STEP by STEP DEFORM ONE OBJECT AROUND ANOTHER USING A ZPROJECT BRUSH

01To SET up THE SUBTOOLS

begin, import the OBJ into Zbrush from the Tool menu. Next drag it onto the screen and click on the Edit Object button. Expand down the Subtool menu, then go to Split and select the Group Split option. This will split the two objects previously created in 3ds Max into two separate subtools. Now turn on Ghost Transparency and make sure that the balloon object subtool is selected.

02 ZPROJECT brush

Expand down the Geometry menu and click on the Divide button four or five times until the Activepoints count reaches somewhere around the 150,000 level (probably around five Subdivisions). Make sure the Smt button is off when you do this so as not to deform the shape by smoothing.

Choose the Zproject brush with a Freehand Stroke selected. Switch Rgb on and both Zadd and Zsub off.

03 Paint THE SUBTOOL Mask

Viewing from above and with the rope subtool selected, hide one half of the rope object.

Now paint over the balloon where the ropes are visible and you will see that the balloon will become black where the subtool above is positioned (the ropes). Carefully paint with the brush, whilst rotating the balloon and also continuing to hide and make visible areas of the ropes, until the whole balloon has been painted in.

04 DEFORM THE balloon

When fully painted go to Tool> Masking>mask By Color and click on Mask By Intensity. Go to Tool>polypaint and switch off Colorize. You will now see that the painting you have done with Zproject has become a Mask. Go back to Mask and click on Blurmask. Now choose the Standard brush, switch off Rgb, switch on Zadd and start painting over the balloon subtool. Once complete you can reduce the Subdivisions down to a lower level in Geometry and export as an OBJ.