ZBrushCentral

Tutorials on clean painting techniques?

Hello,

What would be a recommended tutorial on painting cleaner images, to avoid overspray and smearing? I think what I’m looking for is repositionable alpha matte tutorials, if there is such a thing. I’m not sure I know the right term to ask for, or to look for in the documentation.

The problem I would like to solve in my painting on 3D models is avoiding overspray and smearing. For example, I’ve painted a body of a creature, then I move on to paint the arm and when the arm is finished, I notice I’ve inadvertantly painted something on the body that I didn’t want. I have a hard time staying within the lines sometimes. hehe.

I’m vaguely aware of painting mattes to mask out areas. I’m not sure how to do it quickly with mattes that can be added and removed as needed or repositioned. I’m getting better with hiding portions of the model as well. Any pointers to tutorials on good techniques would be most welcome. Seeing a technique performed is a great help. Free or commercial tutorials, I’m always happy to be supportive of such a great community.

I’m learning new things every day in ZBrush, amazing software.

Thanks,
Bill C.

I wanted to make sure I’m stating that correctly. I’m looking for tutorials and techniques on effectively painting clean textures onto 3D models. After seeing all of the great work posted here, I know I’m missing something.

Thanks,
Bill C.

Well, if there is a technique to improve on such things, I’d sure love to hear it! :slight_smile:

Good question.

I modified my search to include some other words after reading through some related topics. Alpha, matte, mask, and stencil. The thing I was looking for turned out to be as simple as pressing the space bar. Once the stencil is made from whatever mask I paint (‘Make St’ button), pressing the space bar to reposition the stencil opens up an entire new world of painting and deformation to explore. Something I overlooked in the learning path. I can’t see how I made it this far without it. I wonder what else I’m missing out on. This forum is a great asset!

Regards,
Bill C.

i’m sorry i didn’t see this thread earlier. in zbrush you can modify individual strokes on the canvas if you’re painting regularly or in projection master (I don’t know if you can do this if you’re painting directly on the model in 3d).

Try this. after you make a paint stroke, press ‘w’,‘e’, or ‘r’. The Gyro will appear and you’ll be able to move, scale, and rotate your brush stroke. This can help you eliminate what you referred to as “overspray” and staying inside the lines. If your paint stroke went where you didn’t want it to go, simply move the paint stroke to where you want it to go, and scale it so that is does stay inside the lines.

I made a zscript demonstrating this for you, but it plays back so fast that you really can’t see want i’m doing so it’s almost useless. :frowning:

Using this method in addition to using the stencil will help you have a bit more control when you’re painting your textures.

abxy, do post your zscript - I’m sure a lot of people will find it of interest. The playback speed can be adjusted easily by the user, by simply increasing the Replay Delay slider (in the ZScript menu) to 500 or so, and that will slow it down nicely. Alternatively, you can make your zscript replay slowly for all viewers by adding this line after the [IReset,2.0] line:
[ISet,zscript:Replay Delay,500]

ok, as requested, here’s the zscript…

it’s less than 30 seconds long. what i’m demonstrating here is how zbrush let’s you alter a stroke after it’s been placed on the canvas. Notice now i draw out a paint stroke, then scale, move, and rotate the stroke. This should help you have more precision in your texture painting.