ZB_20 | Skirt forming with Topology brush and Dynamics simulation

Every time I want to learn and do a tutorial on Dynamics skirt forming,

I end up doing another totally different tutorial.

This time it is forming a belt with Topology Brush and editing with Topological brush.

but luckily I made it through to skirt forming using Dynamics at the end!!!

Let's get started! Let me fit the canvas to screen.

Under Document > Zoom > Click and drag downwards to Zoom in.

so that the canvas is covering the whole screen.

Seems like Julie is masked. Unmask everything by

CTRL click and drag down on the background.

Let's increase the opacity of the skirt image and bring it forward,

so that I know where to place the belt.

Under Draw > Fill mode > Slide to 3

Under Front-Back tab, adjust the image slightly to fit the model,

using Scale, Vertical and Horizontal Offset slider.

Zoom in. CTRL right click hover right

Turn on poly frame, Shift F.

This time let's use Topology brush to form a belt, B T O.

I have my symmetry on, so that I only have to draw on one side.

By default Topology brush will snap onto any vertex I hover over.

Snap and start drawing a curve line just before the symmetry line.

Click and drag to the right.

Some vertical lines to form closed faces.

Green dots will appear showing

closed faces where there are 3 or more points.

The orange faces are just previews and editable.

Hover close to the end of the curve line to extend or continue the line.

Extend the lines when the circle at the end turns green or a red tail appears.

Proceed to draw some vertical lines to form closed polygons.

It doesn't matter if the lines are crooked,

as lng as the there are 3 or 4 intersections to form 1 closed face.

Removing lines?

Press Alt, Draw a curve line over the unwanted line to delete or

Press Alt, Click and drag on any polygons to clear all stray lines which are sticking out .

Turn off Z plane picture to draw the back of the belt.

Sometimes the front end and back end of the curve line is very close to each other,

so I can easily extend the wrong end. Snap off to identify which is the correct end.

The curve line facing the camera does not disappear when I snap off.

Try zooming in or extending the snap distance to avoid this mistake.

Under Stroke > Curve Modifiers > Curve Snap Distance > try 50

There! Now the snap line is much longer and easier to snap on.

If I draw a line without snapping, it will form a new curve line, like this.

So make sure to snap onto the end before drawing a line.

Let me close up the belt at the back.

Join the belt where the symmetry line is

so that the curve line forms a complete loop around the waist.

Finish up the belt with a few more faces.

Then,tap anywhere on the orange faces to form the belt with depth & symmetry.

Once you confirmed the faces,

the curve lines will disappear and no longer be editable.

The belt depth is determined by brush Draw Size, which is Size 5 currently.

Swivel around to check the belt is joined at the symmetry line both front and back.

This belt was drawn on knowing the location of World symmetry

which is easier to identify compared to Local symmetry.

Local symmetry is the symmetry line of a Subtool. Depending on the shape,

Local symmetry line changes when I edit the subtool polygons.

I can easily change the Local symmetry line by adding another face on the left.

Resulting in the local symmetry line moving to the left while

World symmetry line remains the same.

So when I tap on an orange face, to form a belt using Local symmetry,

this time with Draw Size 1, I created a mirror image that protrudes towards the left.

because the symmetry line moves slightly to the left

when I added an additional face on the left edge .

The challenge with using Local symmetry is that it is so hard to locate.

It could be slightly to the left or to the right.

I suggest a better way of finding out where the symmetry line is using a bounding box.

Under ZPlugin, Scale Master there is a button called New Bounding Box Subtool.

This box will cover up the entire model or visible subtool from edge to edge.

with Polyframe on, we can see the Local symmetry is slightly to the left.

Isolate any individual subtool if need be before forming the new Bounding Box,

Shift Control Click on the Subtool to isolate.

If I hide the model partially we can see the World symmetry X axis is right in the center.

If I turn on the bounding box, the Local symmetry line is to the left.

This is why when using local symmetry line, the belt is protruding away from the skin.

Alright back to the belt forming, let me delete the additional face I added.

Alt click and draw a curve line over the additional face to delete the curve lines.

For this belt I'll stick to using World symmetry, Tap on any face on the belt.

Turning symmetry on mirrors any polygons on one side of the axis to the other,

but let's say I forgot to turn on symmetry when I was modelling

and I want to mirror whatever I have drawn on the right to left,

There's a feature called Mirror and Weld under Geometry > Modify Topology >

> Mirror and Weld.

This feature doesn't mirror to any opposite direction on an axis like symmetry does.

It only mirrors from left to right.

So, for this belt's case,

I need to go under Deformation to MIRROR/FLIP

this Subtool or Polygon to the other side of X axis.

then go under Geometry > Modify Topology > Mirror and Weld on X axis.

Mirror and weld does the exact same thing as

having symmetry on except sometimes we need to join the polygons if they

don't overlap at the symmetry line.

In order to join these two faces, just activate Zmodeler brush

and hover over one of the points I want to join.

Press spacebar.

Click on Move action > Target By Brush Radius > Modifiers Snap to Surface.

Move this point to snap to the point next to it.

That's the workaround in case symmetry is off. Let's go back to forming the belt.

Since this belt is still part of the body Subtool, let's split it out as a separate Subtool.

Go under Subtool > under Split > Split unmasked points.

Now the belt is an individual subtool just below the body subtool.

Then go under Deformation to inflate it with XYZ axis on

or use Zmodeler brush B Z M.

Hover over a polygon face, and press spacebar.

Under Polygon Actions, click on Inflate, Target, All polygons.

Then click on one polygon face and pull outwards.

If you are still not happy with how the belt wraps around the waist.

We can play with Dynamics to do that for us. Go under Dynamics, dock the menu.

Turn off Gravity. Turn on CollisionVolume and change it's inflate value to 0.1.

Use TransfromCloth Brush, BTC, to trigger CollisionVolume.

Click on this Bracket at the top right edge and lightly move it.

Moving it will bring the belt on top of body subtool.

Only TransformClothBrush will show the result of simulation when moving a subtool.

Other Transform brushes do not.

Inflate value determines how close the colliding volumes are against each other.

The highest value is 1 which moves the belt furthest away from the skin surface.

For this belt 0.1 inflate value is enough.

Let's increase the resolution of the belt. CTRL D.

Turn off and on Polyframe to see the changes.

If the points on the belt is too high or low, moving it up and down

can be done using ClothMove Brush ; BMV or Move Topological brush; BMT.

Use smaller brush Draw size to move individual points and

Use larger Draw size to move larger area of topology.

Currently, I am using Draw size 2 to move 1 point at a time.

If I want to manipulate a bigger area of the topology,

a larger Draw size, eg. 20 will move the section of the belt within the red circles.

The area in the inner circle gets influenced more by any changes

on the vertex compared to the outer circle.

The smaller the red circles, the less you disturb the surrounding topology.

This is Draw Size 9. You can see the topology outside the red circles are not disturbed.

The only difference between these two brushes

is that Move Topological brush can selectively

move one polygroup in areas where there are multiple polygroups overlapping.

For example, if I have two layers of belt with different polygroups on top of each other

and I want to move both layers concurrently , I can use Move Brush or BMV.

If I want to move each polygroup individually,

I will need to use Move Topological Brush, BMT.

Watch for which polygroup the cursor snaps on, and that will be the topology moved.

Even with a big draw size I am moving just one topology.

Alright! Let's move on to modelling the skirt so that we can play with dynamics.

Let me uncrease everything. I'll add in the creases where

necessary later using Dynamic Subdivision as a guide.

Under Subtool > Crease > Uncrease all. Next, before extruding the skirt

I need to delete lower subdivision because the outcome will be different.

The more subdivisions there are.

Ok. Let's use Zmodeler Brush. BZM. Hover over an edge and press spacebar.

Under Edge actions click on Extrude. Under Target, Edgeloop.

Under Modifiers, keep the defaults except the angle, switch to Perpendicular.

Extrude the lower edge. Click and drag outwards.

Check the polygons are parallel and not clashing onto each other.

If they are clashing, move the points away from each other using Zmodeler brush.

I need to redo the extrusion and stop just before the points meet. Ctrl Z to undo.

Then hover over a bottom edge and pull outwards just a little bit.

Check the points at the edge of the skirt are still separate. Yes, they are.

Hover over a point and press Spacebar. Make sure the Point action is Move.

Leave the other modifiers as default. Then click and move the points left or right.

Check all the other points and move them if they are

potentially clashing onto each other.

Ok, let's continue to extrude the skirt.

Hover over an edge, press Spacebar.

Extrude with Planar Angle. Same angle as the previous polygons.

Hover over an edge, click and drag outwards.

Stopping just before the points at the edge of the skirt intersect.

Move the points apart from each other

and continue extending the skirt length.

How much to extend?

Let's use Scale ruler to measure. Turn off Gizmo 3D to use Transpose scale ruler.

Let's measure the distance from the waist to the ankle.

Click on the bottom of the belt and drag downwards to the ankle.

Check out the reading displayed at the top left hand side of the screen. 108.48 units.

108.48 units.

Now I should extend the skirt up to 100 units approximately.

Let me see what is the distance of the skirt I have extruded so far.

Press E to use Scale ruler and turn off Gizmo 3D. Click at the bottom of the belt

and click on a point at the edge of the skirt.

The reading is displayed at the top left hand corner of the screen. 35 units.

Let me extend the length of the skirt to 100 units using Extrude Edge Action.

Hover over any skirt edge and press Spacebar.

Under Edge Actions, click on Extrude. Target, click on Edgeloop and

Under Modifiers, click on Planar Angle.

Leave the rest as default. Keep extruding until it reaches 100 units.

Check the length.

Move points that are intersecting away from each other.

Let's check the length again.

100 units. Just nice.

Time to play with Dynamics!

Open up Dynamics and dock it.

I need to mask the belt before subjecting the skirt to Dynamics simulation.

or else this is what will happen. The whole skirt will drop.

To mask the belt use Zmodeler brush, BZM,

hover over a polygon and

press Spacebar. Under Polygon actions, Click on Mask.

Under Target Polyloop.

I want to mask 2 polyloops that make up the belt.

When masking click only when the orange line is pointing at the left/right direction.

instead of up/down direction.

Just hover over the polygon of the belt. Observe the direction of the orange highlight.

Click only when the orange highlight is point at the direction you want.

Left/right highlight and click.

Left/right highlight and click.

If you click when the highlight is pointing downwards, the Mask will loop downwards.

Then press Shift W to change them into another Polygroup

so that they are easier to isolate.

Now I need to mask the belt area. to stop it from being pulled downwards

by Gravity when using Dynamics simulation.

Let's just run the simulation on default settings and have a look.

The skirt is intersecting with the visible subtool but there's a slider to remedy that.

Ctrl Z to undo and turn on CollisionVolume

so that the skirt will rest on top of the visible subtool.

Let's run simulation again.

This time the skirt will rest on top of body subtool and

there's a slider to adjust how far the skirt should rest on top.

Notice the slight bump just below the belt? That's the result from inflate value of 1.

Compared to previously when CollisionVolume was off.

In order to have a look at how far the distance of the fabric and the body subtool is,

let's have a look at the cross section of the bump area.

Ctrl and Shift. Select Knife Curve.

Click and drag to slice off the bottom half of the skirt.

This way we can see the distance between the body subtool and skirt.

Let me undo and let's check out the inflate value of 0.1. Ctrl Z to Undo.

Type in 0.1 under CollisionVolume inflate value.

Run simulation.

Let it run until not much is happening.

Then tap anywhere on the canvas to stop the simulation process.

Unmask all, Ctrl Click and drag down. Turn the model around.

Using KnifeCurve, Ctrl Shift, Click and drag to slice off the bottom half of the skirt.

Same thing, gradient side facing downwards.

When you view from the bottom, the distance between the skirt and

the body subtool is much lower because of the lower inflate value.

Let me undo and increase the inflate value slightly,

so that there's more allowance between the skirt and the body subtool.

Let's try 0.5.

Run simulation.

There're still a little bit of skin showing but I also notice another problem.

The skirt folds are overlapping on each other.

That's because the self collision detection setting is at 0. Let's slide it to 4.

The higher the number the higher accuracy.

So let me slide the setting to 4 and redo the simulation.

Undo.

Run the simulation. Let it run until not much is happening then tap

anywhere on the background to stop the simulation.

The polygons form folds on top of each other. Instead of just intersecting into one plane.

The folds are clearer if there are more subdivisions. Let's turn on Dynamic subdivision.

Under Geometry > Dynamic subdivision > Dynamic on.

Now the folds are look more like fabric and softer.

Shift F to turn on and off polyframe.

I think I'll increase the inflate value slightly just to avoid the skin showing.

Undo.

After changing the inflate value to 0.8. Some of the skin is still showing.

it's ok, I'll bring them forward manually.

Using standard brush, BST,

Brush on the entire polygon to apply the brush, including the points holding the polygon.

Press alt while brushing to push the polygon backwards,

The low polygon count means the brush needs to be applied

onto the edges of the polygon and the affected vertex to see any result.

The polygon count can affect the result of Dynamic simulation, too.

Let's test it out. Previously with inflate value of 0.2,

a lot of the skin is exposed at the back.

Let me increase the polygon count, and compare the result.

Click Divide twice under Geometry.

Run the simulation with the same inflate value of 0.2.

There are more folds and much less exposed skin.

Undo and try increasing the polygon count again.

Run simulation.

It takes more time to simulate and the polygon counts

definitely affects the shape of the folds and the quanttity of the folds.

Now there are no more exposed skin and much more folds.

let it run until not much is happening or until you're happy with the result,

then tap the background to stop the simulation.

Ok! That's enough.

Oh and another thing. Notice the length of the skirt.

It's been stretched due to the Gravity strength

but I didn't change the strength value which controls its stretchability.

It's because the number of polygons increased 3 times

so the strength of the gravity is multiplied across the additional polygons.

Another new observation is an invisible floor.

The skirt looks like it's gathering on the floor.

Whether you want a floor to exist or not,

can be controlled using Floor collision button.

In order to see the Floor plane. Turn on Floor plane with Y plane on.

Plane Z would be the one with the picture of the skirt on it.

Plane Y the floor.

Let me undo everything and turn off Floor collision.

Run simulation.

Let it run until not much is happening.

Without Floor Collision, the skirt will just ignore the Floor plane and extend past it.

OK! That's enough. Click on the background to stop simulation.

Notice the distance between the skirt edge and the floor plane.

Even though the skirt extends past the floor plane now.

Once I orbit it around, the floor plane will move below the skirt.

Don't be like me thinking, I thought the skirt extended past the floor?

Maybe it's my mistake.

Yes it did! It's just that whenever the polygons

extend past the floor plane, the floor plane will move.

So one way to maintain the length of the skirt is to manually trim off the skirt

using Curve brushes again or mask the bottom strips of polyloops and delete them.

Another way is to try reducing the gravity strength by half to 5

and run simulation again to see if that's the length I want.

The more polygons there are the slower the simulation will be.

The length is just nice. It was just a guess work.

Turn off polyframe Shift F.

Turn on Dynamic Subdivision to see it in higher resolution.

Finally get to see the fabric drape over the skin nicely.

Check the back of the skirt. A bit of the skin is showing.

Use Standard brush, BST, to bring the polygons forward.

That's all for this tutorial, keep learning and keep growing! Thanks for supporting me.

Please click like and subscribe for more tutorials!

ZB_19 | I imported the map to front-back (map1) but all the modifiers turn dim. Could you explain?

 

Hi Sakina, this is Michele, in the comments you mentioned that

all the modifiers turned dim after you imported Map 1?

I’m not exactly and expert in this but the only possible reason I know as of now

is “Project on Mesh” Value. What is that?

Let's turn on the Z plane.

Go into Draw menu. You will find it just above Snapshot to Grid button.

Let's import an image for demonstration under Front-Back tab.

Map 1

Select any image.

If the image is visible, the modifiers should be editable.

Check that the Project on Mesh equals 0.

If for some reason, it is higher than 0, the sliders will be greyed out.

When I slide it back to 0 the sliders are editable again.

I hope that helps. I am yet to find out the uses of this Project on Mesh value.

That would call for another tutorial, until then, see you next time!

ZB_18 (Part 2 ): Rigging Julie model using ZSpheres 4K

 

Alright! Let's continue on with rigging!

Rigging gives the mesh a frame or support structure to allow for posing and movement.

Just like human skeleton, rigs either hold the model in place or moves it,

Once a model is rigged, I can always reset and pose or even animate it using Layers.

Let's go back to where we stopped in the tutorial and delete the bounding boxes.

Click to select each bounding box and delete them.

How should I pose the model? I want the arms to get out of the way,

so that they will not interfere with Dynamics feature later on.

It should be a simple rig where I can just raise the arms

leaving all the other parts of the body in place.

This method of rigging is only used for models with 1 Subtool.

Unlike some models which contain multiple Subtools, Transpose master will help

transform all the other Subtools to match the rigged model.

However, in this tutorial I am not going to use Transpose Master.

Just rigging 1 Subtool with ZSphere.

See how the swimming suit matches the pose of the body using Transpose Master?

Now, let's prepare Julie's Body Subtool for rigging.

Check the Subdivision levels under Geometry.

At the highest level, there should be 1.4 million active points.

At Subdivision level 5, Click on Make PolyMesh3D to extract just this body Subtool.

What I have here is only the highest subdivision of Julie's body Subtool,

without all the lower subdivisions.

So I am going to regenerate the lower Subdivisions.

Go under Geometry. Then Reconstruct Subdivision.

Click until you reach about 5K Active points.

When rigging, low subdivision is easier to rig and keeps ZSpheres number low.

After rigging the low subdivision mesh, the rig can then

be transferred to a more detailed, high resolution mesh.

But why can't we rig a high resolution mesh directly? and what's the difference between

rigging a high resolution mesh and low resolution mesh?

Take for example this Julie Model with a high resolution swimming suit mesh.

The number of points are so high that when I rig the model with a basic skeletal layout,

The low number of ZSpheres are unable to hold the dense swimming suit mesh.

So more ZSpheres would be required to hold the swiming suit mesh in place.

While this low subdivision mesh with only about 1K active points,

rigged with the same number of ZSpheres and layout,

can hold and move the mesh without affecting the swimming suit.

There are no unwanted artefacts pulled off by the arm ZSpheres at the waist or armpit.

For the dense swimming suit mesh, I had to add 2 sets of ZSpheres.

1 at the waist and 1 at the armpit.

just to hold the swimming suit and straps in place.

It is the same concept as, the lower the resolution, the wider the area

affected by a single point.

So low resolution requires less ZSpheres to handle the points.

The higher the resolution, the smaller the area affected by a single point.

So, more ZSpheres would be needed to hold and move the mesh.

Why not increase the size of the ZSpheres instead?

A large ZSphere here being pulled upwards compared to a small ZSphere,

the result is relatively similar. At the moment, it doesn't make a difference.

Now that we understand how rigs work using ZSpheres,

Let's switch the active tool to Zsphere and start rigging.

Add in the mesh I want to rig. Go under Rigging > Select Mesh >

and Click on PM3D_Julie.

You will see a transparent low resolution Julie extracted and resized previously.

Now let me introduce you to the 4 keys needed to control Zspheres.

Q to Draw, W to Move, E to Scale and R to Rotate.

Usually I just place my fingers over these keys and switch between the fingers.

Pinky finger to draw.

Ring finger to Move.

Middle finger to Scale.

Pointer finger to Rotate.

Alternatively, CTRL key can be used to switch between these buttons.

Draw out a Zsphere. Then press Shift to snap to the previous size.

Press Alt and tap on ZSphere to delete. Alt Delete only works when Draw mode is on.

Draw another new ZSphere. Press Shift to snap.

Press and hold CTRL to switch from Draw mode to Move mode.

Without lifting the stylus after drawing, drag right to move ZSphere to the right.

Without lifting the stylus again, REPRESS CTRL to switch to Scale mode.

Drag down to scale down, Drag up to scale up.

Let's do this one more time,

this time drawing a long chain.

Draw a new ZSphere, Snap to size.

Press Ctrl. Drag right.

Release all and repeat.

Drag downwards to draw. Shift to Snap. Ctrl to move.

Repeat these steps to draw more.

There's another interesting way to draw using CTRL button.

Draw out a single new ZSphere then press CTRL 3 times without lifting your pen.

You can go wild and draw a 3D bezier line freely.

ZSpheres would be added in between the chains automatically.

On top of that, it's pressure sensitive!

So the harder you press, the bigger the ZSpheres are,

the lighter you press, the smaller the ZSpheres are.

The different colours are the different polygroups incorporated into the

ZSphere chains, after each change of size.

In this tutorial, I am going too use the simple QWER method. Nothing too wild!

Now that we know 3 ways to add and manipulate ZSpheres,

Let's start rigging from the neck.

Press E to scale. Click center and drag up to scale down.

Press W to move.

Press E to scale again.

Zoom in. Ctrl, Right Click, Hover right.

Press W to move it slightly.

Press X to turn on symmetry.

Q to draw but the Draw size is too big so the 2 brushes are overlapping.

Change the draw size to 1.

Now, they are not overlapping,

Click and drag to add 2 symmetrical Zspheres.

Press Shift to snap to the previous size and W to move.

Q to Draw. Shift to Snap. W to Move.

W to move.

Q to draw. Shift to snap.

W to move.

Q to draw. Shift to snap. W to move.

E to Scale.

Another Zsphere to the hand.

X to turn off symmetry.

W to move.

Q to add. Shift to snap.

W to move.

R to test out rotating the arms.

Moving the arms without shoulder joint looks unnatural.

Try moving the shoulder chain.

Looks ok.

Let's try moving it with the mesh.

Go under Rigging , Click on Bind mesh.

Oops! Press X to deactivate symmetry.

It works fine, except the body and legs are moving together with the arm.

The body needs it's own rigging to hold the mesh.

Press Q to draw. Shift to snap.

W to move.

Pull out a spine chain to the hip.

Press Q to draw. X to activate symmetry.

Shift to snap.

and W to move.

Check from the side.

Q to add. Shift to snap. New joints for the buttocks.

move the hip joint backwards to support to buttocks.

Repeat the same process until you reach the feet.

Press R for rotate. Test out rotating the hip ZSphere.

Rotate to the front and back.

Try with mesh. Rigging > Bind mesh.

Front and back.

Arms? The chest area needs more support to hold the mesh.

Let me add some more ZSpheres at the chest area.

Oops! I forgot to unbind mesh. Go under Rigging > Bind mesh.

Remember to unbind mesh after binding to edit the ZSpheres.

Alternate tap on joint to delete the Zsphere added before unbinding mesh.

Click again to add a joint between the chest.

Press X for symmetry. Shift to snap.

W to move.

Move backwards to create a cage like rib.

Press Q. Add more joints until a rib is formed.

Press R to rotate and now, raising the arms shouldn't affect the body.

Hmm..wrong joint.

The shoulder joint looks more natural.

Lightly tap to select either to rotate the joint or the chain.

Let's generate a Polymesh3D with this pose.

Adaptive skin > Density 5 ,

the same as the number of subdivision levels.

Slide down the Dynamesh resolution to 0 and click Preview or Press A.

Dynamesh can always be done after the new polymesh is generated.

That's not necessary for now.

This is the Preview of a high resolution Polymesh,

the resolution is controlled by the Density slider.

Notice the Active points are 1.4 million, the same as Subdivision level 5 before rigging.

All that's left to do is click on Make Adaptive Skin under Adaptive skin Tab.

A high resolution Polymesh3D will be extracted and

available for editing under the Toolbox window.

That's all for this rigging stage, but I am going to continue on with Layers tutorial

by showing you how reset, record and replay the poses.

I thought I could finish rigging and layers in

one tutorial but it seems like this video is getting way too long.

If you like my tutorial, please give me a like and subscribe.I'll see you in the next video!

Adios!

ZB_18 (Part 1) | Scaling to real world size 4K

 

Hi everyone, my name is Michele. In today's Zbrush tutorial,

I am going to scale Julie into real world size using my height.

This way I can measure the length and width of the skirt to real world measurements.

Press , to open up Lightbox.

Under Tool, double click Julie to import it into the Tool Box.

It says updating additive shape layers at the top left corner here.

Zbrush is referring to this Layers tab, where we can record the progression of a

modelling process. Then dialling the intensity up or down with this slider here.

We'll come back to this at the Layers stage.

Let's just extend the edges of the canvas according to the size of the monitor.

Under Document > New Document with Autofit Window Size on,

then click on New Document.

Select Julie Tool from Tool box.

Place Julie, Click and drag on the canvas then let go. Press T to turn 2.5D to 3D editing.

Open up Subtool tab to check that the body is the active Subtool.

Or Press Shift F to turn on Polyframe to check.

I am going to use this body Subtool to resize the whole model.

Go under Zplugin > Scale Master to change the measurement unit to mm.

Under Scale Master there's a button called Set Scene Scale.

Click on it and a dialogue box will pop up with the type of units to measure in.

In my case, I am using mm. So I am clicking on this.

Then under ZPlugin,

request for the Subtool measurement of Julie's Body with this button,

Sliders to Subtool Size and with Ratio lock button on.

The numbers displayed here are the measurements of Julie's Body Subtool,

with 180mm as the Y value.

I want to change the Y value to my own height. 1560mm.

Keep Resize Subtool with All button on and click on Resize Subtool.

When the All button is on, it will resize all the other subtools.

If off, just the selected 1 body Subtool.

Once resizing is done, the model will fit to screen.

Just to be sure let's check the size under ZPlugin again.

Under Scale Master > Sliders to Subtool Size.

The Y height value is 1527mm instead of 1560mm.

Why is that? Let's fix that. Go under Geometry

and check the Subdivision levels.

Slide the Subdivision level to level to 5,

This should increase the accuracy of the mesh and increase the number of active points.

Then check the Y height value again, it should say 1560mm.

If you want to manually measure the model, you can do so by generating

a fitting box either around JUST the body or the WHOLE model.

New Subtool generates a fitting box around the selected subtool.

while New bounding Box Subtool generates a fitting box around all subtools.

which includes the height or thickness of the hair.

Let me click on New Bounding Box Subtool.

A large box will cover up the whole model.

and when I open up Subtool list, at the bottom I will see the generated bounding box.

To measure, press W to launch Gizmo and Y to change it to Transpose tool.

Snap and click at the top right point of the box,

then snap and click at the bottom right point.

The Y value will the displayed at the top left corner of the screen.

1565mm which includes the height of the hair.

Let me check that the Subdivision level is at highest level.

Ok, It is.

If I want to just measure from the tip of the head to the toes without the hair.

I can do so by selecting the Body Subtool, go under Scale Master again.

and click on New Subtool.

New Subtool will add a new bounding box around the 1 selected subtool.

In my case right now, is just the body. So the reading should be exactly 1560mm.

Let's go back to ZPlugin > Scale Master > Sliders to Subtool Size.

There it is 1559.9mm.

If you like my tutorial, please give me a like and subscribe.

I'll continue on with rigging next.

See you in the next video.

Adios~~~

ZB_17 | Fitting belt without curves or frame mesh (4K)

I just found out that you can create a fitting belt

without curve strap snap or frame mesh.

Start by hiding a strip of waist polyloop with SelectLasso brush.

Flip visibility.

Extend & flatten the top or   

bottom Edge with ClipCurve brush.

Before that, mask either the bottom or top edge, whichever you want to lock.

In this case, the top.

In this case, the top. I want to extend the bottom edge.

Use BZM.

Zmodeler brush.

Hover over a Top edge and press Spacebar.

Click on Mask > Edgeloop complete to select what actions I want to do.

Click on a top edge to mask the whole top edge loop.

Ctrl Shift Click and Drag from left to right below the polyloop strip to test it.

Yeap, it works!

Now I can look at the reference image straight on, extend the polyloop accordingly.

Ctrl click and drag on the background to Unmask everything.

Clip the top part to the height as shown on the image.

And here we've got a belt without using Curves or Frame mesh. How cool is that?

Now I can go and reduce the geometries using Zremesher under Geometry.

Oops! Ctrl Z to undo. Delete Hidden under Subtools > Modify Topology.

Go back to Zremesher to reduce the number to Active Points to half. Click on Zremesh.

and this should do.

Now I am going to copy this Subtool onto a new Julie Tool.

so that I can fit the belt onto her waist.

Click on Copy under Subtool.

Click on Julie with 5 Subtools intact and click on MakePolymesh3D to extract just the body.

Now paste the previously copied belt onto this Subtool.

Go under Subtool, open up the Project tab to fit the belt onto the waist.

For Project under Subtool to work, turn off other Subtools not involved in this process.

Turn on only the Projector and the Projected surface.

Usually the default settings will do, but if your belt and body

are very far apart, you can adjust the distance of projection

using this slider then Click on ProjectAll.

The belt should match the contour of the waist on the body.

Increase the thickness with Extract under Subtool and that's it.

Use the Thick slider to adjust and visually test out

the thickness of your belt before clicking on Accept.

Double will extrude the belt on the inside and outside plane. Turn it off for this case.

Border gives it an extra crease on the edges,

to know more about Extract please click on the link to another video on the top right.

and if you are interested to know more about my new blog shop I'm still working on,

please subscribe to my channel and I'll update you when the time comes.

I'll see you in the next video. Adios!

ZB_16 | 4 ways to delete Curve lines (4K)

 

I just found out while doing a new Zbrush tutorial,

that the shortcut to deleting a curve line and a strap

is to press Alt while drawing another curve line over the unwanted strap.

In order to remove the curve line only, tap anywhere on the masked model, that's it!

Of course there's still the longer route of using Zmodeler brush

or Curve options under Stroke menu.

ZB_15 | Adjusting belt depth and applying depth on IMM brush using Curve brush depth ( 4K )

Hi Everyone, my name is Michele.

In today's episode I'm going straight into curve depth brush

option under brush menu. At the end of the tutorial what I'm

trying to achieve is this result, where the belt is sitting

on top of the skin and totally not embedded

I think this is suitable not only for belt models

but for 3D printed items that you can

wear like armour or mask

Let's start.

Over here I have Julie's torso as a polymesh3D.

CTRL right click, Move right to zoom in.

Hide 3 strips of left/right polyloop with the bottom strip as a

frame for a curved line.

Ctrl Shift tap on an edge for each polyloop.

Then, Ctrl Shift tap on a polygon to invert the visibility.

This way we can look from the top or

bottom to check on the thickness and

depth of the belt later on.

In order to view the inner surface, let's

turn on Double, from Display properties.

Now using Curve Strap Snap, Click from

the center of the visible strips, Drag

towards the bottom edge. When the cursor

is at the edge of the strip. Press and

hold Shift. When a Curve line appears,

you can let go of your stylus and Shift.

a strap will appear in place of the

curve line. Please check out my previous

tutorial on how to use an edit curv

strap snap. When I let go of the stylus,

the torso will also be masked. This way I will not

be able to edit the torso accidentally.

From this view, we can see that the belt

is quite thick and it

is embedded into the skin as well as

extrude out of the surface of the skin.

I want the back edge of the belt to butt

against the skin surface as close as

possible.

In order to achieve that, go

on the brush then Depth tab.

There is an image with a black dot and a white circle with a line

running across the center.

The top of the circle is the highest point of the strap.

The bottom of the circle the lowest point.

The black dot the center position.

The black line the surface of the skin. To demonstrate the

effects of this black dot and white circle.

Let me increase the thickness of the

belt which means the Z intensity to 50.

Lightly tap on the belt. Lightly, so that I don't accidentally

move it.

Now the thickness is equally distributed

inside and outside of the skin surface.

Let's use the depth tab to pull the belt out of the skin. Sounds

dramatic.

Increase the imbed by clicking and dragging upwards on the

white circle or black dot.

[Music]

Once again lightly tap on a red curved

line to update the strap.

See how it is raised above the skin surface just like the image

on the Depth tab.

If you rotate the model around, you can see the belt is floating

on top of the skin because the imbed is at the maximum;

100 points.

Let's lower the depth so that it is closer to the skin surface,

about 70 points.

Basically, you can keep adjusting the depth by raising or

lowering the imbed value to the desired depth.

Let me just speed up this whole adjustment process where I

eventually ended up with embed value of 90 points.

Another thing to note is that curved line remains editable until

you use another brush or action

to modify your model.

For example I use the select lasso brush to hide another strip

then go back to click on the curved line, curve strap snap will

generate another new strap on top of the existing strap.

The previous belt is merged as part of

the torso sub tool with a different polygroup color.

So, overall there is only one subtool but

three different polygroup colors.

Let me Ctrl Z to undo all this. Another

way to keep them separate is to split

them out as separate subtools

so that I can turn them on or off

when I'm not sure which look I'm going for. Go under Subtool,

Split and Split unmasked or Split masked.

The only difference I found with these two are; whichever

option you clicked on, for example I clicked on unmasked

points. That polygroup Subtool will be below the original

Subtool.

If you have transparency turned on like I do,

whichever Subtool is not active will be see-through.

This way we can analyze the effects of different versions of belt better.

[Music]

Even though I'm using Brush Depth on

Curve line in this tutorial. Brush depth

also applies for other brushes without curved lines such as

Insert Multi Mesh.

B > I and you can select from

the different brushes available.

The only difference is that there is no

red line to tap for updates.

but needs to be redrawn in order to

reflect the changes.

Let me draw an eyelet as an example. The

brush depth is at zero.

I need to remove subdivision levels to

be able to use IMM brush.

Click and Drag down to apply on a

surface.

Let's view from the side.

[Music]

Let's lower the depth by changing

the imbed value to 38,

and then press Ctrl Z to undo,

and redraw the eyelet again with the new

imbed value.

If you want you can still change it into

a Curve line by going under Stroke then

Curve,

to turn on curve mode.

This way we can update it by tapping on

a curve line

like what we have done previously.

This is still a curved line with an

imbed value of -38. Let's change

it to negative 18.

Then lightly tap on the curved line

again to update.

[Music]

There are still many more brushes which

will respond to this Brush Depth option.

Just go to B > I,

select any IMM brushes to explore. There

are at least 20 of them here.

It definitely did

take me some time to explore,

but just remember that if it is not a

Curve line it needs to be redrawn to

reflect the updates,

and with that let me just end my

tutorial here and enjoy exploring.

in the next tutorial

I'm going to use the belt I made to

extrude out a plane so that i can have

some fun with dynamics.

If all is well, I'll see you in the next

tutorial.

Stay away from omicron.

[Music]

ZB_14 | How to form a belt with Curve strap snap without Frame mesh with subtitles (4k)

Hi Everyone, my name is Michele.

In tutorial 12, I ended by showing how to form a belt with Frame mesh and Curve strap snap.

In this video, I am going to show you how to do the same thing without Frame mesh.

It is faster but sometimes a bit tricky to control. Let's start.

Launch Zbrush and close the Homepage pop up.

Wait for Lightbox to load.

Click on Tool in Lightbox and double click on Julie.

Press , to Close lightbox.

Place Julie on canvas . Click and drag down.

With Julie's torso selected, Press on Make Polymesh3D.

Hmm...I should expand the canvas size. Let's create a New Document.

Document > New Document > with Autofit on.

Click and Drag down on the background.

Shift F to turn on Polyframe. Hmm..I forgot to press Edit. Never mind let's start again.

It's in 2.5 D that's why I can't turn on Polyframe. So I need to clear the canvas. Ctrl / Cmd N.

Click and Drag down on the canvas again and Press T to edit.

then click on Make Polymesh3D.

Let's use ONLY Curve Strap Snap to create a quick curve line around the waist.

Zoom in. Ctrl Right Click move right.

Just to be clear, this torso is made up of many different polygroups.

Let me isolate them individually . Cmd or Ctrl Shift Tap.

the legs, arms and body to check that they are all in separate polygroups.

The body is divided into front polygroup and back polygroup.

So there are 2 polygroups and 1 polygroup intersection within the torso alone.

Let's grab Curve Strap Snap. B>C> Click on Curve Strap Snap.

Change the draw size of the brush on the background, Press S. Slide to 10.

Click on where you want the starting point to be and drag to the right or left.

Once I have moved the cursor past the torso. Press Shift to loop the curve line around the waist.

Adjust the angle by moving your cursor up or down.

When I'm happy with the placement of the curve line, I release my stylus.

Tap on the curve line and drag it up or down to reposition.

Tapping on the Strap will also make the strap conform well to the surface of the waist.

When you click and drag out the curve line, don't stop at any polygroup

borders or intersections then press shift or else this will happen.

The strap will align to the intersection and snap to it.

It will snap to the edges instead of looping around the waist.

Remember to drag the cursor past any edges or borders, then press shift.

Then just lightly tap on the curve line for it to match the shape of the waist.

Let me undo that and try it on the wrist.

Same thing on the wrist. If there's only 1 polygroup it is easier to ring around the model.

On the neck. with 2 Polygroups.

Let me start at the intersection of these two polygroups and see what happens.

I always try to pull it towards the angle I want the ring to appear.

It works as long as I have dragged past the borders or edge of the polygroups.

Then I can lightly tap on it to conform it to the contours of the neck. Drag it down slightly.

Let me Ctrl Z to undo.

Let me test out ending my cursor on the edge of the polygroups.

See how it snaps to the edges?

Let's try again.

Same thing, its snaps to the intersection.

When I dragged the curve line pass the borders, away from the model and press shift,

The curve line snaps around the neck.

Then I just have to lightly tap on it to match it to the contours of the neck.

Now that we are done with the details of how to use that quick trick,

In the next video, I'll explore more about Curve options, if I'm not distracted with other tricks.

I'll be exploring Depth tab in Brush menu.

If you find my video useful, please give me a like

and subscribe to my channel for more!

ZB_13 | How to form a belt with Frame mesh & Curve strap snap with subtitles (4K)

Hi Everyone, my name is Michele.

In the previous video, I imported 2 skirt images on Z plane under Draw menu.

In this video, I am going to form a belt using Frame mesh & Curve Strap Snap.

Let's get started!

Shift F to turn on Polyframe.

Ctrl, Right click , move right to Zoom in.

Isolate a polyloop as base for the belt.

Press Ctrl/Cmd Shift to use Select Lasso brush with Lasso stroke.

Hover over the vertical edge of a polygon. If it says "Edge", Ctrl/Cmd Shift tap on it.

This will hide a strip of polyloop that goes all the way around the waist.

Actually, there are two types of "Edge"s you can tap on.

Left/Right Edge hides a horizontal strip.

Top/Botttom edge hides a vertical strip.

So watch out for the type of strip you want to hide. In this case, a Left/Right Edge.

So I have hidden a polyloop to use as a base for the belt.

Let me Ctrl W to regroup these into another colour.

Then Ctrl Shift Tap on a “Poly” to invert the visibility.

If I tap on "Edge" instead, another strip is hidden.

Tapping on "Poly" or "Point" will invert the visibility.

Let's check if the polyloop goes all the way around the waist.

This will be the base to create a frame for the belt.

Go under Stroke menu, Dock it.

Under Curve Functions, there are 3 options. Border, Polygroups and Creased edges.

Polygroups option is for creating a frame between two intersecting polygroups.

In my case, there are no intersecting polygons. So when I click on Frame mesh. Nothing happens.

but when I turn on Border, turn off Polygroups and click Frame mesh.

Curve functions will frame all borders with a Curve line.

Let me Ctrl Z to undo Frame Mesh and unhide all polygons. CTRL SHIFT Tap background.

Let's try out Polygroups. Border off, Polygroups on. Click on Frame Mesh.

Curve functions will form a curve at the intersections of 2 polygroup colours.

Let me undo Frame mesh and isolate this polyloop. Ctrl Z and Ctrl Shift Tap Polygroup.

Border on, Polygroups off. Frame mesh.

Now that I have 2 curves available. I can pick one to put a belt on.

Let's test it out.

B>C>9, Brush > Curve > Strapsnap

Click on the curve line with the selected brush.

Just like that we can have a fitting belt on the waist.

Should I keep the higher or lower belt?

I think I'll use the lower curve line.

Let's use Zmodeler brush to delete the top curve line. B>Z>M.

Hover over the top curve line.

When the word Delete appears, press spacebar to see the actions available.

Do I want to Bevel or Delete? Delete. Do I want All curves or just a curve. Just a curve.

Then click on the curve I want to delete and that's it.

Let’s go back to Brush > Curve > Strap snap .

Click on the curve line,

and check the placement.

What about the width and thickness of the belt? Let's change the brush size under Draw menu.

Draw size affects the width.

Z intensity affects the thickness.

I can also use Spacebar as a shortcut to change the draw size & Z intensity.

Let's try draw size 200, then click on the curve line.

Let me quickly adjust it to a desired thickness and width.

Sometimes I accidentally moved it when I click on it, so just undo and reclick on the curve line.

If it's embedded into the waist, try to thicken the belt using Z intensity.

There's another way to raise it above the waist.

In the next tutorial, I will use Curve tab under Brush menu to do this.

to lift the belt above the curve line so that it's not sunken.

If you find this video helpful, do subscribe and see you in the next video!

ZB_12 | How to import a front & back reference image on 1 plane with with subtitles (4k)

Hi Everyone, my name is Michele.

In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to import 2 reference

images onto a single surface using Draw menu and edit them

within Zbrush. Press “,” to launch lightbox. Go under “Tool”

and Double click on “Julie”. It will appear in the Tool menu

under the Tool icons.

Press “,” again to close the lightbox.

Click and drag down on the grey background to place Julie on

the canvas.

Click on Edit and before clicking on Make Polymesh 3D,

make sure Female model Subtool is selected, then go ahead

and click Make Polymesh 3D.

Zbrush makes a copy of the selected Subtool as a new tool,

while the original Julie model is still intact with 5 Subtools.

This way, I can always go back to retrieve any parts in Julie if I

need to.

Let me click on the new Subtool I created to use it.

Next, I need a plane/surface to hold my image as reference.

Turn on the Floor grid with Shift P or by clicking on this button

here on the right.

There is a tiny XYZ on the upper right of the button you can

click on to turn on each plane.

but I only need Z plane turned on because the skirt is front

facing.

How do I know Z plane is facing front?

As a beginner this can sometimes be quite challenging.

It is for me!

but I use a trick I find very quick and helpful.

In order to identify quickly which plane is facing me,

I use my left hand to form this gesture.

I make sure the head icon at the upper right of my canvas is

facing me.

And then start reciting XYZ beginning from the middle finger

towards the thumb.

X is the plane which runs left or right,

Y ; up or down, Z; forwards or backwards.

That’s how I check which plane to turn on,

Press F to frame the model.

Let’s import this royalty free image I downloaded from meta museum.

Click on Texture from the menu on top,

then click on Import, Select the image

from the dialogue box then click Open.

You will see the skirt image show up at the top left box

among the Texture images.

I have already imported mine previously so you can see mine

here as the last image.

Go under Draw menu to place the skirt image on plane Z.

Dock this Draw menu by clicking this

icon on the upper left corner.

Click on Front - Back tab.

Click on Map 1, select the skirt image to load it.

Now if this is the first time you have seen Map 1,

you must be wondering why is it called Map 1?

and why is there a Map 2 next to it? and what’s the difference?

Map 1 is the image you want to see

when viewed from the front.

Map 2 is for you to load a back view if you have a back view

image of the skirt. In this example I have loaded a

different skirt just to demonstrate.

I can also choose to see the same image

by just loading one image

Or I can click on this “One” button to make the second image disappear.

Let’s go back and check out how to load and adjust the skirt

image on Z plane.

Once you click on Map 1, a dialogue box will appear for me to

choose an image.

So I select the skirt image I want to display on Z plane,

and it will appear on Z plane .

Most probably out of scale but I can adjust the properties of 

this image under this Front-Back menu.

The Scale of the image can be adjusted using this slider.

I can scale it down by dragging the toggle to the left and scale it

up by dragging it right.

Click on the number to key in a figure like 0.2 and press enter.

Rotate to check if you need to adjust the distance

of the image from the model.

Elevation adjusts how far back or how far forward

the image is from the center of the model.

0 is the center of the model. Negative number means moving the image backwards.

Positive number means moving it forward.

Vertical offset, moves it up or down ,

while horizontal offset moves it left or right.

Let me quickly adjust this.

Let’s view from the back.

If you find the image too transparent,

You can change the opacity of the image using this slider,

Fill mode.

Slide the toggle to the right to increase the

Fill mode to 3 and make the image clearer.

Decrease the number to make the image more transparent.

Another very useful button is “Adjust” which can be used

to crop an image.

It will launch a dialogue box with cross-hairs 

at each corner to adjust the size.

Click and drag the cross hair to adjust, 

then click OK when you’re done.

Preferably, crop of the image before positioning.

or else you’ll have to reposition the image again.

There are 3 other buttons here. Inverse turns your image into an

X-ray like image.

Flip turns the right side of the image to left and vice versa.

Rotate turns the image at 90 degrees increment.

and finally, angle turns your image from any angle between

0 to 180 degrees.

That’s all for this video!

See you in the next upload!!

Remember to subscribe.

ZB_11 | Zbrush | Using IMM Mesh fusion to form a plank skirt.

Hi Everyone, my name is Michele.

In the previous, video I showed you how to form a skirt using

Curved Bridge Brush. Right now, I'm going to show you how to

form a skirt using Mesh fusion, in order to achieve something like this.

Similar to the previous tutorial, we will begin by forming two

surfaces. First, using Insert Multi Mesh(IMM). Second, using an

Alpha

and finally Zbrush will form a third using Mesh Fusion.

 Let's begin! Press "," to open up Lightbox. Under Project, Open up Female model project as a reference for

the width,

waist and

the length of the skirt.

By default, this Female model has 1 million ActivePoints with 4 subdivisions. Let's reduce the amount of active points so

that we don't bog down the file and make it slow.

Go under Tool > Geometry > Sdiv.

Slide the number of divisions to Level 2. The number of active

points will drop. Let's register that by deleting the Lower

Subdivisions and the Highest Subdivisions. Now the Total

points are only around 60 000. Turn Polyframe on by pressing

Shift F and under Subtool, Click on Append to add a new

Subtool. Click on circle 3d to form the bottom of the skirt.

Click on Circle3D Subtool layer to edit.

Press W to activate Gizmo.

Click on the red line to rotate Circle3D backwards. Turn on transparency by clicking the button

on the bottom right.

Rotate it so that you are viewing from the top then click on it.

Click on the blue arrow to move Circle3D lower. Click and drag

inwards or towards the center of the yellow box, to scale down

the skirt. Let's increase the resolution

by pressing CTRL or CMD D a few times.

Update the polyframe lines by pressing Shift F twice.

Turning it off and on again.

Click and drag downwards to rotate your view. We will now use

an alpha to form the bottom of the skirt. 

Holding down CTRL and CLICK on Alpha.

Click Import then select the purchased alpha or your own custom Alpha.

Then click open. Use Rect Stroke to apply this Alpha.

Click and Drag downwards anywhere on top of the polygon to

test out the alpha.

Then let's apply the mask with Transpose Smart Mask ; BTM, so that we can adjust the angle of the mask. Once Transpose Smart Mask is activated,

Click on Alpha to activate the purchased or your custom mask.

If you want to understand more about using Transpose Smart

Mask, Click on the link on the top right to watch the video

dedicated specifically for this brush.

Click on Transform tab and Activate Symmetry.

Turn off X Symmetry and turn on Y Symmetry.

Radial count, any number between 16 to 21.

Zoom in by holding down CTRL Right click and move right.

Apply Transpose Smart Mask.

CTRL CLICK and drag downwards.

Press Spacebar to move the position of the mask.

Adjust the angle by pivoting to the left or right.

Then let's fill in the center of the mask too. Holding down CTRL,

Change the stroke to Circle. Press X to turn off Symmetry and

apply the Circle mask.

Press Spacebar to move it.

Finally press CTRL or CMD W to Polygroup it. Now let's smooth 

out the jagged edges,

by going under Tool > Geometry > Delete lower subdivisions,

or else Edgeloop won't work .

Then under Edgeloop, look for Groupsloops. Adjust the Polish

from 50 to 100. Keep Loops at 4,

Triangle on and hit GroupsLoops. There will be 4 polished loops

created around each polygroup color.

Let's isolate the green polygroup.

CTRL SHIFT TAB on the unwanted polygroup.

Then reverse the isolation by CTRL SHIFT Tapping again on the

same polygroup. Once isolated, we can go ahead and combine

these two colors into one by hitting CTRL W or there is another

way you can isolate these polygroups, I think is very useful.

Isolate green polygroup first,

then slowly grow the isolated polygroups by pressing

CTRL SHIFT X a couple of times,

and you can shrink it back again by pressing CTRL SHIFT S.

Press F to fit the model to screen.

Press W to use gizmo to scale the bottom of the skirt.

Click on this icon to place gizmo

at the center of the unmasked polygons then

Click on the red rectangle and drag left to widen the skirt

and cover the hip area.

Activate Insert Multi-Mesh Primitives

with an H at the end to draw the top of the skirt. The shortcut is

B>I>H and watch the top left of the screen for the name if you

can't see the full name on the icon. Without the H, Mesh Fusion

will not work. Click and Drag down from the middle of the skirt.

Rotate to view from the front. Press W to activate gizmo again. Click and drag the blue arrow

upwards to the waist.

Let me zoom in to adjust the PrimitiveH insert. Click and drag

the red rectangle to adjust the width

and the blue rectangle to adjust the height.

When you're happy with the size and position.

Invert masking to adjust the bottom of the skirt. I think it needs

to be wider. CTRL I to invert the mask. Using gizmo, adjust the

width of the skirt by clicking and dragging on the red rectangle.

When done adjusting, press CTRL Click

and drag on the background twice.

The first time unmask everything.

The second will activate Mesh fusion.

This is the first CTRL CLICK and DRAG

and this is the second CTRL CLICK and DRAG

which activates Mesh fusion. Then Zbrush will join the two

surfaces automatically and that's how you activate Mesh fusion.

Here are a few notes if Mesh fusion doesn't work for you.

Take note to Groupsloops high resolution surfaces before you

run Mesh fusion and make sure that both surfaces must be

under the same Subtool layer.

Make sure Dynamesh is not activated and finally make sure that

there are no Subdivisions. There is another common way

this IMM Mesh fusion is used, which is for adding geometries

onto your existing models. For example, I have here a Sphere3D

which is subdivided three times.

I applied a Star mask on the Sphere3D.

Then activate IMM PrimitiveH on the sphere polygroup the

masked area to create an edge.

Apply Insert whole cylinder on top of the star polygroup.

Click and drag left to scale it and move it outwards. 

CTRL CLICKand DRAG down twice

and Mesh fusion will do its thing.

So far from my observation any geometries which is below 

200k or Subdivision level 4, Mesh fusion will work without any

problem, but any surfaces above the resolution of 200k

or Subdivision 4, Groupsloops is required to tidy up the edges

for Mesh fusion to work.

Another observation I have is the proximity of open edges.

If you have a hidden open edge nearby

the newly applied IMM Insert will fuse with it. For example, I have half of the sphere hidden, not deleted, just hidden.

The newly applied IMM Insert will fuse with it even though

I have polygrouped a star just below it.

In order to fuse with the star shape below, 

delete the hidden open edgeof the sphere,

along with the subdivision levels. In order to make sure that my IMM Insert brush fuse

with the star shape below it

and mesh fusion will work as intended. Now, let's go back to our skirt model. If you have

learnt something new today, please subscribe to my channel

and I will upload more of such videos and remember to give me

a thumbs up! Alright, now back to our skirt. I want to shorten

the skirt. I'll use BTR the regular Transpose Tool

and shorten it . 

Then use ClothHook brush B>C>K to move and adjust

the skirt so that it's covering the skin.

Finally, I'm just going to add some material to the skirt for fun!

Click on Material and select one that reflects black leather maybe?

Even though we have selected the material that we want,

we have not registered the material on the skirt.

There are a few icons we need to make sure are on before

we can register the material on the skirt.

Check that the skirt layer must be selected,

with paintbrush icon on.

Activate Materials brush at the brush intensity slider on top.

Now I can go ahead and register this material by clicking on this

Fill object button.

Oops! the bum is showing a little. Let's use

ClothHook brush B>C>K to use it.

I need to turn off Material brush above the Z Intensity slider

or else I'll be applying the active SkinShade4 Material.

Oh! and one more thing I forgot to fix. I need to delete the

top surface of the skirt. After completing this video, I realised

that I have not deleted the top surface of the skirt. So this is an

additional video on how you can do it easily with Polygroups >

Groups by normals. Under Groups by normals there are a few

options for us to adjust. This is the slider that sets the

maximum range of angle,

within which the polygon faces should be considered as one

polygroup. So the threshold is 45 degrees.

Below that angle one polygroup and

above above that angle another polygroup.

I have here only two surfaces. The first is the top of the cylinder

and the second the sides.

These two surfaces definitely exceeds 45 degrees and each

shall have its own color.

Is it confusing? Let me explain.

Over here, I have a Polymesh Cylinder3D.

All the surfaces belong to one polygroup.

Let's measure the angle difference of each of the sides.

Turn on gizmo by pressing W. Press Y to

activate Transpose tool. Click at the center and drag out to the

first point to check the angle. You can read the angle at the top

left corner of the window. Now let's check the angle of the

neighboring face. Click and drag starting from the center. Snap

to the second point. Next to the previous face.

Do the same to the third to be sure that the difference is

11 degrees. Let me set the maximum angle to 11 degrees,

which means I need to set the maximum angle to 11 degrees

at the Groups by normals slider,

under Polygroups. Currently, we are using a regular algorithm

with the filled dot option active. Every strip with 11 degrees difference

is a different polygroup. If I change the algorithm by clicking 

this dot and change it into a circle with an outline,

the polygroups are still divided by 11 degrees.

However when i change the angle to 12 degrees and

hit Groups by normals, the cylinder sides are all polygrouped

into one color,

and that's how maximum angle works.

So let's go back to the previous model and click

Groups by normals. CTRL SHIFT CLICK on the pink polygon

to isolate it.

Then go under Modify topology and Delete hidden.

Now that we're here and deleted the surface that we don't want,

why not let's just add some thickness to it by going to

Zmodeler brush BZM.

Click on Qmesh,

and click on Polygroup all under Target, and then click on one polygon surface and

slowly drag it out and all the

polygons with the same polygroup and color will

be pulled out. Adjust the thickness as much as you want and

that's the end of this video. For more similar tutorials

please subscribe to my channel or visit michtintin.com for more

indexed tutorial and I'm still working on my webshop. I'll be

selling some Alphas and also some VDM brushes.

Please subscribe and stay tuned!

ZB_10 | Masking & IMM Mesh Fusion skirt modelling in the making...

 

    I have always been wanting to show the process of me making the videos because the process is so tedious but for me was worth it. I want to learn and share whatever I learn be it editing or filming or cooking or 3D modelling, but I have a problem. There is just too much to juggle. If I have an assistant then maybe but at the moment I can only do everything myself. So this is just a short clip of me learning and deciding what to include in the coming tutorial. 

ZB_09 | Using mask and Curve Bridge Brush To form a skirt (Masking Part 5)

  

Hi Everyone, My name is Michele.

Today I will show you 2 ways you can join separate surfaces to

form a skirt in Zbrush. One using mask and one using

Insert Multi Mesh(IMM.)

We will start with masking the top of the skirt then the bottom and Zbrush will form the third using

curve bridge brush.

Let's begin. Press "," to open up the light box. Go under project. Open up a female model that comes with Zbrush. We will use this female model to help us with forming the skirt

 then go under Subtool.

Click on Append. Click on Cylinder3d.  Click on Cylinder Subtool layer to edit it.

Press "W" to turn on gizmo and scale it down to fit the model,

just below the waistline. Now, increase the resolution of the

cylinder so that our mask can be as smooth as possible.

Turn on polyframe by pressing this button or Shift "F". Go under

Tool > Geometry > Dynamesh. Turn off blur and increase the resolution up to 800k,

so that the pixels look smaller. Press "F" to fit to screen. If you use a lower resolution; for example 512,

the squares will look bigger.

We only need to see the parts just below the waist

where the waist band begins and just

below the knees where the skirt ends. Go under Subtool.

Click on the Female model Subtool layer to activate it.

Ctrl Shift Click and Drag from the waist to the knees to isolate.

Rotate the canvas so that you're viewing from the top.

Press "F" to fit the waist to screen

Let's use method No.1. I'm going to use Method No.2

on the next video so stay tuned and remember to subscribe :)

Press Ctrl and select Freehand stroke. Reduce the Focal Shift to

-100 to get a sharp edged mask. Activate the cylinder subtool

layer. Method No.1 uses MaskPen to create the top of the skirt.

Zoom in close enough so that it's easier to paint on the mask.

Just beyond the skin.

Press Alt to erase the painted mask. Rotate it if you can't see the edge of the skin.

Ctrl "W" to Polygroup it.

Press "F" to fit to screen. Now, let's do the bottom of the skirt. Rotate the canvas so that you are viewing from the bottom. Let's hide all the other surfaces so that we will only mask the

bottom of the cylinder. Ctrl Shift Alt Click and Drag.

Remember to use SelectRect for the brush selection,

and Rect as the Stroke.

Rotate to view from the bottom of the cylinder.

There are 3 ways to do this.

Method No.1 is using Lasso tool. Let's do that.

Press Ctrl. Change the Stroke to Lasso. Now let's draw the

soft curves of the skirt. Turn off perspective.

We want to see it straight on.

Slowly, draw the curves with your

pen like what I'm drawing now.

Press Alt to erase using Lasso then Press Ctrl "W" to Polygroup it. The next method is using Radial symmetry.

Go under Transform, Click on Activate symmetry.

By default, only X symmetry and mirror button is On.

Click on "R" to use Radial symmetry.

Click on the number on Radial count and type in 16.

This number will create 16 numbers of whatever you draw on

the axis you have chosen above be it X, Y or Z. If you want to

know which one to use, Just test out each of them until you see

one that fits but if you want to dive deeper into understanding

which plane you're looking at and which axis you're going to

draw on this is how i do it. You can turn on Floor plane

with this button or Shift "P".

On Floor plane, you can click on X axis to find out where it is, and your radial symmetry will divide whatever you draw on this

surface or on this plane.

If you click on "Y" axis, that is the plane

our symmetry will be divided on,

and similar for Z axis. If you click on Z axis, both on

Active symmetry and on floor plane, Zbrush will

divide 16 numbers of whatever you draw on Z plane so,

in order to apply Radial symmetry. You need to identify which

plane you're looking straight on and then, you click on that axis.

For example, I'm looking at Z-axis and my Active symmetry,

I have Z-axis on, and I'll be able to draw

16 numbers on that plane.

Let us switch back to Method No.2 on How to mask the bottom

of the skirt. Now we're going to use Radial symmetry to mask

the bottom of the skirt. With Radial symmetry on Y-axis on and

16 Radial count, Press Ctrl to activate MaskPen and under

Stroke, Select FreeHand stroke.

Let's start masking using our Freehand

stroke. Press Ctrl again to activate masking. Then change the stroke to circle. Draw the circle to

cover the unmasked skirt area.

Press Ctrl "W" again to Polygroup it. Now there's a third way to

do this using a pre-made mask I'm selling soon on

michtintin.com. Still working on the quality of the mask. Let's

undo the steps we have done. Press Ctrl. Go to Alpha.

Import a Custom Alpha.

Change the Stroke to Rect;

with Square and Center On. Go to the Center of the circle.

Click and Drag to apply the custom mask.

The parts that intersect with the skin can be adjusted later on, or you can scale the polygons bigger later on before you bridge

the two surfaces. Then Ctrl "W".

Let's unhide everything. Ctrl Shift Tap.

Let's isolate the top and bottom of the skirt.

Ctrl Shift Tap on the unwanted parts then Tap again

to reverse the visibility. You can watch my first few videos on

masking if you want to understand more about using masks.

Unhide all of the female model. Then go back to cylinder layer.

Ctrl Shift Tap on the unwanted parts then tap again to

reverse the visibility.

Ok! Now let's delete hidden geometry.

Modify topology > Delete hidden. Done.

Those are the 3 ways you can mask the bottom of the skirt.

Now we will smooth out the edges of the

top and bottom polygons.

Go under Tool > Geometry > Edged loop > Groupsloops.

Increase the polish to 100. Keep the Loops at four and

triangles on. Hit Groupsloops.

Hit one more time to smooth the edges further.

Zoom in and check. I have no idea why I didn't turn off the

female model instead of hiding them, so let's turn it off now,

by clicking on the eye icon on the Subtool layer. Let's turn on

Double so that we can see the bottom of the top surface...

On second thought, let's flip both surfaces instead when you

look up from the bottom of the skirt, it should be see-through.

Similar to when you look down from the top of the skirt it should

be transparent so I will keep both surfaces empty when you 

look from the top and the bottom, so that we can see through

them. Under Tool, and under Display properties, turn on Double

so that we can view both surfaces. Now turn double off

and we can see the opaque surfaces of the top of the skirt

facing outwards and the opaque surface of the bottom of the

skirt facing outwards and under Display properties,

we click flip once. We can flip both surfaces so that the

transparent side faces outwards and opaque sides

face inwards,

and if you rotate to view from the top you can only see the

bottom surface and then if you rotate to view from the bottom

you can only see the top surface. This is what we want.

Now to join them together Press B>C>5, shortcut for

Brush>Curve>Bridge.

Then click on any one of the surfaces.

Click on the Center then Drag towards the edge.

When you reach the edge, press Shift.

It will form a curved line around the edges.

Then let go of the pen. Do the same for the next surface. Click at the center, Drag towards the edge,

Press Shift, Red highlight visible,

Let go. Next all you have to do is wait for Zbrush to do

the magic. It will form the 3rd surface of the skirt automatically

using Curved Bridge Brush. Rotate around to view it from the

top and bottom.

There could be another problem you might encounter if your

computer is too slow. You can reduce the polygon count before

you bridge the two surfaces together. Just go under Geometry >

Zremesher, turn off Adapt, reduce adaptive size to zero. Let's undo. We are now going to reduce the number of squares

we see here.

Click Zremesh with the settings mentioned and watch the

polygon counts drop in half.

If you can't join them you can try Groupslooping them before you

Bridge them using BC5.

Now with lesser polygon counts, it should be faster in bridging.

Let's try smoothing them. Turn off Polyframe. Shift "F".

Go under Tools > Deformation > Polish, slide it to 50%. You may

have to do it a couple of times until you're happy with it

If you enjoyed this video, please click on like and subscribe. and thanks in advance I'll see you in the next video Adios!

Remember to subscribe!!