ZBrush Tip: Airtight Masking with Polygroups in ZBrush

Polygroups are your fastest, most reliable selection sets in ZBrush. Here’s how to build, maintain, and exploit them for airtight masking in everyday production.

• Plan polygroups by intent:
  • Major forms (head, torso, limbs), functional parts (hinges, panels), and finish zones (skin, cloth, metal).
  • Think ahead: polygroups become masks, UV seams, panel loops, and crease guides.
• Create polygroups fast (Tool > Polygroups):
  • Auto Groups: instantly split separate mesh shells for clean isolation.
  • Group by Normals: segment hard edges; adjust angle to control sensitivity.
  • Group Front: capture camera-facing polygons for quick part isolation.
  • Group Loops: add boundary loops around groups for controlled beveling and polish.
  • From PolyPaint: paint quick regions, then convert to polygroups with one click.
  • Group Masked / Group Visible: convert temporary selections into reusable groups.
• Slice- and curve-based grouping:
  • SliceCurve creates new groups and clean support edges for paneling and ZRemesher.
  • Use it to “draw” mask-ready islands without manual painting.
• Masking powered by polygroups:
  • Brush > Auto Masking > Mask By PolyGroup: set 100 when sculpting near seams to prevent spillover.
  • Tool > Masking > Mask By Features with Groups toggled: isolate group edits, borders, and creases reliably.
  • Workflow: isolate a group (Ctrl+Shift-click), apply Tool > Masking > Mask Visible, then unhide all to get a perfect group mask.
• Visibility mastery:
  • Ctrl+Shift-click a group to solo it; repeat to reveal all.
  • Ctrl+Shift+Alt-click to hide a specific group quickly.
  • Use visibility states with Group Visible to finalize selections as polygroups.
• Keep groups intact through remesh:
  • Dynamesh: enable Groups to respect boundaries or intentionally separate shells.
  • ZRemesher: enable KeepGroups and tune Smooth Groups to preserve crisp edges.
  • After remesh, run Group Loops for clean, mask-friendly borders.
• Hard-surface polish without bleeding:
  • Activate Mask By PolyGroup and switch to HPolish/Trim brushes; your strokes will respect group borders.
  • Polish By Features on group borders to tighten silhouettes without deforming adjacent areas.
• UV and export tie-in:
  • UV Master: Use Existing Polygroups to convert your logical selections into UV islands.
  • Consistent polygroups = predictable baking and texture set management downstream.
• Common pitfalls and fixes:
  • Dynamesh can collapse groups if Groups is off—verify before committing.
  • Boolean operations: clean up with Auto Groups and Merge Stray to remove micro-fragments.
  • If strokes jump across parts, lower Mask By PolyGroup or enable Topological masking for thin gaps.

Pro move: combine Polygroups from Visibility with Layer-based edits to test variations non-destructively; turn layers on/off per group to audition surface treatments rapidly.

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