Pixolator is very pleased that the viewers found PART 1 to be valuable and inspirational. Below is PART 2 of the movie which I hope you'll enjoy. PART 3 will be posted when the activity of 'PART 2' subsides.
Pixolator recommends that you view the movie -before- the accompanying notes
Few notes about the movie…
As seen in PART 1, the motorcycle was mostly assembled by using mesh extract from a high res flat plane mesh. In PART 2, more sub-tools are added with methods that are similar the those shown in PART 1. PART 3 will deal with refining and polishing the Motorcycle to its final state.
About Mesh Extract: The mesh-extract feature is similar to Shadowbox and may be considered as a one-dimension-ShadowBox (shadowbox may use up to 3 dimensions). There are, however, some differences between mesh extract and shadowbox. Mesh-extract uses the existing topology when creating the new mesh while shadowbox generates new topology (unified skinning). Therefore, if you have a base mesh with satisfactory topology, you may use the mesh extract feature and get a new sub-tool with the same topology. Furthermore, mesh extract can be used on any curved surface to produce a form-fitting sub-tool, -as an example, see the construction of the undercarriage sub-tool in part 1 and 2.
On the other hand, ShadowBox is capable of creating far more intricate shapes making it more suitable for organic sculpting as well as more complex hard-surface shapes (as seen in the creation of the manifold in part 1).
The creation of new sub-tools via duplication and transformation is streamlined and allows you to quickly create elaborate structures by using multiple instances of several simple building blocks. The process is easy enough that you may quickly find yourself managing 100 or more sub-tools. When you reached that stage, you may need to gain access to part of the mesh that may be obstructed by other sub-tools. There are multiple ways for you to go about managing large number of sub-tools...
1. Make frequent use of the Solo mode. This not only hides all other sub-tools, it also allows you to easily refine one sub-tool without any slowdown or processing penalties that may result from other inactive sub-tools.
2. You may activate subtools-transparency mode which will allow you to see your active sub-tool even when it is obstructed by other, closer sub-tools.
3. At times, you may want to hide some of the sub-tools that reduce your visibility of the active sub-tool without activating 'Solo' or 'Transparency' modes. One less known, but very important feature, allows you to do this easily.
Usually, it is very simple to hide inactive sub-tools in the sub-tool palette by simply clicking its 'eye' icon. However, when you have large number of sub-tools, simply identifying the sub-tool that you want to hide in the sub-tool palette may take too long. This is when the following tip comes handy…
To hide a sub-tool that obstructs the view of your active sub-tool, do the following:
A. Within the document area, opt-click on the sub-tool that you wish to hide. This will make that sub-tool the active one and it will become visible and selected within the sub-tool palette.
B. Now, the important part… If you simply click on the 'eye' icon of the active sub-tool, you will hide or show all sub-tools - a result far from what we want. What you should do instead is click within the area of the subtotal button, but not on the 'eye' itself. This will now turn off the 'eye' icon only for the active sub-tool, without changing the visibility status of any other subtools.
C. Now, opt-click within the document on the sub-tool that you wish to edit. The sub-tool that has its 'eye' turned off will be hidden and will no longer obstruct your view.
You may repeat this process multiple times in secession to quickly hide multiple subtools and then reactive the sub-tool which you want to edit.
4. When you get to a stage that you mesh contains so many subtools that your systems become less responsive or that you view of an 'area of interest' becomes obstructed too frequently, then its time to use other methods that are available to you in ZBrush. One such method is demonstrated in the Movie Part 2 (the movie in this post) beginning at 16 minus and 45 seconds into the movie. Movie Part 3 will demonstrate another effective method.
More Movie notes and answers to questions will be added at a later date.
Have fun ZBrushing,
Courtesy -Pixolator, ZBrush Central
Pixolator recommends that you view the movie -before- the accompanying notes
Few notes about the movie…
As seen in PART 1, the motorcycle was mostly assembled by using mesh extract from a high res flat plane mesh. In PART 2, more sub-tools are added with methods that are similar the those shown in PART 1. PART 3 will deal with refining and polishing the Motorcycle to its final state.
About Mesh Extract: The mesh-extract feature is similar to Shadowbox and may be considered as a one-dimension-ShadowBox (shadowbox may use up to 3 dimensions). There are, however, some differences between mesh extract and shadowbox. Mesh-extract uses the existing topology when creating the new mesh while shadowbox generates new topology (unified skinning). Therefore, if you have a base mesh with satisfactory topology, you may use the mesh extract feature and get a new sub-tool with the same topology. Furthermore, mesh extract can be used on any curved surface to produce a form-fitting sub-tool, -as an example, see the construction of the undercarriage sub-tool in part 1 and 2.
On the other hand, ShadowBox is capable of creating far more intricate shapes making it more suitable for organic sculpting as well as more complex hard-surface shapes (as seen in the creation of the manifold in part 1).
The creation of new sub-tools via duplication and transformation is streamlined and allows you to quickly create elaborate structures by using multiple instances of several simple building blocks. The process is easy enough that you may quickly find yourself managing 100 or more sub-tools. When you reached that stage, you may need to gain access to part of the mesh that may be obstructed by other sub-tools. There are multiple ways for you to go about managing large number of sub-tools...
1. Make frequent use of the Solo mode. This not only hides all other sub-tools, it also allows you to easily refine one sub-tool without any slowdown or processing penalties that may result from other inactive sub-tools.
2. You may activate subtools-transparency mode which will allow you to see your active sub-tool even when it is obstructed by other, closer sub-tools.
3. At times, you may want to hide some of the sub-tools that reduce your visibility of the active sub-tool without activating 'Solo' or 'Transparency' modes. One less known, but very important feature, allows you to do this easily.
Usually, it is very simple to hide inactive sub-tools in the sub-tool palette by simply clicking its 'eye' icon. However, when you have large number of sub-tools, simply identifying the sub-tool that you want to hide in the sub-tool palette may take too long. This is when the following tip comes handy…
To hide a sub-tool that obstructs the view of your active sub-tool, do the following:
A. Within the document area, opt-click on the sub-tool that you wish to hide. This will make that sub-tool the active one and it will become visible and selected within the sub-tool palette.
B. Now, the important part… If you simply click on the 'eye' icon of the active sub-tool, you will hide or show all sub-tools - a result far from what we want. What you should do instead is click within the area of the subtotal button, but not on the 'eye' itself. This will now turn off the 'eye' icon only for the active sub-tool, without changing the visibility status of any other subtools.
C. Now, opt-click within the document on the sub-tool that you wish to edit. The sub-tool that has its 'eye' turned off will be hidden and will no longer obstruct your view.
You may repeat this process multiple times in secession to quickly hide multiple subtools and then reactive the sub-tool which you want to edit.
4. When you get to a stage that you mesh contains so many subtools that your systems become less responsive or that you view of an 'area of interest' becomes obstructed too frequently, then its time to use other methods that are available to you in ZBrush. One such method is demonstrated in the Movie Part 2 (the movie in this post) beginning at 16 minus and 45 seconds into the movie. Movie Part 3 will demonstrate another effective method.
More Movie notes and answers to questions will be added at a later date.
Have fun ZBrushing,
Courtesy -Pixolator, ZBrush Central
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