Is there anyway to rotate a brush based on the direction I’m painting in? This could really help in mimicking the look and feel of painting with a real brush with real brush hairs.
Thanks,
Ben
If I understand your question correctly, there really isn’t a way to do that. However, a few of the brushes have a Bristle Mode modifier, which will help you achieve a more painterly look.
Also, after you have painted, you can use the Smudge tool to move the pixols around and get some very nice effects.
hey Ben, welcome to ZBC! 
I don’t think there’s a built-in way – but I wonder …
ZBrush remembers the previous brush-stroke, which can be replayed with Ctrl-1 (one) even if you change the alpha, material, color, pixol-tool, brush size, RGB intensity, etc. – something worth playing with 
[i][edit: this part in italics is a speculation that could not be implemented in a Zscript]
So if the stroke information can be accessed by a Zscript ( 
I don’t know), maybe a wizard could find a way to [undo the original stroke from the canvas and] replay a copy of the stroke in segments, with a copy of the alpha rotated with some alignment to the stroke path
If this were possible, some questions would be: how often would the alpha be rotated, and by how much, i.e., how strictly would it be aligned to the stroke path (in the real world the brush tip would usually not be freely rotating through 360 degrees)
It might be computationally intensive and somewhat sluggish – but for comparison, this kind of thing is sluggish in Painter or DeepPaint with certain brushes – in some cases those programs draw a dotted line as you brush, and eventually the “paint” catches up [/i]
Another approach is to design alpha brushes that are made of random dots and maybe add noise in the Alpha palette
Alphas can be rotated 90 degrees at a time, and this could be scripted into shortcut keys or maybe used with a timer function, but the alpha would have to be cleverly designed so that each rotation presented a subtle change rather than a blatant one
I think I need to recharge my brain-cell now 
[edit: “Bristle mode” … thanks, Aurick, I’ll look for that … still only on Chapter 8 of my second reading of the manual ;)]
UPDATE: yes, there is a StrokeGetLast command in Dave Bushnell’s Zscript command reference – but I don’t see a way to parse the StrokeData into segments or a way to make arrays for generating the alphas, so I don’t think brush rotation can be done with Zscripts
However, I also have an interest in simulating real-world paint and have been playing with various relevant settings on the Tool, Alpha, Stroke, Draw and Material palettes, such as noise, depth and both RGB and Z intensities
Thanks for the friendly welcome! ZBrush is definitely a unique program and will require lots of use to really understand it. Fortunately, it’s a really fun program to use.
It looks like ZBrush is not really a replacement for programs like Photoshop and Painter. I wonder in what ways ZBrush will be expanded in the future?
Take Care,
Ben
Zbrush can probably do anything painter does and more… I got the Painter classic version with my new Wacom and I wasn’t really impressed. It does basically what Corel Photophaint 7 did years ago.
you can set the width and hieght in the draw pallett also,click and drag on the pink six sided box in the picker(drop down) pallett to rotate your current brush in any direction to get different effects.just found this out recently myself.hope this helps.the combinations in zbrush are endless.
the more you learn these combos the less you
rely on other apps.
Hi Gary
The Brush is no rotatativ 
This pink orientation Picker (press Ctrl on the button “Cont Orientation” when the Mouse is over for example for have the Help in line) is not effective for the Normal Tools like Normal Brush or similar but they work fine for all the others ,Object 3D …(especially with the “spray”) !
For the Normal Paint brush you can rotate the “Alpha” or create your own Alpha of course in the “wished” orientation (use the “MrgbGrabber” 
Have happy Zbrushing !
Pilou
I think I’m getting an idea of what makes a good 2d brush: roughly symmetrical, uneven edge, random gaps
Upper left: image that I grabbed for the brush (using SimpleBrush with Flat material and RGBZ at 100%, so it has depth even though it doesn’t show)
Lower left: what the alpha looked like after MRGBZ grabber (remember this sends depth to the Alpha palette and RGB to the Texture palette; to use the upper left image as a brush, I had to use Texture: MakeAlpha after the grab)
Right side: all with PaintBrush, RGB 100%, Z 1%, Basic material; strokes 1 and 3 use Dots stroke; 2 and 4 use Freehand with spacing = 0.1
The upper-left brush makes more of a gouache-y stroke, still with some variety around the edge
The lower-left brush shows the [admittedly fat] bristles more – this might look better with a tablet and variable stroke width
ZBrush alphas have an extra 8 bits for depth info – you can see this in the rotatable preview inside the Draw palette
Aside from RGB and Z intensity, you can make other adjustments to the brush in the Alpha and Draw palettes
For a flat brush, a rough ellipse tilted at about 30 degrees would allow for some variety using 90-degree rotations and H or V flipping
Other ideas to try before the MRGBZ grab: smaller blobs around the edge or throughout; one or two gaps that went halfway or all the way through at different angles, so they would only show up in certain stroke directions; blobs at different Z depths; maybe a cluster of narrow cones sticking straight out of the canvas
In fact, having thought this all through for myself, I see that some of the default brushes are designed with these considerations, e.g. Brush23 :rolleyes: 
Oh well, sometimes it’s educational to take the long road
Ben: As for ZBrush and other programs, I would say there is some overlap with Painter, and that ZBrush is complementary to Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro – I use PSP for jpeg conversion and to make text alphas for stencils – I’m going to make some other stencils in PSP for painting windows and stuff on buildings and spaceships
ZBrush’s distinction lies in the ability to model and paint in near-3d (it has a fixed POV so it’s like bas-relief or a shadowbox) – and to do so in a more fluid and direct manner than some other programs – it’s also unusually easy to model and paint organic as well as geometrical shapes, which can then be exported as OBJ files for use in other programs, e.g. Maya, 3dsMax, Poser, Bryce and various game engines – a nice side effect is that it has a lot of flexibility for 2d work that responds to lighting
If you realy want an Alpha brush (of the Normal Brush) with a Rotate wished : follow these steps
Example with the AlphaBrush “arrow” N°33 selected (of course you can take anything
Take a Plan 3D : Modifiers/Initialize/increase the definition (Hdivide, Vdivide)
Modifiers/Selection
Alp (past the selected Alpha)on the Plan 3D
Inverse (it’s the trick for have only the “arrow”)
Hide Points (trick suite)
Disable the View Mask
RGB 100%
Draw the Plan 3D on the Canvas with rotate wished
MrgBZ Grabber
= You have your brush “Arrow” with the Angle Rotating wished in the Alpha
Now you can Paint your MasterPiece with the Normal Brush
Hope this help !
Pilou
PS Another Funny Solution ( 
with an Alpha on one Object 3D! )
Here I use the Following steps up Side for the first “Arrow” on a Plan3D
Alas, the Inbetweener don’t rotate or Size with A Brush(only position), you must have an Object
You have just to MrgbZGrabb the Brush’s angle that’s interest you