ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

■ Hard-Surface Sculpting 365

The Trim Brushes

The Trim brushes will trim away at the surface while
respecting the surface normals and maintaining an edge
along the stroke. Only two Trim brushes will respect the
document plane (TrimFront and TrimNormal) whereas
all others will evaluate the surface normals along your
brush stroke. Figure 10.47 shows the Trim brushes in
action.

The Polish Brushes

The Polish brushes will respect all edges. The hard
edges will be maintained as the stroke is moved along
the surface. The surface is relaxed along the stroke to
form a flat surface.
The Polish brushes often help support the other
hard-surface brushes. Notice how in Figure 10.48 the
Polish brushes help refine the transitions between
the Trim brush planes. They help to reduce the sharp
edges while retaining the sense of structural form in
the sculpture.

Backtrack

Backtrack is a new subset of LazyMouse that helps you
create straight lines or force your stroke to conform to a
path. Backtrack is enabled under Stroke → LazyMouse
(Figure 10.49). When working with Backtrack, you’ll
find it best to turn Track Curvature up. This ensures that
the stroke will continue to affect the surface even when
it is curvy and not flat to the camera. SnapToTrack forces
the stroke to conform to the line or curve you draw. You
can turn this off for total freedom in your stroke, but
often you want to confine your stroke to the path you
draw for accuracy.
The Backtrack options are as follows:
Plane Plane applies a virtual plane to the surface. Anything intersecting this plane
will be sliced by the tool.
Line Line constrains the stroke to a straight line. Hold Shift to conform the line
to a 45-degree angle as you draw. I will often use Pinch with Backtrack Line and
SnapToTrack enabled to create sharp, straight lines on mechanical forms.
Spine Spine conforms the stroke to a smooth curve between the point where you
press the pen down and the endpoint.
Path Path conforms the stroke to a user-defined.

Figure 10.47 The Trim brushes in action

Figure 10.48 The Polish brushes in action

Figure 10.49

The Stroke →

LazyMouse

menu with

Backtrack on