■ Painting a Creature Skin 181Projection Master for the Stinger
For the stinger we’ll use Projection Master. This is
because using Projection Master allows us to use the
2.5D brushes that are usually only used on the canvas
and not on a 3D model. Projection Master allows us
to temporarily drop to the canvas and treat the model
as a 2.5D illustration. In this case we’ll use the Deco
brush. The Deco brush creates long, tapered calli-
graphic strokes as you saw in Chapter 4, “ZBrush for
Detailing” (Figure 5.39). In this case we’ll use it for
color and not sculpting.
I would like to mention again that Projection Master is used less in favor of ZAppLink
but I feel it is important to understand how it works and how to use it in case you find
other applications in your own workflows. The ZBrush 2.5D brushes have several unique
features that can improve your work through experimentation.- Since we’ll be painting only on the horn, let’s mask the skin area we don’t want to
paint. Select the Lasso tool on the right side of the screen. Using Ctrl+Shift-click, draw
a hide marquee around the head ending just short of the stinger. - Drop down a few subdivision levels and hide the faces up to the horn. Enter Frame
mode to easily see the faces. Turn on Point Select. Hide the faces (Figure 5.40). Mask
the stinger and Ctrl+Shift-click the background to show the rest of the head again.
Invert the mask by Ctrl-clicking and step back up the subdivision levels. If you still
have the polygroups from the sculpting phase of this character, use them to isolate the
horn from the head and mask the skin. If your mask appears too light, make sure
the RGB slider is set to 100. If this value is lower, the mask will be faint to invisible. - Orient the character head so the stinger takes up as much of the document window as
possible. You can zoom out from the stinger using the Zoom button on the right side
Figure 5.37 Recesses masked Figure 5.38 Neutralizing the base color by adjusting
the slider
Figure 5.39 A Deco brush stroke