brush intensity problem

#1

I have been trying to sculpt with zbrush brushes on a hi res mesh and I have found that unlike other programs (IE mudbox, max) the maximum possible intensity of the strokes (Z intensity=100) is not enough for what I’m trying to do. I have also noticed that intensity also depends on brush size (the bigger the stronger) but what I need to do is a narrow but deep knife-like cut. Does anyone know a way to fix this?. Thanks.

#2

Make a stroke with your brush as usual. now hit the hotkey ‘1’. This is repeat last stroke/action. It will add to the previous stroke every time cumulatively. You can hit this as many times as you need to to define the cut that you want.

#3

Thanks for the answer. It worked. The only problem is that it only intensifies the very last stroke meaning that I have to be tapping the hotkey constantly. I was wondering if it was possible to apply this action to an entire layer instead to speed up things. I have tried to duplicate the layer but they don’t add up. The big problem I see in zbrush is that values for everything are limited to 100. In mudbox you can enter a value up to 1000 and layers add up. I guess zbrush works different in this respect.

#4

1:brush >dam_standard
z-intensity 100

2: tool>layers>new
3:stroke model
4:tool>layers>intensity slider 5
5:tool>layers>duplicate layer,
make sure you duplicate and not press new

you can all so use tool>morph target
then use them sliders and all so use the brush>morph to morph back unwanted defects

#5

Thanks for the answer. It works with standard brushes but not with the pinch brush. Is there a way to have the same wedge shaped stroke of pinch with the standard brush?

#6

Remember, you can always go into the brush settings and make adjustments as needed.

#7

thank you. I’ll check it out.

#8

if you turn on polyframe you will see the pinch brush destroys the mesh .

if you had a pic we could see it would help.
there is to many settings and things to change its hard to tell unless we can see a pic of what you want it to look like.
this is
1:brush>Displace
2: stroke> lazy mouse on

  even try adjusting focal shift and z-intensity 
  [http://i.imgur.com/Iye4lbV.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/Iye4lbV.jpg)
 the image below was done all in 1 stroke,
 one with zadd on and one with zsub on.
z-intensity 90

the image below is more then a deep knife-like cut

http://i.imgur.com/MJwYeiu.jpg

#9

This is a screen cap of what I was trying to do:
](http://s46.photobucket.com/user/toneloperu/media/pinchzb_zps80e40b5d.jpg.html)[/IMG]
the pinch brush only had good depth at this size which was too wide. Lazy mouse was on when I was doing it. Displace brush seems to have better depth but still shrinks with size. Polyframe option is not available in the draw menu. Basically, I would like a wedge shaped cut but not as wide. I have also noticed that your stroke looks smoother than mine. My strokes look very jagged. Are you using the preview render?. How many polys is the model in your image?. I have been working with 3 million polys. Do you know if render quality is GPU dependent?. Thanks.

#10

I would venture to guess that your geometry probably isn’t even which may cause the jaggedness in some areas. If you turn on your polyframe you might see it.

#11

Based on the posted images, I agree.

#12

Thanks for the tip. Even though the zspheres generated a clean all quad mesh it was not even sized. I applied dynamesh and remesher on it and after some subdivisions the strokes came out fine. However, I would like to know what would be a good polycount for sculpting a character. I can subdivide up to 10 million polys before I get the warning message.

#13

the polyframe(PolyF) is on the lower right self next to the canvas,
it turns on wireframe;

youtube making zbrush armor or Panel Loops,
with Panel Loops you can adjust the shape of the bevel
video link click [HERE](http://pixologic.com/video/video-v2-zcr.php?videoname=https://s3.amazonaws.com/zclassroom/homeroom/lessons/videos/helmet-creation/procedural-processes-panel-loops.f4v&w=1024&h=576)


#14

Yes. I already found the polyframe button. I have also checked the video. It was very useful. Very thoughtful of you. Thank you very much.

#15

here is a macro you can try.
you need to use MASK and the mesh should not have subdivision levels.
change any settings in panel loop and they will apply when you use this macro


 //ZBRUSH MACRO - Recorded in ZBrush version 4.6
 [IButton,???,"Press to run this macro. Macros can be aborted by pressing the ëescí key.",
 [IShowActions,0]
 [IConfig,4.6]
 [IKeyPress,CTRL,[IPress,Stroke:LazyMouse]]
 [ISet,Tool:Polygroups:PolishGP,1]
 [IPress,Tool:Polygroups:Group Masked]
 [IPress,Tool:Masking:Inverse]
 [IPress,Tool:Visibility:HidePt]
 [IPress,Tool:Geometry:P.Append]
 [IPress,Tool:Geometry:P.Panel Loops]
 [IPress,Tool:Masking:Clear]
 ]
#16

Thanks. It worked. But I also managed to make it work without it. It’s not that hard after some little practice. However, I would like to know if I can apply a panel loop to a polygroup without affecting the rest of the mesh. I have tried masking the rest of the mesh but I get an extruded panel instead of indented borders.

#17

hide part of the model group by CTRL+SHIFT Click mesh group and press (EDGE LOOP)
now it will create a new edge,
select the new edge so only it shows,
now you can extrude it outwards or inwards using this plugin, link below the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ9BvIdyjIE

in this image the left side was extruded outward
and the right side extruded inwards
http://i.imgur.com/vxBHFw1.jpg

#18

thanks. It worked but do you know how to adjust the thickness of the edge loop?. I can only get a very thin indentation.

#19

the 2 sliders on the far right of the plugin move them to the LEFT to make it indentation
the more you move the slide the more it will indent.

if you want a more width from 1 edge loop,
hide part of the model group by CTRL+SHIFT Click mesh group and press (EDGE LOOP)
now it will create a new edge,
select the new edge so only it shows,
then go to tool>visibility>GROW
then use the plugin sliders to indent or extrude.
http://i.imgur.com/qv0eZMv.jpg

#20

It works but since it’s growing on the outside of the loop I get a very jagged ring. It looks like this:
](http://s46.photobucket.com/user/toneloperu/media/jaggededge_zps8b507dbb.jpg.html)[/IMG]

Is there a way to make it cleaner?. Thanks.