■ Alphas 133- Create a selection in Photoshop, and save it by choosing Selection → Save Selection.
Name the selection stencil (Figure 4.29). - Save the Photoshop document and return to ZBrush. When you return to ZBrush,
click the OK (Unchanged) button, and your stencil will automatically load and apply
to the model.
You may now sculpt through the stencil to create hard-edged details. By repeating this
process with multiple selections, you can build complex shapes quickly and easily (Figure 4.30).
Figure 4.29 Create a selection in Photoshop and save it as stencil. Figure 4.30 Mechanical details built
from ZAppLink stencils
Importing Images to Use as Alphas
Any image may be loaded into ZBrush and used as an alpha. The file formats ZBrush sup-
ports for import are PSD, BMP, and 16-bit TIFF (single-channel grayscale). To import an
alpha, open the main Alpha menu at the top of the screen and click the Import button.
Browse to the file you want to load.
There is no shortage of great texture references that can be used as alphas: on the
Internet, in books, even around you. Try taking photographs of plants and fruits for
use as texture stamps. For the best all-around skin alpha set, I recommend checking
ZBrushCentral. Rick “Monstermaker” Baker made some of his skin alphas available in
his Old Man thread. This is a fantastic selection of pore, wrinkle, and bump alphas.When a photograph is loaded into the Alpha menu, it is automatically converted to
16-bit grayscale. In the Alpha menu beneath the active Alpha boxes are several sliders that
allow you to postprocess the alpha and make various alterations to the image. With these
modifiers, you can maximize the range (similar to autoleveling in Photoshop) by crunching
the levels, thus giving you the maximum displacement between black and white. You can
also use the Blur slider to slightly blur your image, removing artifacts from JPEG compres-
sion or other noise. See Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 earlier in this chapter for a description of
what each of these menu options does.