Zbrush - Surface noise

Jonas Ronnegard

Having some problems with the surface noise function in zbrush hope someone can help.

I get the kind of result i want in the preview, and it doesnt matter how high the polycount of the mesh is, when i click apply to mesh, the mesh extrudes outwards and i get a very weird result, even at 11million points.

so anything im missing or doing wrong?

C86G

Screenshots?

Afaik the preview is not really affecting the polys. It´s more like a normal map (for the preview). At east that´s how the displace preview works.

Bek

As a general rule the applied noise will always be more intense than the preview. If you're doing huge scale noise with high intensity expect weirdness.

Chase

You can store a morph target, apply the noise, and then use the morph brush to bring the noise back to a reasonable state.

Kon Artist

Chase wrote: »

You can store a morph target, apply the noise, and then use the morph brush to bring the noise back to a reasonable state.

do this.

Popeye9

You can also use a layer to dial in the strength. You make your surface then before applying to mesh record a layer in tool palette and then there is a slider to increase or decrease amount. When happy bake it and move on

wichenroder

+1 for using a layer and then dialing it down.
Typically I use a value like -.0001 and then apply it twice if it isn't enough. The default -.0007 is too much. Don't know why they don't improve the input here, tedious always typing that out.

Bertmac

yeah i am on -.0003 but i like the -.0001 x2 way better already thanks for that

DreamLoveKit

Storing a Morph Target's good, but I found it even more useful in conjunction with a MaskByNoise function. After you generate the mask from the noise pattern, all you have to do is to pick a brush of choice and paint over the mask (you can also hide the visual representation of Mask using Masking>ViewMask toggle or by pressing Ctrl+H).

C86G

Is there a way to type in values for the noise? I always find myself micro moving the mouse/pen and not getting what I want. Working with layer strength helps though.

Kon Artist

Sorry I didn't have time to post my normal work flow earlier. Try this.

• Make new layer
• Store morph target
• Then added noise

This will put the noise on a layer that you can later control it's strength with and also give you the option of toning down specific areas with the morph brush.

You can type in a specific value by clicking/tapping on the number in the preview window. Just like anywhere else in ZBrush this will become hi-lighted red-- allowing you change it.

Lastly you have to consider if your using 3D or UV space to determine scale. As was mentioned above. Good values are generally pretty low.

C86G

Yeah, I know. But for some reason that never works in the surface noise tab.

Kon Artist

What version are you using? Have you tired initialize Z? I'm in 4r3 right now and it works fine for me.