How to make crisp, but subtle, seams

[David O'Neil]

As indicated in the following picture, do you guys have any tricks for making seams like the pretend fabric on top of fabric line be crisp and non-wavery, like mine currently is?  Or is it just a matter of getting in with a fine brush and doing the equivalent of painstakingly touching each voxel?

Thanks,

David

[Falconius]

in the stroke mode panel (above the left side brush menus) you can use curves and vertex curves with most of the brushes.  The other option is to use the split tool with the split border width on the top bar set to 0 and then merge the layers back together (but this will cut a seam all the way through the model). 
 

[David O'Neil]

Thanks.  That helps a little.  I'll figure it out.  Right now I'm thinking ZBrush's pinch brush is the thing to use for a final pass, but I'll see if I change my mind.  Frustrating!

[oJAHRASTAo]

I'd suggest, using voxels for larger points of detail, and switching to Surface mode to add the level of detail you're interested in. You could res+ your voxels, but your results will still be less crisp with the pinch tool or negative depth with a pointed alpha. Working with very high voxels rez starts to tax your system.

Play around in surface mode and and brushes, really nice differences in workflow there.

[David O'Neil]

Thanks. I'll continue working it out.  In the past, I never got the pinch brush to work the same as ZBrush when in surface mode.  (And when I tried live clay, I got a headache because it added density, but then trying to smooth over that density became a complete pain.) Maybe this time will be different.  Do you typically bump up the resolution when you take it to surface?

[Dmitry Bedrik]

A simple rule. Voxels for the basic form, Boolean operations and other. Surface - for working out details and drawing shapes. Voxels are similar to cubes, which however, have finite dimensions (rests on the performance of the system and / or the engine of the 3d coat itself).

Edited May 24, 2018 by Dmitry Bedrik

[Carlosan]

On 12/7/2017 at 6:29 PM, digman said:

Generally the voxel pinch brush pulls too much material. I use it but only for some things. 

Another Method if you do not want to leave voxel mode is below.

Surface mode brushes that are available in Voxel mode. Left tool panel. 

Pinch brush, This brush will locally turn the area that you are sculpting into surface mode. Once done pinching press the enter key to have this area voxelized.

You must have enough voxel resolution to keep the pinch looking good or at least to establish where your pinching is located.

I use the above to establish my pinching areas, it does a good job with enough voxel resolution. I leave the fine tuning of the pinch areas once I go to surface mode. 

I also have created my own preset pinch brush with my own settings. 

The example is quickly done using the above method and not shown for quality. Pinching was voxelized.

 

 

[David O'Neil]

Thanks!

[David O'Neil]

For anyone who has a similar question, another (big) part of the answer is what brush you use for detailing. With the following settings, I finally feel like I have the control I want. I know that I used this brush long ago, before playing around a bunch and losing the settings. With it on low depth, big or small radius, you can 'push' the surface how you like.

[Carlosan]

Windows > popups > ToolsPresets

let you to store your custom preset and dont loose it again.

 

[David O'Neil]

Done, thanks. Also have right-click duplicated the tool into the palette, or whatever you want to call it.

I've made enough mistakes with the brushes, though, that I finally understand them well enough to recreate it without a preset! Ggghhh!

[Carlosan]

For fine tuning, you can add more variables to your brush creation.

Activate Focal Shift under Preferences > Brushing

 

 

[David O'Neil]

My first thought was, "Oh No! Another Setting To Master! When Is Enough Enough!"  But playing with it, it looks useful. Thanks!