from the alpha menu each time he needed a new one. Like Dave Cardwell he also uses the stencil in Projection Master.
You can still use a stencil in edit mode but just not at a high polygon level. A subtle stencil + low Z intensity can quickly lay out subtle changes of a surface. But for high detail work you need to use PM. I agree it would be very cool to be able to use stencils all the time. Well you can if you smooth afterwards.
Adding detail in a 2.5d manner(Projection Master), instead of edit mode, allows for fine tuning before commiting to the final “brush stroke”. You can enter Transform mode after drawing a stroke and edit the brush size, alpha, alpha settings, etc. The fine tuning is useful for both organic and mechanical objects.
btw, I don’t know if you are aware, but you do not need to draw an object and enter edit mode to create a polymesh (Make PolyMesh3D). You can change any of a tools parameters without drawig it on the canvas. Just watched your script again and was not sure if you knew.