NoiseMaker is a powerful, full-screen plugin with which you can create, edit, and combine different noise types to add detail to your models. The interface divides into the three main sections shown below: a Noise Generators toolbar and corresponding sub-panels (1, left), a large real-time 3D Preview (2, center), and a Noise Settings panel (3, right).
Undo/Redo: NoiseMaker has its own dedicated undo history, accessible via the Undo/Redo buttons at the bottom of the Noise Generators toolbar. This allows you to experiment freely without affecting your main model's history.
Panel Visibility: To collapse the Noise Generators and Noise Settings panels, tap on the currently open noise tool icon (left, below) or the Noise Settings minimize/maximize icon (right).
The panel along NoiseMaker’s right edge controls the global application of your noise.
At the top of the panel, you can choose between two fundamental projection modes. While the controls in the panel remain the same, their behavior changes depending on the mode selected.
3D (default): Projects noise onto the model in 3D space. This is excellent for creating seamless, natural patterns without needing UVs.
UV: Applies noise based on your model's existing UV map. This provides precise control over texture flow and is ideal for applying specific patterns without projection distortion.
Note: Your model must have UVs for this mode to work. If your model lacks UVs, the UV mode button will be grayed out.
Strength: Controls the overall intensity or depth of the noise effect. This is a global setting for all active noise. Values can range from subtle to excessive across both negative and positive.
Strength Relative to Scale: This on/off control ties the Strength parameter to Noise Scale. Notice in the following image how the minimal Strength value in the left image yields a relatively smooth surface, but setting Strength to the higher Noise Scale value results in much more pronounced noise (right).
Note that in 3D mode, this feature automatically adjusts noise intensity based on the Noise Scale slider to maintain a visually consistent level of detail. In UV mode, though, the dynamic adjustment of this feature is greatly reduced. If you switch from 3D to UV mode and notice the noise effect becomes less intense, you may need to increase the Strength slider to compensate.
Noise Scale: Adjusts the size of the basic noise pattern generated by ZBrush. In the example below, the noise pattern is the same, but the size of the pattern changes from 10 (left) to 100 (right).
Alpha Scale: Increases the size of the alpha noise projection.
Note: This is the primary scale control for UV mode. To access the Alpha Scale parameter, the model must have UV coordinates, a loaded alpha image, and alpha visibility enabled.
Mix Basic Noise: Blends the procedural curve noise and the alpha texture. A value of 0 uses only the Alpha, a value of 1 uses only the procedural noise (effectively burying the alpha), and 0.5 mixes them equally.
Effect: Sets the blending mode used to combine the noise sources. Your options are Mix Noise (the default), Multiply Noise (below, left), Difference Noise, Minimum Noise, and Maximum Noise (below, right).
Magnify By Mask: Uses a pre-existing mask on your model to influence the noise application.
The Magnify By Mask slider regulates the size of noise within a masked region. Adjusting this slider from 0, either toward -10 or 10, amplifies the noise size within the specified mask. In the above comparison, a smaller value yields a finer noise pattern than the larger value, and both patterns within the masked areas are visibly different than the model’s primary noise.
Note: For Magnify By Mask be effective, Strength By Mask must be less than 1.
Strength By Mask: This slider determines the intensity of noise that can be applied within a masked region. When this slider is set to 1, the mask will be fully respected, preventing any noise from being added to that area (as shown in the left image, below). A 0 setting disregards the mask entirely, allowing the full noise effect to apply.
The central window of the NoiseMaker interface shows a live, real-time preview of your noise on the model.
Navigation: Use standard ZBrush for iPad gestures in the preview window (e.g., pinch to zoom, one-finger drag to rotate, two-finger drag to pan).
Controls: In the top-right corner of the preview window are two control icons:
The toolbar on the left contains three noise types that you can activate and combine.
This is the primary procedural noise generator. The profile of the curve directly shapes the noise pattern on your model. A simple diagonal line creates a basic granular noise, while adding points to create peaks and valleys results in more complex and customized patterns.
Interacting with the Curve
Add Point: Tap anywhere on the curve graph to add a new control point.
Move Point: Tap and drag an existing point to change the shape of the curve.
Coordinate Display: The H (horizontal) and V (vertical) values at the top of the panel show the precise coordinates of the currently selected point.
Curve Panel Controls
The Curve panel includes several icons and menus for precise control over the curve's shape and behavior.
Point Type (smooth/corner icons): These two icons at the top of the panel toggle a selected point between a smooth Bézier curve (see left panel below) and a sharp corner. Both smooth and sharp points create noise at specific elevations on the model’s surface, based on their HV coordinates. However, a sharp point stops additional noise falloff between nearby points, resulting in sharper, more isolated noise shapes.
Delete Point (trash can icon): Select a point on the curve and tap this icon to delete it.
Flip Horizontal: This icon mirrors the entire curve shape along the vertical axis, reversing the curve's progression from left to right (see middle panel below).
Flip Vertical: This icon mirrors the entire curve shape along the horizontal axis (see right panel below). This effectively inverts the noise pattern on the model, turning peaks into valleys and vice-versa.
Reset Curve (circular arrow icon): This icon resets the curve's shape to its default diagonal line but does not affect the other advanced settings in the Curve Settings or Curve Transformations menus.
Undo/Redo: To undo or redo changes made to the curve, use the main Undo and Redo arrows located on the far left of the NoiseMaker interface. These actions are part of NoiseMaker's dedicated history.
Note: Curve undo/redo actions are not saved in the global Undo History.
Options Menu (three-dot icon): Tapping this icon reveals the Reset Curve Settings option, which resets the curve's shape and all its associated advanced settings to their default values.
Curve Settings
This expandable section contains advanced numerical controls for the noise itself.
Focal Shift: Adjusts the noise's midpoint. Negative values bias the noise toward its peaks (lighter areas), creating sharper, more defined bumps with broader valleys. Positive values bias the noise toward its valleys (darker areas), creating more defined pits with broader peaks. As shown here, Focal Shift does not move the curve’s endpoints; it will move any intermediate curve points.
Offset: Shifts the entire noise pattern vertically. Positive values push the entire effect "out" from the surface, while negative values push it "in," potentially resulting in clipping. As you slide the value from 0 deeper into negative territory, the model may appear to dissolve — a dramatic effect to animate.
Note: When Apply to Mesh is used, clipped surfaces are excluded from the surface noise projection.
Noise: Blends a secondary, high-frequency noise pattern with the main shape defined by the curve. This can be useful for adding fine, granular noise on top of your primary noise.
Tile: Sets the repetition of the procedural noise pattern across the surface. A value of 1 is the default; a value of 2 repeats the pattern twice as often in each direction.
When tiled, selecting and moving a curve point in the profile editor moves all instanced points in unison.
Note: When Apply to Mesh is used, ZBrush for iPad excludes clipped surfaces from the surface noise projection. The Tile setting doesn’t draw instanced versions of the original points. However, new points can be added while the curve profile is tiled.
Steps: Increasing Steps divides the curve into segments based on the slider's value. The Strength setting influences these segments: at a Strength of 1, the angles are sharp, creating a staircase effect. Lower Strength values soften the Steps angles.
Strength: Adjusts curve profile shape by reversing the direction of positive and negative values along the vertical coordinate space. This setting reshapes the curve profile by amplifying or inverting surface noise grayscale values, which then impacts noise shapes projected outward (ZAdd) or inward (ZSub) from the model’s base surface, based on the curve point positions.
Curve Transformations
This expandable section allows you to adjust the position, angle, and scale of the procedural noise pattern in 3D space. Note that each of these sub-tabs features its own Reset function below the sliders.
Offset: Contains sliders to move the entire noise pattern along the XOffset, YOffset, and ZOffset axes. This is useful for fine-tuning the placement of noise on the model.
Angle: Contains sliders to rotate the noise pattern in 3D space, changing its orientation.
Scale: Contains sliders to stretch or squash the noise pattern non-uniformly along the x, y, and z axes. This allows you to change the proportions of the noise without affecting the global Noise Scale. Observe how reducing our YScale (below) results in the compression of noise elements along the y axis.
This parameter blends between the positive and negative color channels, applying color with opacity control to specific areas of the surface noise projection.
A Color Blend value from 0 to 1 adjusts the opacity of the positive (right) color channel, applying it to the darkest areas of the noise profile. A value from 0 to -1 inverts the source image, applying the negative (left) color channel to the inverted details of the surface noise profile.
This generator uses a 2D image, or "alpha," as the noise basis. The Alpha noise channel is independent from the basic noise channel, allowing blending between the two noise profiles.
Tap Select Image to load a texture from your iPad's files or Photo Library. Alternatively, select Take Photo to capture an image with your iPad’s camera (as we do of an aptly titled book below).
Once you select a texture asset, the Alpha menu changes to offer a thumbnail of the alpha and the following controls:
Visibility (eye icon): Toggles the alpha’s visibility. Note that when visibility is off, all noise alpha parameters, including Alpha Scale and Mix Basic Noise, are disabled.
Load: Tap to (re)load or (re)capture an image for the alpha channel.
Delete (trash can icon): Deletes the alpha image.
Alpha Transformations: This parameter section allows for precise manipulation of the loaded alpha.
Offset: Move the texture along the x and y axes.
Angle: Rotate the texture.
Scale: Non-uniformly scale the texture horizontally or vertically.
Be sure to experiment with mixing options for your alpha noise. For example, observe the difference between Mix Noise (left, below) and Maximum Noise (right). ZBrush for iPad gives you fine control over how your noises visually interact. See this guide’s Blending and Masking Controls section for more information on these features.
Other Noise Settings
In the top right of the Noise Settings panel, tap the three-dot menu icon to access several functions.
Open Noise File: Loads a previously saved NoiseMaker file (.noi) from your iPad.
Save Noise File: Saves your current NoiseMaker settings as a .noi file, which you can load later or share. This is especially helpful when migrating from earlier (including beta) to later versions of ZBrush for iPad.
Copy Noise: Copies the current noise settings to an internal clipboard.
Paste Noise: Pastes any copied noise settings, overriding the current configuration.
Flip Panel Side: Moves the Noise Generators panel to the right side of the screen and the Noise Settings panel to the left, which can be more comfortable for left-handed users.
Reset Noise Settings: Resets all sliders and options in the Noise Settings panel to their default values. This does not affect the Noise Generators on the left.
Reset All: Resets the entire NoiseMaker interface to its default state, including all Noise Generators and Noise Settings. Any loaded Alphas will be removed, and the Curve will be reset.
When you are satisfied with your noise preview, tap Done in the top-right corner to exit the NoiseMaker interface. To convert the preview into actual mesh geometry, navigate back to the Tool > Surface sub-palette and tap Apply To Mesh.