Stroke Palette

From ZBrush Info

Introduction

The Stroke settings determine how ZBrush will interpret mouse down, mouse movement, and mouse up actions with the selected tool. Numerous stroke types and options let you achieve a very complex visual effect with just a single mouse drag. The image at the left was produced with a single drag, using the Radial stroke type, a torus as the drawing tool, and a rainbow texture

The action of the stroke type depends on which tool is selected, so experimentation is the key to learning all the combinations. Each brush has different capabilities and will react in a unique way. All of the 3D object tools react to stroke type in the same way.

Types of Strokes

A stroke type determines how elements are drawn; for example, the DragDot stroke type lets you place a single instance of the drawing tool, while the Grid type lets you draw multiple instances at once, arranged in a grid.

Most, but not all, stroke types are shown by default in the palette. To see all of them, click the large thumbnail.

You can select a stroke either by clicking its thumbnail directly in the Stroke palette, or by clicking the larger thumbnail and selecting from the popup inventory.

To see the name of a stroke, hold the mouse cursor over its thumbnail for a moment until the label appears.

Modifiers for Strokes

Modifiers further refine the effect of a particular type of stroke. For example, two sliders determine how many rows and columns of elements are drawn when the Grid stroke is used.

Recording Strokes

You can record, combine, and even save strokes for later use. You can use recorded strokes to play back the motion of a previous stroke, but with different drawing tools or settings, so that you can (for example) compose a single shape out of many different "passes" of the same stroke.

Controls

Stroke Type Descriptions

Note: A red Sphere3D tool is used as the drawing tool for all of the following examples; for strokes that orient themselves to the surface underneath, a pink sphere is used as that surface.

Dots: Mouse down determines the starting point of the stroke, mouse movement draws spheres (or whatever the selected paint tool is) with a diameter determined by the Draw:Draw Size setting. If using a tablet, pen pressure also affects the size of the spheres. Spacing is determined by the speed of mouse movement. Mouse up will end the stroke.

DragRect: Mouse down will determine placement of the tool, mouse movement will determine its size, and mouse up will draw the tool. Tools will be rotated about their Z-axis depending on the direction of the stroke. This is the default stroke type for 3D objects.

Freehand: Draws instances of the current tool spaced equivalently apart, as the mouse moves. A Mouse down determines starting point of the tools, mouse move draws them with size determined by the Draw Size setting. Spacing is determined automatically by ZBrush to give a fluid brush stroke.

Line: Mouse down sets starting point of the objects, , drag draws the tool, mouse up ends. Size is determined by the Draw:Draw Size setting, and density is determined by Stroke:Spacing; a larger value will give more densely packed elements.

LineII: Mouse down sets starting point of the objects, , drag draws the tool, mouse up ends. Size is determined by the Draw:Draw Size setting, and spacing is determined by Stroke:Spacing; a larger value will give fewer elements.

DragDot: Mouse down will create one instance of the sphere with size determined by the Draw Size setting. Mouse move will position the sphere and mouse up will place the sphere at that position.

Conic: Mouse down will determine starting point and direction of the objects, mouse move draws spheres with size determined by the Draw Size setting and spacing determined by the spacing slider. The initial direction of the stroke is aligned to the surface that the stroke begins on. If the stroke returns to the starting point, its direction will be aligned again. Mouse up will end the stroke.

Two conic strokes.

Planar Dots: Mouse down will determine starting point and direction of the objects, mouse move draws spheres with size determined by the Draw Size setting and spacing determined by the spacing slider. The direction of the stroke is aligned tangentially to the surface that the stroke begins on. Mouse up will end the stroke.

Line90: Mouse down will determine the starting point and direction of the line object, mouse move draws a line with diameter determined by the Draw Size setting. The direction of the stroke is aligned perpendicular to the surface that the stroke begins on. Mouse up will end the stroke

Ray90: Very similar to Line 90, Ray 90 allows build-up of material by moving the mouse back and forth before release.

Spray: Applies a random pattern of dots in different sizes and color intensities along the path of the cursor drag. The current primary color is used as the color base.

Colorized Spray: Similar to Spray, but applies variations of color rather than color intensity. The current primary and secondary colors are used as the color bases.

Note: The Spray and Colorized Spray stroke types are extremely useful for texturing. Nature is chaotic, and these strokes can help easily duplicate that chaos in the creation of grunge, bumps, or variations of pattern.

Radial: Draws multiple copies of the tool around the mouse click point. Length of the drag determines radius of drawing, direction of drag sets rotation around local Z-axis.

Grid: Draws multiple copies of the tool in a grid. Length of the drag determines grid size, direction of drag sets orientation around the local Z-axis, M.Repeat and S.Repeat modifiers control number of elements in the grid, Scale modifier determines relative scale of drawing elements to stroke length.

Modifiers

Directional: Specifies that continuous brush strokes are only applied while traveling away from the point of first click. Default = Off

Spacing: The spacing slider controls the spacing between the instances in the stroke. A spacing of 0.5 will place the instances one-half of their diameter apart. A spacing of 2 will place the instances two times their diameter apart. Range = 0 to 2. Default = 0.75

Placement: Used by the two spray stroke types, this determines how far each dot can stray from the center line of the stroke. Range = 0 to 1. Default = .5

Scale: Used by the two spray stroke types, this determines the maximum variation in dot size. If set to 0, all dots are the same size. Used by the Grid and Radial strokes, it determines the size of each element relative to the size of the grid or radius drawn. Range = 0 to 1. Default = 1

Color: Used by the two spray stroke types, this determines the maximum allowable color or color intensity variation. If set to 0, all dots will be drawn the same color. Range = 0 to 1. Default = .5

Flow: Used by the two spray stroke types, this determines the density of the dots drawn. Smaller values result in fewer dots. Range = 0 to 1. Default =.25

M.Repeat: For stroke types that repeat elements, this sets the number of times the element is repeated in its “main” direction. For example, setting this to 7 would cause a Radial stroke to draw seven identical instances of an element in a circle.

H.Repeat: For repeating stroke types that use two values to determine the number of elements, this is the second value. For example, with M.Repeat=3 and S.Repeat=4, you’ll get a Grid stroke with 4 columns and 3 rows of elements.

Mouse Avg: Smoothes strokes by averaging recent mouse locations. A value of 1 does not smooth strokes at all; higher values result in more smoothing.

Inventory

Record: Press to begin recording strokes. Press again to end recording strokes. Only the stroke is recorded; not the tool, texture, material, or any other properties of the action. This allows the stroke to be replayed using any other tool or properties.

Add: When pressed, strokes that are recorded will be added to the current recording. If not enabled, recording will overwrite the previously recorded stroke.

Strokes Count: Indicates the number of strokes in the current recording.

Replay Last: Replays the last stroke. You can play back the stroke using different tools, colors, and sizes.

Replay All: Replays all recorded strokes. You can play back the strokes using different tools, colors, and sizes.

Export Last: Exports the last stroke as a text file that can be read by a ZScript.

Export All: Exports all recorded strokes as a text file that can be read by a ZScript.

Lazy Mouse

Tips and Tricks

Sculpting With a Smooth Stroke

When sculpting with a very low draw size your brush stroke may become dotted or patchy. To resolve this you can increase Mouse Avg in the Stroke palette. You also try zooming in on the area that you wish to sculpt a fine line in and the increasing your brush size.

For heavy models this may still occur no matter how high the Mouse Avg is set to. To resolve this just go into Projection Master to create the fine line.