A Biomechanical Character - ZBrush Creature Design: Creating Dynamic Concept Imagery for Film and Games - page 352

the torso. The Planar brush will trim to a specific depth along the surface normal. This depth is set under
the Brush menu by controlling the depth mask imbed slider. Any areas that appear noisy or lumpy can be
easily flattened by using the MPolish brush. The MPolish brush will polish out imperfections in the surface
leaving a smooth refined surface.
1. At this stage, the torso shape is roughed in, but it appears soft and unrefined. There is very little ma-
chined or mechanical about it. We will use the Planar Cut brush to slice in the small flat planes on the torso
sculpt ( Figure 6-20 ) . The Planar Cut brush depends on the Depth mask to control how deep into the sur-
face it slices. The Depth control is found under the Brush ⇒ Depth menu. The circle represents the brush's
area of effect and the dot at the center represents the depth into the surface it will cut ( Figure 6-21 ). Lower
this dot slightly beneath the surface of the sculpt and when you use the planar cut brush it will cut into the
sculpture to the depth measure you specify here. This process can be seen on the associated video.
Figure 6-20: The planes shown here are created with the Planar Cut brush.
2. In addition to the flat planes on the torso, there are dynamic curves that, while appearing flat and ma-
chined, follow a contour much like the machines lines in a car body for example. Figure 6-22 shows these
areas. These are created using the Trim Dynamic brush. Trim Dynamic will flatten the area beneath the
brush by dynamically sampling the brush position and surface normal beneath the center of influence.
This allows you to create curved machined contours.
3. Build up areas slightly with the Clay Tubes brush, then knock back the plane using the Trim Dynamic
brush as seen in Figure 6-23
Figure 6-21: The brush depth control menu