ZBrushCentral

What is the best way to draw geometry on an object's Surface?

I’m new here and pretty new with Zbrush. How do I draw seperate objects on a objects surface as a seperate object? Thanks a lot.

You should either retopologize or use Zsketch. I think there are some decent how tos on both in the Zclassroom. You can also Mask and extract but that is not always a clean and desired result. Good luck :slight_smile:

Thanks for the response, Zsketch sounds like an alternative, though I’m not looking to add strips of Zspheres onto my model, I’m only looking to draw out a simple bulge inbetween a gap between two of my model’s parts. I only need it to draw out details similar to the way Shadow box works. Whenever I extract and try to draw on top of the extracted section it affects the underside of my extracted mesh. How might I extract and draw without this happening?

Well, It looks like we have two issuse here. With ZSketch you can use it kind of like a filler. After you have placed the tubes hit a. You will now see a single mesh based off of the shape you sketched over the surface. The meshes are very workable and easy to sculpt on, it is a great way to fill or rough in a shape that you can later retopologize to get a clean mesh if needed.

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Here is an example of a shape that I blocked out with Zsketch and then re-shaped after I made in to a polymesh.

With extracting you can mask the back side off so it is not effected. extraction shapes actually are broken into polygroups too. If you ctrl+shift click (while in draw mode) the area you are working with will disappear. Ctrl+Shift click the in the area around the model, this should switch what is hidden with what is visible. Now you can work on the work on that surface with out worrying about effecting the other areas. If the object is not in groups, I think you can make it so with group split in the sub tools menu.

Good luck, if you have any questions let me know :slight_smile:

Thank you. Do you know of any ways to center my Zspheres as I draw them down the middle of my character? Also, is “A” all I have to press to make the zpheres into a mesh?

Well, usually if you hit x you can turn on symmetry… but I am not sure sure if that works with Zsketch. As far as turning it into a polymesh, typing a is just a preview. You would need to go to the upper menu and click “make polymesh 3d” or find the adaptive skin section in the right hand menu and and click make adaptive skin. either one of those options will work but usually only one or the other are available to click depending on what you are doing.

CHEERS!!!

-Kevin

So there is no button like in 3DS Max where I click the object and it automaticly centers to the object I tell it to?