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ZBrush mayhem! plz Help!

polycounter lvl 17
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Slingshot polycounter lvl 17
I have two problems that I cannot find answers too.

#1
I have some teeth and gums, both are in separate Sub Tool "layers". When I try to sculpt the gums with the teeth visible the teeth act like some sort of mask and make it difficult to sculpt the gums mesh around them. Is their a way to disable this without having to turn off the visibility of the teeth?

#2
I have some clothing separated from the body on my character. I know the clothing is mirrored perfectly because I modeled it in 3Ds max that way. When I click Activate Symmetry with the >X< axis and the >M< Mirror Symmetry on it will not even work. The only way I know around this is to click the "Use Posable Symmetry" Button. This only gives me an error saying it can only find .0057% symmetry points and the symmetry map can not be stored.

The fingers and face are also perfect mirrored copy's of the other side and they too cannot use the
"Activate Symmetry"- "Mirror Symmetry" tool. I think the face cannot do it because the one odd arm is throwing the mirror settings off, which makes sense. I am having to do both sides of the body by hand which is quite a time waster and annoying, but good practice.

Note: when I imported the mesh from 3Ds Max into ZBrush it was one big mesh and I went into the Tool> Sub Tool: and click the GrpSplit button it would separate my mesh back into the groups that I made in 3Ds Max. So this may also be a cause to the mirror geometry problem. I just checked this theory out and that seems to not be the problem.

Please help!

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Replies

  • Slingshot
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    Slingshot polycounter lvl 17
    Woo whoo I found the fix to problem to #2:

    If you import a character from 3Ds Max and your Pivot is off when you use "Activate Symmetry" use the "L.Sym" button under the "Transform" menu and it will fix your problem.

    Seems like their is no probable solution to #1 tho......I'll keep looking...and looking...and looking.
  • spitty
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    spitty polycounter lvl 19
    i'm not sure i understand #1. if you want to be able to sculpt the teeth and gums at the same time, they shouldn't be different subtools. you might want them to be different polygroups though.

    if its just a masking issue ctrl + shift + a removes the mask from a subtool.
  • Slingshot
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    Slingshot polycounter lvl 17
    I have the teeth and gums on different subtool "layers" so I can model the gums around the teeth.
    I don't want to model the teeth and the gums at the same time that is why I separated them into
    different subtools.

    Example:
    ModelingTeeth.jpg

    Is this even possible or is their a better way of going about doing this? I am just learning Zbrush so I am open to options here!
    But I would prefer a quick fix to the predicament I have go my self in to. If their is no fix, I will just keep doing what I am doing now. Thanks for any input!
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    what type of brush are you using? it could make things easier if you find a suitable brush that can get in close and still raise enough polys without you making things hidden.
  • Slingshot
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    Slingshot polycounter lvl 17
    I am using the standard brush set to Zadd. It raises polys fine. But the tooth will act as a sort of mask and push the mesh away from the tooth (like in the picture above) regardless of what brush I use. I am trying to find a setting that will disable this. -OR- a workaround.

    Further note I have not placed a mask of any kind on the tooth or the gum meshes.
  • spitty
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    spitty polycounter lvl 19
    ok, now i get your problem, and i'm having the same issue. i think i have a solution using transparency.

    for your gum and teeth example, select the gum subobject and click on the button near scale and move that says "transp" this makes things transparent, but also makes editing the gums as if the teeth were hidden. its difficult for me to work like this though, so go to preferences, draw and make "maxdepth" "activeopc", and "inactiveopc" set to zero. changing these settings made everything opaque, but made sculpting at the edges of two subtools work properly. in general i wouldn't work with "transp" on, but when you work near the edges of 2 subtools click it on.

    this should work for your other example too. let me know if this doesn't make sense, or if you figure out any other tips. good luck.
  • Slingshot
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    Slingshot polycounter lvl 17
    Sweeeet! Thanks Spitty, thats exactly what I needed! I never would of found that on my quest to learn zbrush. Crazy zbrush likes to hide stuff.
    Thanks Again! :)
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