Trouble using Alphas on cylinder mesh in ZBrush

SilentKnight

Hey, I was wondering if I could get help with this. I am trying to make a snake skin texture using an alpha. However, I am running into issues with the scale and seams on it. I am using a standard brush with Zint of 20, Drag rect, and the alpha's Radial Focus is at 100. I have found links on making seamless textures with alphas, but nothing on applying them to a cylinder. What is the beat way to approach this? I greatly appreciate any help. Thanks.

MoP

Could it be because the surface is very thin, therefore trying to "push" the pattern through from both sides?

You could try using polyGroups or masking to hide the backfaces while you're painting on the outside, it might work better.

cryrid

I don't think that is his problem, instead it is getting the scales to be seamless as it wraps around the object. In order to cover the object he would have to rotate it and lay down a new stroke, but he cant get them to match up seamlessly.

What you could do is export the shape, and give it some new UVs. Sometimes pelt/UVmaster/etc work well enough, or if it's really basic you might be able to get away with just a cylindrical projection. Reimport that into zbrush. If the alpha is seamless in nature you can apply it as a texture and then generate a mask based off the texture intensity, and sculpt away (or use a deform). If the alpha isn't, some quick photoshop work or UV-tweaking could take care of that. Basically make it look seamless as a texture, and you can carry that on to zbrush

SilentKnight

Thanks cryrid I will definitely try that and post the results.