ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

364 chapter 10 ■ ZSketch and Hard-Surface Brushes

You can further refine the clip plane by adding

anchor points. Press the Alt key once while drawing a

clip line to create a curve point; press Alt twice to create

an anchor point for a right angle (Figure 10.42). With

these tools you can create complex compound mechani-

cal shapes faster than in any other program. It is liter-

ally like sculpting mechanical forms (Figure 10.43). Be

sure to see the accompanying DVD for a video on the

Clip brushes.

Planar Brushes

The Planar brushes will flatten the mesh based on

the direction of the underlying surface normal and the

document plane. The depth at which they will carve

away form is dependent on the Depth setting under

the Brush menu. The Imbed feature will determine

how far a Planar brush will begin its depth into the

surface (Figure 10.44).

Many of the Planar brushes make use of the new backtrack setting under Stroke →

LazyMouse (Figure 10.45). PlanarLine, for instance, allows you to bevel an edge using the

Backtrack Line setting (Figure 10.46).

Figure 10.43 This mechanical form study was created entirely using spheres and the Clip brushes.

Press Alt twice for

hard angles

Press Alt once for a

curved line

Figure 10.42 Laying in anchor points
can further refine the clip plane.

Figure 10.44
The brush Depth
Mask control
sets how deep
into the surface
the Planar brush
functions.

Figure 10.45 Planar line used to bevel an edge

Figure 10.46

The new

Backtrack Stroke

settings are used

by many of the

Planar brushes

to create unique

tools.