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FiberMesh examples using Advanced options

FiberMesh examples using Advanced options

Fibers must be generated on a mesh surface. They cannot simply be created out of empty space. Before generating your fibers, you must prepare the model that the fibers will be grown from. There are two main elements to this and of course, the Fibers settings:

Note: The fibers can only use PolyPaint information. They cannot use the color information from a texture. You would need to convert your texture to PolyPaint to use it for FiberMesh color information.

To summarize:

1. Polypaint your model.

2. With Colorize on (so the polypaint shows) turn on FiberMesh>Preview.

3. In the FiberMesh>Modifiers set the TColor (Tip Color) slider to 0 and the BColor (Base Color) slider to 1. The fibers should now take on the polypaint color.

4. As the color in the Base Color selector (the icon to the left of the BColor slider) can affect the fibers color set this to black/white, although the BColor setting can be adjusted if you want to tint the fibers. Any BColor setting greater than zero should show the polypaint color.

Note: if you change the settings, or turn off Colorize, sometimes you need to move the BColor slider to get the fibers color to update.

 

Note:When modifying a Mask brush setting, you must hold down the CTRL key while changing its setting. Otherwise, you will affect the current sculpting brush settings instead of the Mask brush.

For better fibers distribution and overall best results, it is recommended to generate your model’s fibers in several passes. This will let you have better control over the results than if you try to generate all your fibers at once.

Note: 3D brushes cannot be used on the preview fibers. You must click the Accept button in order to use any 3D brush with the FiberMesh feature. When Accept is pressed ZBrush will create a new FiberMesh SubTool that is ready for sculpting and detailing.

FiberMesh

An example of using a texture-based Mask a PolyPaint to generate colorful fibers.

 

FiberMesh Presets

By clicking the Save button located at the top of the FiberMesh sub-palette, you can save all the current settings for your FiberMesh Preview so that they can be reused later. Saved presets make an excellent starting point for any new model, saving you time by duplicating a specific “look” that you really liked on an earlier model.

To save your current settings, simply click the Save button and select a location of your choice. It is advised to save them in the ZFibersPresets folder located at the root of the ZBrush folder. This allows you to browse through and select from them quickly using LightBox, which now has a FiberMesh section.

The FiberMesh presets in LightBox

The FiberMesh presets in LightBox

Instead of LightBox you can of course use the Tool > FiberMesh > Open button.