hey all, tried using the triplanar box to create content, however i can only get 1 side to work. if i try to mask on the other views it will disappear or break. i looked for tutorials online and the ones i found the person had the same problem he couldnt get the others to work, only 1 view worked, the others sometimes worked, but seemed random. is there a tutorial?. maybe i dont understand how it works. id love some info as i think it could be very useful. thx!
Itâs similar to Zbrush shadowbox Zbrush Shadowbox for Hardsurface Design - YouTube
The shape is created at the intersection of the 3 masked planes. There are special rules if a plane is completely unmasked (but you donât want to rely on it).
Probably best to switch to orthographic camera, double click on one of the Cube plane to snap the view.
Using selMask can help as well (rectangular shape for example).
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One of my fav tools in Nomad. Works so well!
Basics:
First, I use selmask and unmask to clear all.
Letâs take this example:
One side shows structure, one side just a very thin line for thickness, while the floor is completely filled to avoid mesh âdisappearâ as you experienced.
In theory you have to imagine it like this:
The mask you draw on front view is extruded to virtual cube full size, but the extruded object is subtracted by the unmasked areas of side and top view.
If in above example the top view plane wouldnât have a mask, and unmasked areas are subtracted, no geometry would have been generated.
If the straight line on side view is a thin arc line in above example, the wing will be bended.
In above example, I put triplanar resolution very high and smoothness down.
A bit confusing: How first mesh is calculated, when only one side is masked - I donât have a clue!
Here is an example with more volume.
I started with side view, which is most logical shape we all have in mind of a revolver. After, I made front view. Remember, as soon as you loose your mesh, fill empty sides and use unmask to substract.
Sometimes making material transparent can help seeing the mask behind already generated mesh.
You can see, that in bottom button set, I activated snap camera, which works 100% reliable, while on box one have some false actions, time by time.
Makes the stuff even more fun.
Playing with triplanar resolution and smoothness, you can generate very fine, high resolution meshes, like the wing. If you put resolution very low, you can generate real low poly objects:
For this example, I only used selmask with rectangle shape.
The poly shape is very basic in Nomad, which is a pity thinking about all the crazy thing one could do in Nomad directly. But it helps already for some tasks. Arcs and smooth curves are still a bit missing, but you can crank up smooth stroke for I.e. lasso already, which is super nice.
Anyway, using companion graphic apps to generate alpha shapes for mask brush and change stroke type to âgrab-dynamic radiusâ can do real magic.
Thatâs the way, basic wing alpha was done. I use Infinite Painter for quick shape generation and Affinity Photo for photo manipulation, even though Infinity is good in that as well, for a painting tool.
This is no fun in nomad, but donât have to necessarily.
Hope this helps a bit. Have fun with this fantastic tool. I never got it working that well in zBrush�
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oh wow thanks so much!.. didnt realise you could do all that!. very powerful!, so much clearer!. yeah i dont use zbrush, maybe once or twice a year when i absolutely have to for work. i just find it way to programmer-ey. with 3 thousand menus and buttons :O⌠so this tool is a new one to me :).
thanks for the very detailed description with images. this should be pinned into the online docs!. very good way of explaining
I ran across your post and was curious, how do you get the three planes to line up when using an alpha brush? I have alpha brushes for top, front and side but really struggle to get them to align properly? Also, is there a way to move th mask on one of the planes once itâs placed or so you need to delete it and try again?
I have no answers to your question but you gave me the opportunity to discover this post and the really good tips from Knacki, specialy for the lowres shape.i donât use enough this tool and i think it could be a real time saver. I am sure we will have an answer to your questionđ
These masks are hand drawn. Not too difficult as shape is basic. Maybe one side view as alpha and then âŚâŚI donât know how to place them precisely 
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