Toolkit 3D - Z Modeler and Extract

 Clothes Creation

Today we started by looking at ZModeler. We access this via pressing B>Z>M. It gives us access to polygonal modelling tools, which are useful for hard surface objects. We will be able to use extrude, crease, offset, bridge and divide.

I started with a cube, and by going into the geometry menu, I decreased the subdivision count to two and clicked deleted higher and deleted lower. This is to remove the other layers of subdivisions. After this I froze the subdivisions to allow me to use the Zmodeler, and I also clicked Line Fill (Shift + F) to see the lines and subdivisions to make it easier to use the Zmodeler tool. I also turned symmetry off by pressing X.

After this, I hold Alt and drag to select a group of subdivisions to work with. This acts like a grouping function normally does, and can be used to work with multiple subdivisions at once.

If we hold spacebar, its a contextual action so hovering over the model, we can see what poly-modelling tools we have selected. Changing to extrude, we can drag the group out to end up with an extrusion. This can be used how other hard surface modelling toolsets are used, just with the difference of accessing the tools in a different way.

Moving on for extrusions, the next tool I used was the bevel tool. This tool is much more sensitive than in other software, due to it being made via dragging the mouse rather than a menu. At the same time its much quicker, and can be used much quicker overall.

Next I looked at the Spherize tool. which does exactly what it says. I also selected all polygons in the spacebar menu as well. Another thing to note is that this should really only be done on a low-poly count since it can disrupt higher poly meshes.

    To test out the next tool, I used the Delete tool to remove some polygons on the face.

Now with a hole in the mesh, we can use the bridge tool to close the gap between the polygons. Much like the rest of this toolset, its very sensitive but can be used very quickly and effectively due to the dragging nature of it.

Next thing we looked at were clothes. I started with the base human mesh found in the ZBrush Lightbox. I then mask over where I want the clothes to be, which for this I just masked out a simple T-shirt.

After this, we used the extract tool. This can be found in Subtool> Extract on the right hand side menu.

If we extract as it is, we end up with a very thick looking layer. To make it thinner, we turn down the thickness level. When we end up with something we like, we can press Accept to create the mesh. We can also press Double to make it double sided, which isn't relevant right now, but can be used for things like 3D printing for example. If anything it is better to keep the double sided setting off right now, since it might cause some problems with modelling inside of the geometry and making things clip into each other by accident.

Using this as the base, we can then use the knowledge of clothing folds and the brushes within Zbrush to work on sculpting it into a more believable article of clothing.