ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

134 chapter 4 ■ ZBrush for Detailing

In this section we’ll import an image of skin detail and use it as an alpha (Figure 4.31).

1. From the accompanying DVD, load​skinswatch.psd into the Alpha menu by clicking
   Import.


2. This is a skin detail from a photograph. To optimize it for use in ZBrush, click the
   Max button in the Alpha menu. This will maximize the value range to help you get
   better details. You will also want to raise the Rf slider to 10 to add a faded border.
   This prevents the alpha from leaving a square artifact when used.


3. From the Lightbox ZTools menu, select the Polysphere tool and draw the sphere on
   the canvas. Enter Edit mode and divide the sphere as high as possible on your system.


4. Select the Standard brush, set ZIntensity to 12, and select the DragRect stroke and the
   SkinSwatch alpha. Drag the alpha on the surface. Figure 4.32 shows the sphere with
   the custom pore alpha applied.

Figure 4.32 The custom SkinSwatch alpha applied

to a sphere with a DragRect stroke

5. The image file has a bit of noise from both JPEG compression as well as high-contrast
   lighting. You can reduce this noise with the Blur slider. Raise Blur to a value of 2 and
   redraw the stroke. Try adjusting the other sliders such as Contrast and Noise.

Baking Changes to the New Alpha

It is important to understand that changes made with these sliders are applied as a process

to the imported alpha. If you want to save the alpha with these changes applied, you must

“bake” them into a new instance of the alpha. To save a modified version of the alpha, fol-

low these steps:

1. With your alpha active in the Alpha palette, set the modifiers you want to adjust and save.
   This can include turning on the Max button, adding a blur, and adjusting the Rf slider.


2. When the alpha is to your liking, click the Make Modified Alpha button in the Alpha
   menu. This will create a new alpha in the palette that has the modifier settings “baked” in.


3. Select this new alpha and in the main Alpha menu click the Export button. This will
   save a copy of the currently selected alpha as the default PSD file type. Save the alpha in
   the ZStartup/Alphas folder if you want it to load by default each time ZBrush starts.

Figure 4.31 This
image of skin
texture can be
applied directly
to your model as
an alpha texture
stamp.