ZBrush For Beginners- Notes And Assistance

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited November 2016

    Where To Find Additional Brushes Folder

    I mentioned about a year ago that all the brushes are not shown. I didn't point out where you can find them and also, with the newest version, not sure if these were new or in the previous, so mentioning them.

    To add more brushes to the Brush section (the flyout or whatever you want to call it) once you open it, notice there is "Load" at the bottom. Now when I went there, of COURSE the folder wasn't. If you don't have the "here I am!" waiting for you, try going to C:/ProgramFiles(x86)/Pixologic/Zbrush4R7  

    When I went to the BetaTestersBrushes, there were quite a few Inserts that look interesting. So doing a comparison of what is default loaded and what isn't- you'll get MiscMech, Scales, BarbWire, Belt, Bike Gear, BikeChain, Centipede, Greek, Omni Chain, Rope, and Stitch 1 and 2.

    Question: 

    In brushes, what is the difference between InsertCube and InsertHCube- there are several repeated like that,  with the "H"  in front of the word.   Answer: H stands for Half.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited November 2016

    I edited the post a couple minutes later to include the doc center information, did you see that? (as I realized the first link was clothing and your critter doesn't need to be decked out lol!) 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Novica said:

    I edited the post a couple minutes later to include the doc center information, did you see that? (as I realized the first link was clothing and your critter doesn't need to be decked out lol!) 

    Oh fantastic that's exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

    Also, not sure if you've seen this site but it has some useful tutorials and quite a few free models, brushes, textures, and alphas for zbrush I found very useful - http://www.badking.com.au/site/

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    I'll add it to the resources at the front of the list. I'll add the Rigging to the links too.

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    Great work Novica, I haven't tried creating an eye from scratch. I do have some links in my pinterest account for creating eyes in Zbrush.

    I have 8 boards for Zbrush which I've organised to suit me but if anyone is looking for a tutorial on something you would be likely to find it here

    https://au.pinterest.com/pendraia/

    There are some great tutorials around for free and also some great stuff through Pixologic's website and also Youtube.

    One of the tutorials I did through Ryan Kingsalien mentioned this site http://www.surfacemimic.com/gallery/gallery.php?mode=gallery&id=47&page=1 ;

    They sell some great alphas there I've bought a couple of skin ones for the face and they are really useful.

    Here's some work I did recently in ZBrush, morph is a custom one I did for the new Sora character and painting is mine. Still need to do the displacement/normals for this.

     

    sora base face f2.jpg
    1000 x 1300 - 558K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited November 2016
    Pendraia said:

    Here's some work I did recently in ZBrush, morph is a custom one I did for the new Sora character and painting is mine. Still need to do the displacement/normals for this.

     

    That is absolutely stunning!!!!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    Thanks Novica...I'm getting to where I want to be but it does take time and practice to improve. Plus constantly looking at tutorials and trying new processes.

    I need to retire so I can get more done! lol

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited November 2016

    Tip: Use hPolish to create the inside of round ears, such as for a mouse. By rotating your hand slightly in a circle, you create a nice rounded indentation. I used Z Intensity 86, Focal Shift 50, Draw Size 350

    zbrushtip.jpg
    523 x 543 - 842K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    Nice tip...the deformation menu has some nice polish options also that people might like to check out.

  • Novica said:

    Question: 

    Novica said:

    In brushes, what is the difference between InsertCube and InsertHCube- there are several repeated like that,  with the "H"  in front of the word.

    In response to your question, Novica, http://prntscr.com/d3adgm, where the cube on the left is InsertCube and the one on the right is InsertHCube.  H is for half.  You'll note that the half cube is open on the bottom.  It is also made a bit different if you look at the top of the cubes, the full cube ends in a span of triangles converging to a center point.  the half cube is quads on all visibile sides.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    Thanks Cris! I thought perfect squares were the preferred mesh. Wonder why they went with triangles in the cube top. surprise

  • Novica said:

    Thanks Cris! I thought perfect squares were the preferred mesh. Wonder why they went with triangles in the cube top. surprise

    Quads will produce nicer mesh when subdivided.  Tris can pinch.  But it's going to depend on where the tris are.  In addition, quads are easier for selections in a 3D program.  If you're making static mesh that won't be deforming, tris are not bad.  Due to pinching, and selectability, quads are better to work with for deforming mesh.  You especially try to keep tris out of the actual deformation areas.

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    If you use the initialise menu you can change the standard cube to one that has all quads. It's a good starting point for using Zmodeller. 

    You load the cube, click edit and make polymesh and go to the initialise menu. Then you can set the number of polys for each axis and then hit QCube and it will change it to what you have dialed with all sides now quads.

  • Pendraia said:

    If you use the initialise menu you can change the standard cube to one that has all quads. It's a good starting point for using Zmodeller. 

    You load the cube, click edit and make polymesh and go to the initialise menu. Then you can set the number of polys for each axis and then hit QCube and it will change it to what you have dialed with all sides now quads.

    yup, this way you have a cube that is evenly divided or you can also make a cylinder with proper rings so this way in zmodeler you can remove middle and have a perfect ring for a barrel or w/e you make

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited November 2016

    I added that information to the reference post under Cube: changing to all quads.

    Not sure how helpful this is, but it's working for me so thought I'd share. I wanted to draw lines (indentations) and get a smooth line, not jagged. So the setting for the Standard brush is  Z Intensity 38   Focal Shift -28 and Draw Size 2.   It's a balance- if your brush size goes low, you have to keep that Focal Shift between ultra hard/sharp (the negative numbers) and medium, and the intensity can't be full blast either.  I guess I'll put this in references under Lines, Drawing. Anyone else have any suggestions on drawing lines, feel free.  I then masked the mesh on the other side of the line,  used Inflate and that section enlarged nicely.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • So I when making clothing I see it's ideal to remove the polygons inside the clothing item. I was wondering how do you guys go about doing that?

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    It depends on the methods you use to create the clothing but I often will create a polygroup using zmodeller or a mask and then hide it and del hidden. Sometimes it will need more work depending on how fiddly it is.

     

  • thx I thought so, I know some people extract one side right away but I usually like working with 2 sides

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    Yep lots of different ways to do things.

    Thanks for the link Josh...

  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 8,528

    Yes, I have bought it as soon as I have spotted it (marcolini there). It is a lot of videos to watch, but I plan to see them as soon as I have a time

    and hope, that I will be able to create some similar creature in ZBrush, to practice my skills.

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    Oh, this is silly but I can't find a way to do it. I believe the Tool I started with was Nickz_human, and he was on a base. I can't get rid of the darned base. It won't let me mask it, invert, then delete hidden (I found those instructions when I Googled how to remove mesh/unwanted parts)  I can't do anything with it. No brushes work on it, nada. Any ideas? My figure is no longer attached to it (which is good.) 

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    Novica, I normally create a poly group using masking then ctrl Click to hide the poly group. Then delete hidden. 

    Have you tried using Zmodeller to poly group it if masking doesn't work? It might be more fiddly but if you have the x symmetry then you only have to do half to get both...hope that makes sense I'm just waking up.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    Pendraia said:

    Novica, I normally create a poly group using masking then ctrl Click to hide the poly group. Then delete hidden. 

    Have you tried using Zmodeller to poly group it if masking doesn't work? It might be more fiddly but if you have the x symmetry then you only have to do half to get both...hope that makes sense I'm just waking up.

    But it won't let me mask- I had read about deleting hidden, but it does require masking. We'll try a few things and if all else fails, I'll start over.

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    Did you try polygrouping it in Zmodeller? Then you won't need to mask it...just ctrl click to make the poly group hidden.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    I don't know anything about polygrouping, or what Zmodeller is unfortunately. When I exported it as an object into Daz (without UV or bones) it went without the base so far as I can tell. I think what happened is when I smoothed or trimmed adaptive, it thinned out the feet but they are really there, still connecting. 

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591

    Sorry Novica, shouldn't have assumed  you had used Zmodeller.

    With the Zmodeller function selected. Turn on the poly grid so you can see the wire frame.

    There are two ways you can polygroup with zmodeller the simplest is to hold alt and click on a poly this should change the colour of that poly.

    The second way is to right click while hovering over the poly and it will give a menu to select from. Default is Qmesh.

    Change it to polygroup. Look at the selections below the top section and you have other options. Playing with these settings may help you to speed up changing them to a different poly group.

    Before you start hit x. This will set the x symmetry to on and you should see two red dots when hovering over the model.

    I tried 3 sides and additive and that helped to select as loops.

    When you have selected it all Ctrl-shift and click on  a poly group. The first click will make everything else disappear the second click on the same item reverses it.

    Once the part you want to delete is hidden click delete hidden under Modify topology.

    Hope that helps...yell if something doesn't make sense.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited January 2017

    Thanks, I'll try it tomorrow night. We've got out of town company and (of course) they want to spend time at the stables with the horse, so I'm not going to be home much tomorrow (and tired at the moment, not a time to tackle new processes.) Thanks SO much for the tutorial, I will definitely try it!

    EDIT: Putting it here so it's close to the post, above. To delete its under GEOMETRY>Modify Topology>Del Hidden

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    oops, it's apparently spelled Modeler. Anyway, thought I'd research it a bit, here's a video. 

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 2016

    Sorry...I'm brain dead at the moment as I didn't sleep well last night. You're right it is just one l.

     

    Try this video if you want more info on polygroups in Zmodeler.

    Post edited by Pendraia on
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