New Brushes, Settings and Behaviors
From ZBrush Info
ZBrush 4 introduces several new brushes that use new dedicated settings, bringing even more possibilities for your creative process: from creating rough shapes to global deformations or fine tuning of your sculpts.
Some of these new brushes work as modifiers: when selected, you can call them through a hotkey like how the Smooth brushes can be activated on the fly with the Shift key.
They are also connected with new Stroke types. Please refer to the Stroke New Features chapter for more information.
ZBrush Artist - Trevor Hennington
Contents |
Modifiers as Brushes: Masks, Selections, Smooth and Clip
Introduced in ZBrush 3.5, several functions of ZBrush are now accessible as brushes: Mask, Hide polygons, Smoothing and more. Several of the new brushes are accessed by holding hotkeys (Ctrl/Command, ALT and/or Shift).
When selecting a brush which is assigned to a modifier, ZBrush will warn you.
As with Smooth, these brushes can’t be use like a normal brush and are only accessible as an alternative by holding the associated hotkey.
This is the list of the hotkeys corresponding to brush types:
- Mask brushes: Ctrl
- Smooth Brushes: Shift
- Hide/Show: Ctrl+Shift
- Clip Brushes: Ctrl+Shift
The ALT key isn’t used to call brushes as it is used to inverse operations. Pressing ALT will:
- Erase the Mask while drawing it.
- Hide the polygons in the selection areas.
- Change the direction of the Clip brushes.
As these brushes are now used as modifiers, it is important to keep in mind that any modifications that you might want to make to these brushes (such as changing an Alpha, the Z intensity setting, etc.), must be done while pressing the corresponding shortcut. If you want to save one of these brushes after customizing it, you must hold the corresponding modifier when clicking the Save As button located in the Brush palette.
Note:
Any brush stored as an alternative brush will be reset each time you restart ZBrush. The default brushes are Smooth for Shift, Marquee selection for Ctrl+Shift, Mask Pen for Ctrl when doing a stroke on the model and Mask Marquee when doing a stroke outside of the model.
Brush type
ZBrush uses many different types of brushes, which combine with the various settings, strokes and alphas to give you thousands of different brushes for total sculpting freedom. To know which type of brush is the base, just mouse over a brush and the brush’s foundation behavior will be displayed in the floating preview window.
The brush type name is displayed at the bottom of the brush pop-up.
Clip Brushes
The clip Brushes are different from any other brushes as their operation is always perpendicular to the canvas. These brushes are similar to how the Eraser tool cuts away pixols on the canvas, except that they are used to cut away areas of your model and slice its borders. These Clip brushes do not change the topology of your model; they only push the polygons based on the stroke you apply to your model.
The Clip Curve brush in action, combined with radial symmetry.
Since the clip Brushes use open and closed curves, it is important to know which side the clipped polygons will be pushed to. For this purpose, the curves have a shadow on one side and polygons will be pushed in the direction of the shadow. If you create your stroke in the wrong direction, just press the ALT key to tell ZBrush that you want to push the polygons in the other direction.
The clip brushes respect masking. If you want to protect an area from being pushed, simply paint a mask on it. Don’t forget to check your model for unprotected areas as the clip brushes operate through the whole depth of the model relative to the curve.
When tapping the ALT key once with the ClipCurve brush you will create a curved line that can be changed in direction every time ALT is clicked. If you double-tap the ALT key when using the ClipCurve brush, the change in line direction will be a sharp angle rather than a smooth curve.
When holding the ALT key while using the Circle or Rectangle Clip brush, ZBrush will cut away all of the mesh that is inside the drawn circle or rectangle. Understand that if you hold the ALT key and the cross indicator is over any part of the mesh there will be a result of geometry being pushed out.
The clip brushes all share the same behaviors; only the Stroke type makes them different.
Clip brushes additional features
Stroke option
By pressing Ctrl+Spacebar while using a Clip brush, a pop-up window will appear offering two options:
- Brush Radius: When enabled, the polygons will be partially pushed to the line depending upon the brush size and the distance of the mesh from the camera.
- By Polygroup: When enabled, a polygroup will be created based on the pushed geometry included in the circle or rectangle stroke.
Brush Radius and By Polygroups are also located in the Transform palette.
Center position for Circle and rectangle Clip Brushes
When drawing a Circle or Rectangle stroke, a small cross appears in the middle of the shape. When the cross is outside of the mesh, the polygons are cut to the edge of the circle or rectangle to create a notch in your model. When the indicator is inside the mesh, polygons will be pushed out which results in an expansion of geometry rather than a cut.
1: The Circle Clip brush is used with the center of the stroke outside of the model. 2: The result, with the polygons pushed inside the circle. 3: For this new stroke, the center is inside the model. 4: The polygons are pushed outside the circle. 5: The same as 4, but at a different angle to show how the clip takes place relative to the canvas.
Note:
When pressing ALT while the indicator is inside the mesh, the stroke switches from white to black and the polygons located inside the stroke are pushed perpendicular to the screen, in both directions.
If you start to create a stroke and need to move it, hold the spacebar and move your cursor; the stroke will move. Release the spacebar to continue or finish the stroke.
Selecting and using Clip Brushes
As with the Smooth brushes, the Clip brushes are activated by hotkey. When selecting a Clip brush in the Brush palette, it will automatically be assigned to a specific hotkey: Ctrl+Shift.
When using a normal brush, press Ctrl+Shift to activate the last selected Clip brush. Release Ctrl+Shift to return to using the normal brush.
Selecting another Clip brush will replace the previously selected one without changing the active normal brush.
Clip Curve
The Clip Curve uses a curve to push the polygons. By default, this is a straight line.
Tap the ALT key to create an invisible point that will transform the line into a curve.
Image:.jpg By default, the Clip Curve creates a straight line, which pushes all the polygons to the same plane.
If you want to create an angle at the point position instead of a curve, double-tap the ALT key.
If needed, press the space bar to move your curve while creating it.
Press the ALT key when releasing the cursor if you want to push the polygons on the other side of the curve, according to the curve shadow position.
On the left, the Alt key has been tapped once in two different positions to create the curve. On the right, the Alt key has been tapped once to create a curve and then tapped twice to create an angle.
The shadow of the Clip Curve must always be on the same side of the curve. Basically, the Curve pushes all polygons in the direction of the gradient side of the curve. A curve which looks like a letter “S” would not work as the curve gradient will reverse twice and produce an unexpected result.
On the top: Valid clip curves. Note that the bottom section of the last one on the right is at the limit of working. On the bottom: invalid curves which can produce unexpected results. The curve is crossing its shadow.
Note: It is not possible to edit the clicked points after they have been created.
Clip Circle
The Clip Circle uses an ellipse to push the polygons. By default, all the polygons outside of the circle will be pushed to the border of the drawn circle.
Hold the ALT key when releasing the mouse button if you want to push the polygons located inside of the circle. This will allow you to create clean circular edges in a mesh’s existing hole. (The clip brushes cannot be used to create holes in topology, but they can reshape existing holes.)
By activating the Center and Square features in the Stroke Palette you will draw a perfect circle with the center located at the initial brush click.
If the Middle Cross indicator is over the mesh when holding the ALT key, the geometry within the circle will be pushed out instead of being clipped.
If needed, press the spacebar to move your curve while creating it.
Note: It is not possible to edit the clicked points after they have been created.
Clip Circle Center
Clip Circle Center is the same brush as Clip Circle, except that the stroke creates a perfect circle using the Square and Center options located in the Stroke palette. By default, all the polygons outside of the circle will be pushed to the edge of the drawn circle.
Hold the ALT key when releasing the mouse button if you want to push the polygons located inside of the circle.
If needed, press spacebar to move your curve while creating it. Note:
It is not possible to edit the clicked points after they have been created.
Clip rectangle
Clip Rectangle uses a rectangle to push the polygons. By default, all the polygons outside of the rectangle will be pushed to the border of the drawn shape.
Hold the ALT key when releasing the mouse button if you want to push the polygons located inside of the rectangle. This will allow you to create clean square holes in a mesh that already has a hole. (The clip brushes cannot be used to create holes in topology, but they can reshape existing holes.)
By activating the Center and Square features in the Stroke Palette you will draw a perfect square centered on the initial brush click.
If the Middle Cross indicator is over the Mesh when holding the ALT key then the geometry within the rectangle will be pushed out instead of being clipped.
If needed, press the spacebar to move your curve while creating it.
New Brush settings
ZBrush 4 includes several new settings for brushes, adding more freedom of creation to your toolset.
Elasticity
The new Elasticity setting lets you deform your topology while at the same time avoiding stretched polygons. When using this setting (mainly with the Move brush), ZBrush will relax the topology while deforming your model.
Elasticity Strength: Controls the amount of relaxation that will be applied to maintain the geometry of a mesh while it is being edited.
Elasticity Auto Adjust: Affects the strength of the elasticity on the fly by moving your stroke back to the starting point. Set this setting to 1 for no effect when reversing stroke direction.
- Elasticity Auto Off: Determines what polycount must be reached for a mesh before ZBrush will automatically disable the elasticity settings. Once the polycount has been reached, any brush with an Elasticity Strength will take on the same behavior it had before Elasticity was applied.
On the top, the original model with two strokes which illustrate cursor movement. On the bottom left, the result with the Move Elastic brush and active Elasticity settings. It generates a mesh with uniform topology and a smooth deformation, as opposed to the traditional Move brush shown on the bottom right.
Orientation
The new Orientation setting makes the brush spin around the stroke line, letting you create creative strokes and patterns which would have taken a lot of time in a more traditional way.
- Spin Center slider: Controls the amount of distance the alpha will spin from the center line of the brush stroke. The higher the slider the wider the arcs will be.
- Spin Angle slider: Controls the angle the alpha will spin around the center line of the brush stroke. The higher the slider the larger the arcs will be.
- Spin Rate slider: Controls the speed at which the alpha spins along your brush stroke. A high setting will cause the alpha to spin more often.
Spin researches by Magdalena Dadela
Auto Masking: Topological
This new Auto Masking function, located in the Brush >> Automasking menu lets the brush evaluate the topology of the model. Prime examples would be opening or closing a character’s mouth. With this active ZBrush will not affect the lower lip of a character when the upper lip is being worked on. The Topological Range is vital in evaluating the topological flow of a mesh when this feature is active.
- Topological mode: When the Topological option is activated on any brush ZBrush will respect the topological flow of the mesh.
- Range slider: Determines the distance ZBrush will evaluate along the topology of a mesh when calculating points to be affected by the selected brush. If the setting is 3 then ZBrush will evaluate a distance of 3 times the current Draw Size to establish a range of vertex points that can be affected as the brush is moved along the surface.
- Smooth slider: Determines the distance ZBrush will evaluate along the topology of a mesh. If the setting is 3 then ZBrush will evaluate the mesh up to a distance of three times the current Draw Size.
Topological masking in action with the Move brush: On the left, the non-deformed lips. In the center, the result with Toplogical Auto masking. On the right, the result without Topological Automasking.
New Brushes
Making use of the new settings introduced in ZBrush 4, several new brushes have been added. At the same time, some brushes previously found in the Brush palette have been moved to the Brush section of Light Box.
At any time, you can add brushes to the startup Brush palette by placing them in the ZBrush 4.0\ZStartup\BrushPresets folder. ZBrush will display up to 256 brushes in the pop-up Brush palette.
Clay Buildup
The Clay Buildup brush is a variation of the Clay Tubes Brush. It will produce more displacement of the polygons when used but respect the build up of the various strokes. This brush is perfect to block out the volume of your model, before switching to the “traditional” Clay brush.
Clay Spin
The Clay Spin brush is a variation of the Clay Buildup brush, combined with the new Spin settings.
Move Elastic
The Move Elastic brush is a variation of the Move brush, combined with the new Elastic settings. This brush is very powerful to drastically deform your base mesh’s shape while avoiding undue stretching of important polygons.
The roses were created using the Move Elastic brush. Image by Magdalena Dadela.
Move Parts
The Move Parts brush is a variation of the Move Brush, combined with Topological masking at its maximum settings. Even if the Draw Size is very large, the non-connected geometry around your stroke won’t be affected by the Move Parts brush.
Adjust the Focal Shift to -100 to have less mesh distortion.
Move TopoElastic
Image:Brush move topoelastic.png
The Move TopoElastic brush is a variation of the Move Brush, combined with Topological masking and the Elasticity settings. It generates nice deformation on the models by protecting the topology around the working areas and avoids high stretching of the polygons.
Move Topological
The Move Topological brush is a variation of the Move Brush, combined with Topologocal masking. This brush will allow you to modify areas without affecting the surrounding geometry, like modifying a character’s bottom lip without affecting the top lip.
Change the Topological settings located in the Brush >> Auto Masking menu to change the brush topological influence.
Deco 1 to 7
A new set of brushes named Deco1 to Deco7 has been added, which use the new Orientation settings found in the Brush palette and described above. These new brushes, customized with different alphas will let you create advanced patterns. They are not similar to the 2.5D Deco Brush Tool, but rather are decoration brushes for sculpting.
Rope1
The Rope1 brush uses the new capability of creating a rectangle alpha on a brush to create an endless rope.
Weave 1 to 3
The new Weave brushes use the new Roll Distance slider located in the Stroke palette to stretch the selected Alpha along the path.
These brushes use different Alphas and different Roll distance settings.
Please see the New Stroke Additions chapter for more information about the Roll Distance slider.
ZBrush Artist - James Van Den Bogart
