348 chapter 10 ■ ZSketch and Hard-Surface Brushes
Figure 10.8 Adding the S curve shape in the armature
helps to translate it into the finished sketch.
- Once the armature is complete, open Tool →
ZSketch and click Edit Sketch. This will place the
ZSphere chain into ZSketch mode (Figure 10.9).
With Edit Sketch on, you can no longer edit
the ZSpheres but you can start to add ZSketch
strokes. At this time we will turn our attention
to the ZSketch brushes available under the Brush
palette (Figure 10.10). These brushes only appear
when you’re working with ZSpheres.
At this stage we have completed our armature and
we are now ready to use the ZSketch brushes to build
a form on the ZSphere base. The ZSketch brushes will
apply ropes of ZSketch spheres to the armature. These
can be smoothed, pushed, pulled, and bulged with
the ZSketch tools. If you press the A key at any time
while sculpting, you can preview the resulting Unified
Skin that will be generated by the ZSketch. ZSketch
defaults to making a Unified Skin mesh instead of an
adaptive skin like ZSpheres. The Unified Skin settings
Figure 10.9 Exit
Sketch enables
ZSketching on
the armature.
are available under Tool → Unified Skin (Figure 10.11). When you have completed the ZSketch,
you can create a new sculptable polymesh from the sketch by pressing Tool → Unified Skin →^
Make Unified Skin. At any time you can adjust the resolution of your skin by changing the Tool
→ Unified Skin → Resolution slider.
The ZSketch brush menu is relatively limited compared to the standard sculpting
brushes. Don’t be misled by this—there are many highly useful brushes in this set. Table 10.1,
in a moment, lists each brush and its uses. My personal preference is Sketch1 and Smooth1.
Experiment with them on your own and see what combinations work best for you.
Sketch1 will add form just on top of the surface in a limited manner. It does not add
as aggressively as the other sketch brushes. I like this as it allows me to build shapes gradu-
ally whereas the other brushes tend to add too much, too quickly for my taste. Figure 10.12
shows how Sketch1, Sketch2, and Sketch3 add their strokes to different depths on the sur-
face. Sketch1 is the shallowest.Figure 10.10 The ZSketch brushes Figure 10.11
The Unified Skin
menu