ZBrushCentral

XRay Mode?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey Guys,

I’ve a question… Is there an equivalent to Mayas XRay Mode in ZBrush? I want to put a bitmap on ZBrush´s Canvas and model my shapes according to that bitmap - But in order to do that I’d have to have a 70% transparent Material or semething like that, so that I can see through my shapes while sculpting.

If I use the basic material and go to Materials -> Transparency and adjust that setting to something like -70 or 70 nothing changes. What do I have to do in order to get a semi-transparent material to sculpt according to my background image?

#2

searching the ZBC last night, I ran into a script that does exactly what you are looking for.
3rd post of this article, by Polaris30 called Headstarter.zip
It demonstrates x-ray type feature, and gives you a head shaped sphere at the same time.

It does it with 2 layers.
1 layer is your image reference. other layer is with your object. Your material must have transparency, and you must have “Flatten Layers” off in the Render options, to see the transparency effect.
This is better than x-ray, since you can control the transparency, and turn on whatever polyframe options you like. In addition, you can use various layers, turn them on and off, for different images. just have fun with it.

#3

You can also do it with one layer. Here’s a simple workflow:

  1. Import your reference image.
  2. Set the material to Flat Color.
  3. Press Texture>Crop and Fill. The canvas will be resized to match the imported image, which will be drawn. The Flat Color material is used to keep the image from being shaded by the 3D rendering engine.
  4. Select the object that you wish to sculpt.
  5. Select another material such as the Fast Shader.
  6. Set Rgb Intensity to something between 50 and 80 (your own preference here).
  7. Draw the object. If you like the amount of transparency, press T to enter Edit Mode. If you don’t like the transparency, press W to activate the gyro and then modify the Rgb Intensity setting. When you get a value you like, press T to enter Edit Mode.

That’s all there is to it! This is the most efficient method of having a background image for two reasons: First, the Fast Shader material renders faster than any material with the Transparency modifier. Second, it’s more efficient for ZBrush to work with one layer than with two. While these two factors make little difference for low resolution sculpting, they can make a big difference when you start getting up into the million-plus polygon range!

Hope that helps!

#4

@Aurick: Thanks, that is EXACTLY what I wanted! :slight_smile:

@Game Master: Thank you too, but using a script everytime for transparency is not really convenient (btw, that should be build into Zbrush, as a button in the tool palette or something like that - Is there a Suggestions Board for future versions of Zbrush?).

#5

It could be put into ZBrush through the ZPlugin system. More information will be made available on this after the release of the Mac and demo versions.

As for suggestions for future versions, we will bring back the Make A Wish forum when the time is right.

#6

yes, aurick, I like your method better also!

i would still use 2 layers though. Only thing is that it’s not interactive, you got to switch modes, but it is faster, like you said. Is that what you mean by a possible plug-in?

ADDED

Yes indead, this seams simple enough to make it interactive in Edit mode. I might take a stab at it. (plugin) Is there a way to know if I have a 2d or a 3d tool selected, or I just gotta know what tool id range is what?

#7

Doing some more simple tests with this aproach, I noticed I couldn’t get the transparent effect from a non-transparent material if the background is not flat. Is that correct? :confused:

Also some materials like the default gradient map, won’t allow this method.