138 chapter 4 ■ ZBrush for Detailing
We have created two layers and added different elements to each. Let’s now look at
changing layer settings such as Intensity and Visibility:- Under Tool → Layers, select the details layer by clicking its name in the list. Click the
Intensity slider and set this value to 0.5. Notice how these details become softer inter-
actively as you move the slider (Figure 4.39). You can reduce the details to 0, making
them invisible, or even set them to a negative slider value so they subtract from the
surface of the sculpture, thus inverting their original effect.
Figure 4.39 Setting the details layer’s intensity to 0.5 (left) softens the effect of that layer. Setting
the sculpting layer’s intensity to 1.5 (right) increases the strength of the layer.- Select the sculpting layer and set the Intensity value to 1.5. This value increases the
strength of the sculpting layer. Notice that even those changes made at the lower sub-
division levels can be adjusted with the layer intensity. - You can turn off layers entirely by clicking the eye icon in the Layers menu.
Figure 4.40 shows the effect of turning off the sculpting layer while keeping the details
layer on. The details remain on the head even though the shape is drastically changed.
Layers are a useful tool when you’re
organizing your character sculpting. You
can even use them to store different facial
expressions. Figure 4.41 shows a charac-
ter with the mouth open in one layer and
closed in another. By changing the layer
intensity, you can adjust the amount that
the mouth is open. This is the same as a
blend shape modifier in Maya. Layers can
be used to create blend shape animations
directly in ZBrush. For more information
on this application of layers, see Chapter 8,
“ZBrush Movies and Photoshop
Figure 4.40 The sculpting layer is off and the Composites.”
details layer is still on.