ZBrushCentral

What Zbrush function should I use to open and close a character's mouth?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello,
I am currently painting a character who has an articulated inner mouth that I would need to be able to control the opening and closing of in order to get in there with my brushes.

I was originally planning on using layers until I discovered that the layer functionality seemed to only work on the highest subdivision level, for obvious reasons it is way easier to control a large movement like lips parting at the lowest subdivision level than it is at the multi-million polygon level.

So what I need is the ability to have the mesh at its lowest SubD level with its mouth closed, then sculpt the mouth opening and be able to go back and forth between these two states.

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere but since I don’t even know what such a function would be called in ZBrush (in Maya I would know it as a blendshape), what function should I use to do this?

Is there some alternate feature by which I can make only the interior parts of a mesh visible and accessible with brushes?

Thank you in advance.

#2

Move, move topological, move elastic. Depends on how you wish it to move. Subtools, groups, masking, ZSphere armature. Many ways, you need to decide what will work for your situation.

#3

Well, what I really need is something where, like a blendshape in Maya, once I’ve set up the two different configurations of geometry I can then go back and forth between them (open and closed mouth) very quickly. Having to manually move all of the geometry to open and close the mouth every time I want to do that strikes me as quite inelegant, don’t you agree?

#4

You’ll have to move it into position initially, unless it was imported with the mouth open. http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/sculpting/3d-layers/

#5

“New layers must be created at the top subdivision level. Once in Record mode, you can sculpt or polypaint on any level but you will need to return to the top level to turn off Record mode”

OOOOHH!

Ok, I’ll give this a whirl, thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

#6

If it’s for painting you need to check out the videos on masking and selection tools. You can hide and mask areas off while working on hard to reach areas; e.g., the inside of the mouth.