ZBrushCentral

Clearing and Inverting Clipping vs. Masking

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

This is a question that has bothered me for a while, I don’t know where to find the answer if there is one, so I guess I’ll ask it here.

If you’re using a masking brush, you mask off part of the mesh, and if you want to invert the mask, you CTRL+Click, and to clear it you CTRL+Click and Drag (selecting nothing). Makes sense.

However, if you’re using a clipping brush, you invert the mesh visibility by CTRL+SHIFT+Clicking and Dragging, and you clear it by CTRL+SHIFT+Clicking instead.

Obviously these interactions are flipped, and that seems very unintuitive to me, and I just wanted to know why that is, if there are other features that are the reason, or if there is some other logic to it. It’s not a big deal, I’d just love to know why it’s the way it is, 99% of Zbrush’s controls feel really well thought-out.

Thanks for your time!

#2

i don’t quite understand when you say

“However, if you’re using a clipping brush, you invert the mesh visibility by CTRL+SHIFT+Clicking and Dragging, and you clear it by CTRL+SHIFT+Clicking”

a clip brush just cilps. there is no hiding or clearing.

CTRL+SHIFT+Click on a part, hides parts of the mesh. CTRL+SHIFT+Click on the canvass clears it (makes all parts visible again). that how it works regardless of the brush you’re using. the clip brush has nothing to do with it.

#3

Sorry, I’m not talking about any specific clipping brush, rather what happens when you hold CTRL+SHIFT versus what happens when you hold just CTRL (masking brush).

With a clip brush you can CTRL+SHIFT+Drag to invert what’s hidden and what’s visible. If you’re masking, CTRL+Clicking on the canvas doesn’t clear the mask in the same way CTRL+SHIFT+Clicking clears what you’ve clipped, it inverts the mask.

I know it’s confusing, especially reading it, but what I’m talking about is the basic difference between what happens when you click on the canvas or drag on the canvas, while either masking your mesh or clipping it. You would think they would do similar actions when clicking and when dragging, but instead, masking inverts when clicking and clipping inverts when dragging.

I don’t really have a problem, I was just curious and was wondering if anyone who knew more about the program could explain why it works the way it does.

#4

I get what you’re saying. It has always been like that. At this point you could say it is by design. Eh, you just get used to it I suppose.

#5

He’s talking about the difference between masking brushes (CTRL) and selection/clip/trim brushes (SHFT+CTRL).

When masking you tap to invert and drag to clear. When using selection you tap to clear and drag to invert.

It’s just an inconsistency. Not sure if it was done that way for a purpose or not. It takes a little getting used to.

#6

Yeah thanks guys, I’m used to it, although sometimes I definitely do the wrong thing at first.

I want to believe there’s a reason for it, or if not, that it could change in the future, haha. It’s hard to explain to people new to the program. Most everything else that seems weird about the program I can justify to people.