New Brushes
From ZBrush Info
New sculpting features are added to ZBrush with each new release. In order to help you begin using these features immediately – with great results even before you have learned the various settings for these features – we have added several new “preset” brushes.
When you first open the Brush pop-up window you will see that it has been reorganized. Several new brushes have been added and to make room for them some from ZBrush 4 have been removed. Those that have been removed are still available to you, however. You will find them by clicking the LightBox button and then clicking the Brush heading. You will actually find far more brushes than just the ones that have been moved out to make room for the new presets. There’s a huge variety to choose from!
Several of the new brushes combine pre-existing brushes with the new features and functions introduced in ZBrush 4R2. Others provide access to the new features with settings that we anticipate you will find the most useful. Feel free to experiment with the various modifiers for these brushes to adapt them to your needs.
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Curve
Uses the new Stroke > Curves functions combined with a standard sculpting brush. This makes it possible to sweep your sculpt along a precise curve.
Curve Mesh
Creates a curve with a cylinder inserted along the curve’s length, snapped to the canvas’ working plane. When using this brush your model cannot have subdivision levels, meaning that you will use it to its greatest potential when working with a DynaMesh.
Curve Mesh Insert
Similar to Curve Mesh, except that the curve snaps to the surface of the model rather than the canvas plane. Your model cannot have subdivision levels when using this brush. Within the Brush >> Modifiers sub-palette the Brush Modifier slider will control how many faces the mesh has when drawn onto a model. For example, the default value of 20 creates a smooth cylinder but if you change Brush Modifier to 4 then the mesh will have a square cross section when drawn.
Curve Surface
Similar to Curve Mesh except that it inserts a cube along the curve, creating a type of extrusion. As with the other mesh insertion brushes, your model cannot have subdivision levels when using this brush.
Move Curve
Combines the effects of the Curve and Move brushes for a constant displacement of geometry along the curve path.
Insert Cube (also Sphere, Cylinder, Hand, Head)
Inserts a predefined 3D model into/on the current Tool or SubTool. It is possible to insert any mesh object by clicking the MeshInsert Preview patch found in the Brush >> Modifiers sub-palette. The mesh that is being inserted can’t have subdivision levels.
Slice Brush
On the left, the original model with the Slice brush Curve. In the middle and in the right, the resulting topology and the two polygroup created by the brush.
The Slice brush is not a brush in the traditional sense but rather is similar to the mask, smooth and selection brushes in how you access it. First you select the desired Slice brush and then ZBrush uses that brush any time you hold the modifier keys. (In this case, Ctrl+Shift.) This brush does not use standard symmetry and can’t be used on a mesh with multiple subdivision levels. If you wish to maintain your subdivisions, first use the Freeze Subdivision Levels option located in the Tool > Geometry menu. Establish symmetry by using Mirror and Weld in that same menu.
This brush simply slices the model’s geometry and creates a different PolyGroup on each side of the drawn curve. The Slice brush curve system is similar to the Clip brushes. For more information about them, please read the corresponding chapter in this document.
When slicing the model, the corresponding curve adds to the model’s topology. Triangles will be created where a quad cannot be created from the slice of the curve.
When combined with DynaMesh and its Group option, the Slice brush lets you literally split your mesh in two pieces along the curve. Upon remesh, ZBrush will create two objects with separate PolyGroups. However, even though new pieces are created they are still part of the same Tool or SubTool. If you need to split them into separate SubTools, simply use the Group Split function found in the Tool > SubTool menu.
The Slice Curve, combined with the DynaMesh.
Curve Fill Brush
The Curve Fill brush combines two new features: the Stroke Curve and the new optimized Filling Hole command. It creates a volume based on a contour drawn by the curve with depth distance corresponding to the size of your brush.
It’s a quick way to create flat new meshes as a base for sculpting with DynaMesh.
Note: If the curve is not closed, ZBrush will automatically do so by connecting the two extremities.
