[SOLVED]Need help with displacement brush properties panel

mding

Could anybody explain to me the meaning of the "cutoff" property and how the bucket symbol ( "apply the displacement or bump to the entire object") in the displacement/bump channel is used?

Just need basic understanding but can't find anything with google...

 

Thankyou!

 

 

Wee Dangerous John

Not sure coz I do not do a lot of displacement work, mainly because it needs a lot of computer power. What I think the cutoff does is allows you to smooth out the displacement when painting, a bit like the bend on a paintbrush when you're apply pressure to it.

If you take a sphere and smooth it to level 5 and validate, select the displacement  (choose one of the first shaped brush, alpha mask (terrain style)) and give the cutoff 0 and paint a small area, you will notice that it raises a few points up and you have jagged edges. If you increase the cutoff to 40ish and paint again you will see that the area you are painting is larger and not so jagged (smoother).

Like all of Hexagons tools I'd say have a play and see what happens, the worse that can happen is you'll crash it.

Catherine3678ab

That's what I've found, too many crashes ... best to use another utility to get the bump/displacement textures made.

mding

Wee Dangerous John said:

Not sure coz I do not do a lot of displacement work, mainly because it needs a lot of computer power. What I think the cutoff does is allows you to smooth out the displacement when painting, a bit like the bend on a paintbrush when you're apply pressure to it.

If you take a sphere and smooth it to level 5 and validate, select the displacement  (choose one of the first shaped brush, alpha mask (terrain style)) and give the cutoff 0 and paint a small area, you will notice that it raises a few points up and you have jagged edges. If you increase the cutoff to 40ish and paint again you will see that the area you are painting is larger and not so jagged (smoother).

Like all of Hexagons tools I'd say have a play and see what happens, the worse that can happen is you'll crash it. 

Thankyou @Wee Dangerous John! I had my strength and hardness way too low, thats why I didn't see anything. But thanks to your post, I got it now! 

Still don't know how to use the bucket though in displacement - is this maybe to create a disp map? 

mding

Catherine3678ab said:

That's what I've found, too many crashes ... best to use another utility to get the bump/displacement textures made.

To me the displacement brush manipulated only the mesh itself, didn't create any displacement map (is that really possible?) But I am still a beginner. I understand it atm only as a tool for sculpting. No crashes so far (64bit version). 

Wee Dangerous John

I think the bucket is for filling the whole object with a one of the textures, like the brick wall effect. Just gave it a quick try and got it to work, first you have to assign a blank texture so you go to the choose Cubic Projection then in the Materials tab and choose New, then select a texture map size ie - 1024*1024 (apply & accept). Choose the paint tool and click on the top swatch (coloured box in the Properties panel) and select the brick wall texture.  Click the paint tin, click again and again. Apply & Accept when finished.

Personally I'd go the Unfold and use a paint program to create the texture, I feel I'd have more control over the end result.

Using the Displacement brush did not cause a crash for me either, I upgraded a few years ago but have not had cause to use it really. 

There is a way to sculpt with DAZ Studio, I should be able to find a video tutorial if you are interested. I saw one changing an early character (genesis or even earlier) into a werewolf.

 

mding

Wow thanks John! So I have to UV Map it to be able to use it. Funny thing is when I export it as OBJ, it is all real geometry, no disp Map included. But you are right I also would prefer like Gimp for texturing. As scultping tool I like those brushes though. 

 

This is the video I found very helpful for sculpting tools in Hexagon: Link and which led me to the displacement brush...

 

Thankyou again!