Can't figure out how to model in ZBrush

recronin

Hello everyone,
I bought ZBrush a little over a month ago and am very impressed with it. Unfortunately I've not been able to get a solid grasp on how to model even a simple wheel for a project that I'm working on and could really use some help.

I've been using Maya for the better part of a decade and could just import objects into ZBrush, but even if it takes longer I would like to know how to do the work entirely in ZB if only to learn. I have a basic understanding on masks, polygroups, the transpose tool, etc. but the problem is that when I make an extrusion the wall is not extruded perfectly flat like it would be in Maya and has a gradual curve from the top and bottom of the extrusion. Below are 2 screenshots of the wheel I'm trying to make with the problematic soft extrusion.

First I made a mask, reduced the blur, and transpose moved the interior for the extrusion. The walls of the extrude are jagged, but overall maintain a straight extrusion.
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I then tried a couple different techniques including using the relax slider, the smooth brush and the hPolish brush. They all gave a similar result, which got rid of the hard 90 angle that I wanted to keep.
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Steve Warner has a great tutorial on doing basically exactly what I want in the screen below; unfortunately I cannot figure out how he did this and would greatly appreciate any info. Everyone on the training videos make it look so easy :poly122:
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Sincerely,
Adam Lawton

PS Sorry that the attachments show up as links.

cryrid

If you're working on a cylindrical object and you want nice crisp extrusions, start with the cylindrical primitive. Dont use subdivision levels so that you can take advantage of the slice circle brush, the edge loop options to create nice loops around the polygroups that it creates, and the ctrl+transpose shortcut to extrude edges similar to normal 3d programs.

recronin

Perfect explanation on what to do, as I would have started out subdividing right away. The slice circle + edge loops worked and I was finally able to get this thing going. Thank you very much.

cryrid

Just to append a little additional information once you do have a good part of it started: combining polygroups with the creasing options is the next stage in controlling the tightness of the bevels once you are ready to start subdividing it

recronin

I was kind of wondering about that; what's the difference between creasing and adding edge loops?

cryrid

Creasing just tells it to protect the edges from smoothing for ____ subdivision levels, and past that it will start to smooth like normal. Depending on how crisp you're looking to make something, creasing would prevent you from requiring several tighter edgeloops (which would be harder to go back and change inside zbrush).