ZBrushCentral

Req: "HideObject" or "Special View" Button for Image Plane 4

I am very fond of my flip-book trick when it comes to shape matching in Zbrush.

It’s some what of a hassle to do it in Image Plane 4 vs the way I imagine and wish it would work.

Unfortunately I don’t know how to zscript.

Let me quickly explain my flipbook workflow. I hope it is clear and concise.

Open up image plane- I doc all the “view” buttons and the 2 “cycle through arrows” under the canvas window.

Import an image with flat shader on. Crop and fill.

Click on basic shader. Drop the Zbrush model onto the canvas. Match it’s size and position up, directly over the ref object in the display image in the background. Click on “Store View”

Then I will select another View. Usually the view after the view I am currently in.

Load the exact same image I loaded in the previous view. Same method. Only this time when I load the model onto the canvas. I shrink it down to an extremely small size and I move it far away from the ref object in the display image behind it. Then I click on “Store View”

Since these view buttons are docked under the canvas window. I can click on them very quickly. This Allows me to rapidly cycle between these two views.

This causes my sculpt object to pop up over the image and then disappear from it very quickly.

Hence me referring to this trick as “Flip Book”

I would like to also say how much easier this would be if I could hotkey these buttons instead of having to click on them to do this.

If I could hotkey them. It would let me keep my sculpt brush over the focus area on the model, when cycling back and forth between these two views.

Why I like this trick.

The transparency slider doesn’t work well in regards to showing the image behind the model. Even in flat shaded mode.

So maybe someone here will say “Well you can always paint the background image onto the model and use that for the trace and shape match work”

Yes this is true, but as soon as you start sculpting over the painted on texture. It starts to distort the shape of that texture, unless it something simple like lines and wrinkles, and not only that if your model is not perfect in shape to the ref object in the background image- Parts of that ref image texure will not be dropped onto the the model, since there is no area on the model for it to be painted onto.

The flip book trick is perfect. It was an accidental discovery for me. I love it so much. Sadly setting it up in Image Plane is somewhat of a chore.

It would be absolutely amazing with a hotkey function.

Clicking back and forth between these views is alot like tracing. It is the same method used in traditional 2d animation to match a new drawing up to the previous drawing before it.

So I guess what I’m asking for would be a “Hide Model” or “Hide Object” button that works for all the views.

If this is not possible . Then I guess a “Special View” button that the user can create. That works exactly the same on all 8 Image Plane views, without removing or altering the default “Store View” Button position states for any and all of those 8 views.

It should be a single button that works across all the views, so you dont have to cycle through 8 other buttons to toss the model into that “sorta hidden” state.

I know right off the bat that a “special store view” button would work best if every view uses the exact same image resolution.

I always make sure my images are the same size in all views. Most of my ref images have the ref object in the center of the frame. Shrinking the model down and moving it into any of the the 4 far end corners of the frame would pretty much keep it away from the ref object in the background image.

I’m sorry for such a long post. I really believe in this method, and I want to see it realized in a much more user friendly way. A way that is simplified and has a hotkey option.

If I understand correctly, all you want is to be able to temporarily hide your model? This macro will do that. Simply put the file in your ZBrush 4.0\ZStartup\Macros\Misc folder and then press the Macro>Reload all Macros button or restart ZBrush. There’ll be a new button called ‘ToggleModel’ in the Macros>Misc menu. Assign a hotkey to this and you’ll be able to show/hide your model whenever you want.

Marcus this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you kindly for taking the time to create it. Thanks also for keeping Image Plane alive.

Great! :slight_smile: