ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

■ Transpose Master 235

When posing your figures, keep in mind some artistic considerations. Most important
is to maintain a sense of weight distribution over the center of balance. Make sure you know
where the character is balanced; otherwise it will not appear to have weight and may look
like it is simply floating in air. Also keep a sense of gesture while you pose. Gesture, as you
recall, is the most important aspect of effective figure work.

Posable Symmetry

Although many parts of the body change during posing, for others you might find it ideal
to sculpt with Symmetry turned on—such as the face or the bony masses of the body, like
the pelvis and ribcage. ZBrush’s posable symmetry feature lets you keep Symmetry on when
posing a model asymmetrically. This symmetry is calculated based on the topology, so your
model must have symmetrical topology for it to function. To use posable symmetry, click
Transform → Activate Symmetry and click the Use Posable Symmetry button (Figure 7.17).
Your cursor will turn green, alerting you to the fact you are in posable symmetry mode. This
is a great tool for sculpting fingers, faces, or any other areas that maintain a level of struc-
tural symmetry when posed.

Transpose Master

Transpose Master is a plug-in from Pixologic that allows you to pose meshes with several
subtools. Transpose itself will pose only a single subtool at a time; Transpose Master will
create a new ZTool with all the subtools combined into a low-resolution proxy model. Using
masking to selectively isolate parts, you can pose the entire character, and then with the
click of a button, you can transfer this information to the original ZTool.
Transpose Master is a free plug-in that is available from the Download Center at
http://www.pixologic.com. Use these steps to pose a complex model using Transpose Master:

1. Load the demosoldier.ztl file from the Lightbox → Tool directory. This time don’t
   delete the subtools. Make sure the ZTool is active in Edit mode on the canvas. If you
   have installed Transpose Master, you will now have a Transpose Master menu under the
   ZPlugin menu. This menu consists of several buttons: TPoseMesh and Tpose → SubT.
   TPoseMesh will create a new proxy ZTool of your character with all subtools as a single
   object. This proxy will be created at the lowest subdivision level, and it is this mesh we’ll
   pose. The TPose → SubT button will transfer the pose from the TPoseMesh to the origi-
   nal multi-subtool mesh. ZSphereRig will automatically prepare the model for rigging
   with ZSpheres as opposed to the Transpose tools. Grps will preserve existing polygroups
   in your mesh, which can be helpful when trying to work with complex models where
   topology masking isn’t as effective in isolating areas to work on. Isolating areas can be
   much easier if you have previously polygrouped them. Layer will create a pose layer for
   each subtool. Save And Load TM Project will allow you to save the Transpose Master
   files and load them for later use.


2. Click the TPoseMesh button. The script will now generate a proxy posing mesh. The
   subtools and the main figure will all be one object, but each subtool will have its own
   polygroup to make hiding and masking easier (Figure 7.18).

Figure 7.17

The posable sym-

metry feature is

found in the main

Transform menu.