ZBrush Tip: Mask By PolyGroup — Precise Group‑Bound Sculpting

Use Mask by Polygroup to sculpt, move, and paint with surgical precision while keeping neighboring surfaces untouched.

Core idea

• Polygroups segment your mesh into logical regions. Mask by Polygroup leverages those borders to isolate your brush, transforms, and masking.
• Set it once and work faster: your strokes will respect group boundaries without constant hide/unhide gymnastics.

Where to enable it

• Brush > Auto Masking > Mask By PolyGroup: set to 100 to fully restrict a brush to the active polygroup; lower values allow controlled bleed across borders.
• Combine with BackfaceMask (Brush > Auto Masking > BackfaceMask) to prevent wrap‑around edits on thin surfaces.

Creating reliable Polygroups fast

• Tool > Polygroups > Group By Normals: great for hard edges and panels.
• Tool > Polygroups > Group Front: convert your current view-facing area into a new group for targeted edits.
• Tool > Polygroups > Group Masked (Ctrl+W): paint or lasso a mask, then convert it to a clean polygroup.
• Tool > Polygroups > Auto Groups: auto‑segmentation for separate shells; perfect after Live Boolean or kitbashing.

High-precision workflows

• Detail without spillover
  • Set Mask By PolyGroup to 100 on Standard, DamStandard, and HPolish for crisp panel lines that stop at group borders.
  • Use ClayPolish or Deformation > Polish By Groups after to refine edges.
• Controlled shape changes
  • Move brush with Mask By PolyGroup at 100 lets you nudge forms per panel without tugging neighbors.
  • For broader edits, drop to 40–60 so strokes taper gracefully across borders.
• Transform by group
  • Ctrl+Click on the mesh to invert mask, Ctrl+Tap on empty canvas to invert again—quickly isolate one group, then Gizmo/Transpose it.
  • Edge support: Geometry > EdgeLoop > GroupLoops adds support loops along polygroup borders for hard-surface integrity.
• Retopo and map baking synergy
  • ZRemesher > KeepGroups preserves borders for cleaner UVs and bakes.
  • Crease PG (Geometry > Crease) maintains sharp edges during subdivision previews.

Pro tips

• Save brush variants (Brush > Save As) with different Mask By PolyGroup values: one for strict isolation, one for gentle bleed.
• Combine with LazyMouse for clean strokes that terminate exactly at group edges.
• Use visibility tricks: Ctrl+Shift+Click a polygroup to isolate, then build masks and convert them back to groups for iterative refinement.
• Before export, Deformation > Polish By Groups lightly to remove micro chatter introduced by aggressive sculpting near borders.

Why it matters

• Reduces cleanup from accidental cross‑surface edits.
• Enforces design intent on hard-surface panels and character armor.
• Speeds iteration by turning selection management into a one‑time setup.

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