Can I Apply an Alpha With Just A Click? Seems I Need to Drag to Activate the Brush

[Susan]

I am wondering if there is a way to apply just one instance of an alpha to the surface of the mesh by just clicking once. I have been using Sculptris and it has this function. With ZBrush it seems I have to click and drag ever so slightly to get the alpha to appear on the surface. I like to move over the surface and use the alphas like texture stamps by moving my brush over the surface, briefly stopping where I want the alpha and then just clicking.

Also are the lazy mouse steps the only way to get spacing between the alpha imprint as you drag. It works but it seem slow compared to Sculptris (like your are getting the steps but also getting a laziness in the speed at which you can work ) .

Thanks all

[marcus_civis]

You can use the DragDot stroke type in the Stroke palette. This will create a copy of the alpha based on the Draw Size. You need to drag a little rather than simply a click but you can reposition the alpha if you want. Turn off Lazy Mouse to reduce the amount of dragging you need to do.

For repeating alphas you can use the Roll option in the Stroke palette Modifiers. You’ll need to have either the Dots or Freehand stroke selected. Adjust the Roll Dist slider as necessary.

[marcus_civis]

It occurred to me that a macro would work very well for your ‘stamp alpha’ needs. Download the attached file and save it to your ZBrush 4R7\ZStartup\Macros\Misc folder. Press Macro>Reload All Macros and you should have a new button in the Macro>Macros>Misc sub-palette called “Place Alpha”.

You’ll need to assign a hotkey to the button for it to work. Ctrl+Alt+click on the button and then press the key you want to use. I suggest you choose a single key such as “J” because if you have a combination such as “Ctrl+J” you’ll need to let up both keys each time between presses. (This is a drawback with macro and plugin hotkeys.)

Then all you need to do is place your cursor where you want on the model and press the hotkey - no need to click. You can use any of the Stroke types available for sculpting except DragRect.

Download here:

[Susan]

Thanks for that macro Marcus! nice.

So as mentioned I’m coming over from Sculptris and really appreciate the new Zbrush strokes
for applying alphas like the drag dot and drag rec. I was Looking to find the equivalent of the Sculptris brush spacing slider in Zbrush. I tried the lazy mouse and roll. It seems lazy mouse is the closest but you can’t draw that fast with it? , which I some times like to do.

Roll is a nice option and I have a question about it. Inorder to have the alpah not be elongated I set the roll distance to 1,
but when I do that the alpah seems to get a texture on it created by its own edges. (see enclosed pic)

How can I use roll and get actual size alphas to roll out at different distances.

Alpha 28: top row - lazy mouse
mid row - roll distance of 1
bot. row - roll with larger distance

[Susan]

Marcus I was using the macro you wrote on a trial version, I just purchased a license and reinstalled zb and activated it I loaded the macro into the correct folder just like I did before but for some reason it is not working now?
any ideas what may be wrong?

Thanks

[marcus_civis]

For the roll - reducing Lazy Step to 0.1 can help. See the StitchBasic brush for an example. But I think that just using Lazy Mouse and adjusting the distance using Lazy Step actually gives a better result…

For the macro - is the button there? If so, try re-assigning the hotkey, in case for some reason that has got overwritten.

[Susan]

Marcus thanks for those suggestions,

I had lazy mouse on so that’s why the macro did not work.

I played around with the roll modifier some more, it does seem that there is some slight surface smoothness change
once you start to go below 1.5. But yeah, as you mentioned roll is not designed to be a brush spacing modifier any way.

One last thing on this topic that you might be able to answer, when using the lazy mouse and the lazy step and click and dragging
the alpha is applied in the direction you are moving. So that you get a spaced string of alphas all orientated the same way along your stroke.
Is there any setting that would make each alpha have a random orientation as you drag? and or have the alphas stay in the same orientation as you drag

Directional like zbrush top row
Random orientation mid row (would like to do this)
Same orientation bot row (would like to do this)

[marcus_civis]

Hi Susan,

Good catch on lazy mouse being on for the macro. I’ve updated the file so that the macro temporarily turns off lazy mouse, in case that’s useful.

For your questions:

To get a varied rotation of the alpha: in the Brush palette > Orientation sub-palette, set the Spin Rate to 2. The higher the value the more the variation. It’s not random but is close to what you want.

To get the alphas facing the same way: in the Brush palette > Alpha and Texture sub-palette, set AlignToPath to 25. You can change the actual direction by adjusting the Spin Angle slider in the Orientation sub-palette (though this is a little difficult as the slider goes from 0 - 1 rather than 360 degrees).

HTH,

[Susan]

Thanks Marcus that definitely helps.

I do a lot of drawing with alphas and I really like to have all types of control over them as I apply them.

The drag dot and drag rec are a great addition when coming from sculptris, I wish that they were combined into
one stroke or each had the others capabilities. It would be nice for example to have the ability that the drag rec has where you can
drag out the alpha size and spin the orientation, but then if you could press a key and drag along the surface to position it like you can with the drag dot stroke.

[ImaCrime]

Hi Marcus_Civis, sorry if i bother you, i wanted to ask you if is still possible to have that macro to stamp alpha, since the link doesn’t work anymore, thank you so much!

[marcus_civis]

Hi,
Try this:

Place Alpha.txt (343 Bytes)

-Marcus

[ImaCrime]

It works so well! Thank you a lot!!

[marcus_civis]

Great!