ZBrushCentral

Adding objects to your main object

I’ve been sculpting things using that default sphere thing for a few days and feel comfortable with the brushes and how that aspect of the program works.

So now I’d like to add additional sphere primitives to my work (like adding horns to a head, eyes, etc.). Looking through the documentation has proved to be confusing for me because there is often not a way for me to tell if it is referring to a button or a concept. I’m used to thinking of a model as an “object”, not a tool. So all the various terms that appear in the docs really throw me off. Is there a tutorial for dummies that covers this. By trying to follow some of the information in the help file regarding subtools, I somehow managed to get an .obj on the screen at the same time with the model I made in zBrush. But when I tried to scale the new object, it scaled the original object, too. It all just seems so counterintuitive. Please help.

Also, is there a tutorial for dummies that helps with this terminology transition? I mean, I haven’t even been able to figure out how to render a frame to a file yet because the render palette only seems to want to render the viewport. One would assume it should happen from that menu but it seems not. I can render the workspace view, but I can’t find a way to make it an actual file like a jpeg.

For your first question: Additional elements can be added to your polymesh model via the SubTool menu. Tool>SubTool>Append lets you select another 3D object as a subtool for your model. You can then rotate/scale/move all subtools togethere, and work on them one at a time (while still being able to see the others).

For your second question: www.pixologic.com/zclassroom is a great place to start. Also, www.pixologic.com/docs

For your third question: Rendering renders the viewport. To export that, use Document>Export. You can export as PSD or BMP, and then use another app to convert to JPG.

Thanks for taking the time to help me.

I had already attempted the above sequence of actions and all it does is toss what I select as the subtool into the workspace. I can’t move/rotate/scale it without also affecting the primary object. I must be missing some step.

Thanks, I’ll check those out once I install QT7.

Yeah! Thanks.

For anyone who finds this thread looking for the similar answers, it’s not simply “Tool>SubTool>Append” to get two workable objects on the screen together. Those are just the big picture steps involved. To really do it you first have to click on one of the icons in the main Tools palette such as “Sphere3D”, then click “Make PolyMesh3D”, then click back on your main object (which for some reason lives in the same palette with the initial primitives that the program presents you with), then click on “Subtool”, then click on “Append”, then if you did it right the object you want to add to the existing model will be on the top shelf of the panel that opens up. Click on it and it’ll be added to the photoshop-esque layer thingy. Sigh. :wink:

From there you can begin to manipulate the stuff separately and move things around in a more traditional way. The “Working With SubTools” movie at http://pixologic.com/zclassroom/ will explain it better than me. :o