ZBrushCentral

technical questions (and one WIP image...WARNING PARTIAL NUDITY)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

While learning ZB i came up with the following questions:

1. Is there any way to save Masks? They are SO useful, i find myself re-painting masks a few times if i’m not careful…

  1. Is there any kind of expand/contract or ‘paint fill’ option for masks? Something equivelant to the Photoshops ‘select expand/contract’ function? I find hand-painting into tiny cracks/shapes my masks can get very tedius, especially if i just want to add a small amount to the edge of the mask…

  2. Polypaint w/ more than one material. If i have an object i paint in Material 1…then i change materials and paint a stripe in a new material it works great! But after i save the object and re-load it…that second material is gone. Anyway to preserve painting mulitple materials on a single mesh?

  3. Sometimes while working, somewhere along the line…Smart Resym stops working. Can anyone explain why?

  4. related to symmetry, is there any way to enlarge the ‘preview’ window for setting the center EXACTLY? or better way to tell Symmetry exactly where the center of your mirror should be?

  5. With the Svengali plug-in for incrementing file-names…is there any way to set the default directory for it? i can’t find it anywhere…

  6. Is there somewhere to set the default startup directory for Zbrush for ztools in general?

here is a cloth and anatomy study…

cloth-1.jpg

#2


  1. Your model must have active UV’s to do this. Draw your mask, then press Tool>Masking>Create Alpha. Save the alpha. You can turn it back into a mask at any time by selecting it and pressing Tool>Masking>Mask by Alpha.
  2. Not at this time.
  3. http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Special:Search?search=materials+and+subtools&go=Go
  4. I’m not sure what causes this to happen, myself.
  5. Tool>Deformation>Unify will permanently set the center of symmetry to the geometric center of the model. (It also scales the model to fit perfectly within the Preview window.) You can also use Transform>S.Pivot to temporarily set the center to be the center of the visible mesh. Use C.Pivot to return to normal. This lets you change things on the fly, with great control.
  6. You should ask in that plugin’s thread.
  7. No, but you can create a shortcut to wherever you want and put that in the ZTools folder. You’ll also need to turn on Preferences>Misc>Use ZFolders. Then any time you click Tool>Load or Tool>Save As, ZBrush will open the ZTools folder. Now double-click the shortcut to go to the desired folder. Quick and easy.
PS: You may not want to do “laundry list” questions in the future. They scare off most people who could help. :wink:

#3

Thanks so much dude. I’ll avoid laundry lists in the future. It seemed better than the alternative; 6 separate threads w/ 1 line questions in each.

cheers!