Watch the status bar while you are on various parts of the transpose line. All dots are not created equal. 
That was the solution!
Watching the status bare was a great tip. I had never noticed that before. I’ve looked for it but never seen it. Probably because in other CAD packages you declare what you are going to do before you do it and then get an instruction. In ZB all you do is select what you are going to affect.
The odd thing is now that I can do this, it isn’t working on a second inflate. On the second inflate the diameter gets larger but so does the face height. It is like the horizontal face is un-masked too. I wonder if this is be cause my edge loops are so close to the corner?
Peter
When I try to unify the skin on a Cube3D, Under Unified Skin I set the Resolution to 16 and Smooth to 0. The Unified skin created has some inverted rows. I have tried adjusting the setting but any Smooth value greater than 0 creates a rounded corner cube, with no inverted edges. Any suggestions on why this is happening?
UPDATE: I restarted ZB and it works now. Ugh.
Just upgraded to 4R6 P2 after a 2 years hiatus from ZBrush and went through a 2 day marathon of most of the on-line tutorials on both Vimeo & YouTube and found yours were very informative. However there’s still a barrier that I encountered the last time I worked with ZBrush that discouraged me. I came to ZBrush with a digital paint mindset via Photoshop & Motion5 and a close CG-pro friend of mine has been my diehard advocate to get into ZBrush because of it’s abilities as a illustrator’s paint program and i wantedto see how my skills as an illustrator would contributor to my 3D digital modeling.
My project 2 years ago was using the SimpleBrush tool to execute some freehand digital calligraphy logos in cast metal liquid bronze ( MatCap01 ) that I was very pleased with , but then I became frustrated with hwat i had created in that I could not discover why I could not convert what appeared to be 3D liquid metal calligraphic forms into an editable 3D mesh ( I now realize this was before Dynamesh which I understand was only just released 6/2013 ). Obviously I’m missing something here , but I can not discover a published satisfactory answer to this question.
So I offer it now to you. Can I produce editable 3D Dynamesh using naturally freehand drawn Illustrated Lettering calligraphy curves using Freehand brushes or do I have to craft Illustrated Lettering out of ZBrush clay? Please forgive for my ignorance, but I have looked for an answer to how I would be able to do this amidst most of what’s already out there on ZBRush and am left still scratching my head.
Help me, ZObi-Wan:(
Try looking at this series. If I understand you correctly this set of videos could help you achieve what you’re after.
Drew a letter and made it 3D, if that’s what you mean then look at those videos.
Yeah , this is where I’m seeking to go and suspected that researching the masking brush feature was a way to go. I have been going through this tutorial as of this writing in order to understand this specific technique within ZBrush. The specific approach comes across a bit counter-inuitive to me with regards to the specific hotkey operations, but then I still have to master ZBrush’s UI
so I 'm hoping working familiarity will heal that sense of counter-inuitiveness.
I just have to get used to how ZBrush operates.I do appreciate not being forced to achieve this procedure using Z-spheres. I’m getting it that what has to be done to make freehand-brushed lettering 3D editable requires freehand-brushing the lettering onto a properly subdivided mesh in order to capture the finer details of a calligraphy brush curve the way I can achieve with a Simple brush. I have noticed the level of detail allowed in the brush paths that the various PenToll footprints make. I’m talking about is to be able to achieve freehand calligraphy on the level of a script font which I can do.
What I mean by intuitive would be being able use the simple brush to freehand brush a letter that would generate the usual series of close-packed ovals that comprise any brush path, as in Photoshop or Motion , and have ZBrush generate an editable 3D mesh generated out of each in-between oval profile along that brushpath. What I’m learning is that that’s not how ZBrush operates.
Anyway, what has emerged for me in all of these suggestions is discovering how far I can push the proper use of the masking brush tool as my calligraphy brush on an already created 3D mesh plane and then using the resulting mask of the brush path to define an editable 3D mesh letter based upon that resulting freehand-brushed mask. The issue becomes the amount of edge detail ( as in sans-jaggies ) one can achieve to preserve the accuracy of the freehand calligraphy brush path made 3D by being able to convert that mask brush path into a 3D mesh. Sorry if my explanations appear a bit wordy ( I notice that my ability to upload image’s of graphic examples of the level of calligraphy I am talking about does not have its permission code turned on and I’ve no instructions how to get that forum feature turned on so I can’t ) , but this is how I best describe it and the responses have been very helpful indeed.
Quick screen shot, I know it’s not exactly calligraphy but you can use anything really. I just grabbed an alphabet off the internet and made this Z 3D with masking in less than 2 minutes. Unless you’re doing something absolutely insane you should be able to take any calligraphy you do and make it into a 3d tool. And even then the most insane is achievable if you learn your tool set. Hope it helps. By the way I used light box to paint it on to a plane and masked by intensity and poly grouped that mask then hid the rest of the plane and then deleted hidden then used panel loops. Like I said less than two minutes. Good luck in your explorations.
[QUOTE=mrmedellin; I know it’s not exactly calligraphy but you can use anything really. I just grabbed an alphabet off the internet and made this Z 3D with masking …you should be able to take any calligraphy you do and make it into a 3d tool. …Hope it helps. By the way I used light box to paint it on to a plane and masked by intensity and poly grouped that mask then hid the rest of the plane and then deleted hidden then used panel loops. Like I said less than two minutes. Good luck in your explorations.
I do appreciate your feedback ,Mr.Medellin, and only just this morning fell upon a ZBrush tutorial on YouTube that reinforces your solution. It’s entitled Creating lace Panel for Insert Mesh Brush ***9654; ZBrush - Creating Lace Panel for Insert Mesh Brush - YouTube which demonstrated to me that one could use a brushpath image with delicately detailed lace patterns and translate them into rather detailed & ,more important , fully editable 3D meshes. Only problem was ,and it’s unignorable , that the tutorial author offers no commentary whatsoever in describing her process choices and the resolution loses substantial clarity when full-screen so one can not read the bloody UI text thus you have to already know the UI like the back of your hand to fully understand her precise procedure . This is why I love this forum because under what words in the index would one query in order to read about this procedure in the manual’s index or the Get Started Guide? Trust me I looked. I’ve found that being pointed toward well-executed tutorials are the way ( BTW: Thank you Mr. Pavlovich). That said this eye-opening process was given further reinforcement by the Make Jewelry Ring Using Alpha ZBrush which informs me that I can just craft whatever detailed calligraphy I chose using Photoshop’s fully adjustable calligraphy brush to create an alpha of my freehand illustrated lettering and import it within ZBrush and convert that into a fully editable 3D mesh. This solution works for me as far as allowing me my thoroughly familiar intuitive flow of brush execution. I can use Photoshop’s fully adjustable calligraphy paint brush , like I’ve always done ( I guess my mistaken approach was in thinking that I could do that within ZBrush , and just export it into ZBrush as an alpha brush print and project it upon a 3D mesh plane and adjust its desired thicknesses & materials accordingly. Sounds like the most intuitively natural solution to me. Am gonna experiment with this approach from this moment forward thru nightfall.
I checked out that video and it looks like she did what I had described with polypaint and masking with maybe a little more time in adjusting the options for masking and spotlight along with the panel loops features.
She states a simple explanation for what she did: “A little Nosferatu design in a lace panel created for an Insert Mesh Brush. Spotlight texture applied to plane, then masked by intensity. Panel Loops created with unwanted areas then deleted out. Alpha used to create bumpy texture. Inflate brush used to simulate knots on larger areas. Color and Cavity Mask painting applied for texture. Zremesher (not shown) was then used to cut the size in half before making the Insert Mesh brush in a more practical form.”
Which happens to be exactly what I did for the Z I showed you minus the inflate brush and textures. And then the whole business about insert mesh creation is just so she can insert it later into a piece or whatever she wants it for. But yeah do all the videos I told you about and the spotlight videos in the class room and even the IMM brush tutorials and you’ll be well on your way to getting what you want. Good luck.
EDIT: I forgot to mention you can polygroup by mask using ctrl+w. Just a tip.
Found the auhtor’s explanation that you mentioned as written text. When you’ve gone through as many tutorials consecutively as I have I guess I got too used to listening for the tutorial author’s commentary during the tutorial , but the resolution still maxed out at 450 which makes the UI titles unreadable unless you already know what you’re looking at which I readily admit I wouldn’t , hence the 3 day marathon of tutorials. I’ve found I learn much better with videos than manuals because videos show the UI as you would experience it, dynamic & in motion.
So praise be the video training & keep ‘em comin’.I may try my hand at it one day as what I would’ve liked to have spot-lighted a ZBrush technique the way I would’ve wanted it explained to me as a bona fide rooky.
It’s all right I didn’t put much stalk into the Z classroom until I found I couldn’t really find the info I was after. Then I started actually following the tutorials they had and now I can pretty much understand how almost everything is done. Just need more practice in general now. Every once in a while I’ll see someone use some tool or feature for something that hadn’t occurred to me then I’m thinking “DUH! it’s so obvious, why didn’t I think of that!”. Any how glad to help.
Michael - really appreciate your (fairly) recent tutorials DigitalClassroom/DigitalSculpting/InsertMesh on curve insert brushes. (I’ve got 4 R5.)
Why are my simple branches off of the initial curve I’ve drawn, going off super long in another axis?
Thanks for any help!
Michael - 4R5, trying to master curve tube insert and curvemulti insert brushes. Been over your videos - excellent. Been trying to get either of these brushes to taper following (I think) your proc in “curve insert mesh weld - part 1”. Under brush options, found modifers but no “soft curve.” Didn’t find it elsewhere under brush. Under stroke pallet/curve modifier/have intensity and size on - curve fall off (100% to 0, o 0 - 100 - tried both). tapped on end of drawn out curve. NOTHING. I have an awful lot of blood vessels to draw. What am I doing wrong? or if the option isn’t there for those two brushes, what do you recommend?
Hi Mike, thank you for these vids!
In the Curve Mesh Triparts Weld 01:
You create a Tentacle Insert Mesh and the first adjustment you make to the results is apply the “soft curve” modifier in the Brush Modification settings. I’m using 4R6 and don’t seems to have this function in my menu options. Has this method of tapering the curve changed? Been relocated? Or a different approach been created. Two updates to ZBrush have been published since these video’s were released so I may just be out of the loop. Can you please let me know how to resolve this?
Thanks for all your efforts!
Best,
Chris Molina
its really frustrating learning this program trying to do the things i know how to do with most other systems,
is there an online class with a tutor that i can take where i can ask questions to a teacher or something , zbrush is simply too complicated with too many tools to pick up on my own time alone by watching videos alone,
…you actually say what keystroke you are holding or clicking as we see the screen. No ambiguity. Excellent. No small thing.
I am taking Paul Gaboury’s class at ZBrushWorkshops. It is a very comprehensive class. Like you, I have felt frustrated with learning all the features of ZB. The class has helped but I still have to do extra study within ZB Classroom, YouTube, and books. After a few months of evenings and weekends, I can make some pretty cool sculptures, know some hard surface techniques, and have learned a lot about UV, Normal, and Texture maps that I would never have found on my own. Seeing someone create an Alpha was really helpful. In addition to Paul’s classes, ZBW also provides you with a nice set of extra tutorials to get you up and running. All of the classes are live, but recorded for your reviewing later, cause you couldn’t take it all in on the first go around. I have given myself a goal of just learning for the first 4 months, then start work on projects, and work naturally with ZB in one year. My timeline grew to this length once I realized how big ZB was. Of course it would be shorter if I was attending a class and working full time at this. Good luck and be patient.
Amazing job…Where is the full model ?
Hey man, awesome videos. I find that when I draw a curve out with an IMM brush when I go to draw out another one my first one disappears. Is there something I should be doing to “lock” it in or something?
Thanks very much,
R-
Hey there bro. Awesome tutorial. Learned a lot. But Im having trouble with something and Im insanely frustrated. Im using the brush as directed and with great results however when I try to make another chain, it cancelles the first. How can I lay down multiple?