How to Use Alphas/Textures for Sculpt Brushes

Grant's Character Course discount link: www.gamedev.tv/p/blender-char...
Grant’s Drawing course discount link: www.gamedev.tv/p/complete-dra...
In this series I will be looking at how you can add minor details to your sculpts quickly and easily using texture brushes.
You can find the first video in the description and there's a card in the corner
This second video looks at how you can add these to your brushes and the 3rd will show you how you can create your own
You can find this course and other free courses like this on gabbitt.co.uk and do ask any questions in the comments below and i will get back to you. Alternatively you can go to the discord server / discord and ask questions there or just chat and may be join in some of the competitions
Video 1 of the series - • 5 Great Free Texture S...
this process in 2.79 - • Sculpting with Texture...
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From GearBest
I use a graphics tablet to paint with and I can recommend this one for the price and responsiveness it's probably the cheapest of that quality as well.
Learn the basics with this playlist:
• Blender Basics - low p...
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Sketchfab : sketchfab.com/grant.abbitt
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[@Mercifell]

Been watching and learning from your wonderful videos for about 2 years now! I still am going through them, and constantly picking up new tips and tricks! You're an amazing teacher, your Blender videos are lifesavers! And all for free! Really helps a poor student such as myself. Thanks for all you do!

[@richard29sher]

You have a knack at making tutorials easy to listen to and understand. This talent spans the body of your work, thank you.

[@richard29sher]

Your tutorials are so well thought out and clear. I've watched them for the past year since I began learning Blender. Thank you.

[@phoenixboy2012]

I just discovered this channel about a week ago and have been binge watching ever since. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! Great stuff, Sir!

[@grabbitt]

Thanks that's great to hear 😃

[@venkatalluri1026]

I recently switched from Zbrush to Blender and your tutorial turned out to be very helpfull , thanks for making it

[@Antoinette737]

I´ve just started to learn Blender. Your channel is one of the best to learn quickly. Thank you, sir.

[@ericgenesis5367]

You are insanely clear and articulate! definitely a great teacher

[@grabbitt]

Thanks

[@kuba2x]

This is how all Blender tutorials should be made. All understandable and well explained. Great channel!

[@FightingWitch]

Fantastic video! so clear and detailed! Keep up the great work!

[@BillyBuntin]

Bro ... you are the man. Straight to the point, thorough, no awkward attempts at humor. 100% quality meat, no bread, no cheese.

[@grabbitt]

Thanks 😃

[@NN-wc7dl]

Great tutorial! Precisely what I needed.

[@LucasRafaelDesenhista]

Your videos are very useful and objective. Best channel of Blender content :) thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@kisumi1860]

such a great and easy to follow tutorial thank you so much

[@raymobula]

Your channel is my go to library for blender. ❤

[@CR-qc9sl]

Very good! Many Informations in a short time. Thanks!

[@andrewsponer7973]

Thank you for this video. very good tutorial. finally someone who knows what issues might occur!

[@jojo-zv2ls]

Thanks a lot! I love your tutorial so much

[@blenderstuff2239]

Added it to my 2.8 Sculpting & Texturing Playlist!

[@grabbitt]

Good to hear :)

[@M4rt1nX]

Thanks a lot. I needed this so much.

[@brappineau4161]

Love this so much. Game changer

[@_s_s_world_]

amazing/ i never be deep into brush settings! so inspiring/ thanx!

[@alexanderafgan5528]

great job, so easy to understand ty

[@scricraft4764]

very efficient way to do it. Thank you

[@magicalempire]

even though outdated it is a great help and reference for a beginner out of the 2D world, thank you

[@aamirimtiaz9991]

wow amazing information thanks for sharing

[@nobunagaran6513]

Thank you so much for this tutorial!!!!!

[@improvisedpizza8557]

Thank you again for the tutorial Grant!

[@grabbitt]

Thanks 😃

[@improvisedpizza8557]

@@grabbitt I am having lots of fun in your discord server by the way :)

[@GottoGure]

Thank you for show on Blender 2.80 can't wait to stable release.

[@grabbitt]

Yes looking forward to it 😃

[@Emurga]

Great tutorial as always

[@grabbitt]

Thanks

[@jitone1]

GreatDetail, love , thanks

[@vazak11]

So helpful, thank you!

[@grabbitt]

Thanks again :)

[@cr0uchingtiger]

Lock Radius in 3.x Top of the screen (top left where you have radius, strength etc.) Brush > radius unit > scene

[@Jontte]

Thank you man!

[@bestpranks7852]

Nice Totorial, thank you

[@13aldur]

Very nice and useful. Thank you.

[@grabbitt]

Thanks

[@openworldgamedevjontyin2242]

AGAIN U SAVED MY DAY .... THANKS YOU

[@rajmundgaja3137]

Very informative. Thanx a lot

[@grabbitt]

Thanks

[@JdEntertainmentvlog]

thank you....your are great sir.......

[@ezunreal]

Awesome!

[@Villio.]

God...dammn...I think you have all the stuff I need🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏...thank you sooo much

[@barisrmalkoc]

Thank you Much!!

[@jleao2990]

Tanks for this video ;)

[@pixels993]

I think the tile option is better than area plane for alphas, because that will allow you to draw freely and not rely on spacing.

[@tom_something]

Thank you for the helpful information. As for needing to select "area plane" twice, could it be that the first one is how the brush area (the circular region) is mapped to the model, as in the overall selection of which parts of the mesh will be affected, and the second one is how the texture image is mapped onto the affected parts of the mesh?

[@grabbitt]

Could be

[@yahyatarek443]

thank you

[@shanjeevan142]

Thank you

[@banjaracartoon]

Thank You

[@grabbitt]

Thanks

[@jademoth1626]

5:57 I went from watching quite seriously to getting a good chuckle from this 😂

[@Jomong__Fateh]

Bravo 👏💖

[@kendarr]

Thanks bud

[@andrewsanders7636]

3 years old but still useful and helpful

[@ritad7986]

for those who didn't fint the radius lock, too - I clicked on everything till I found this Radius Unit - Scene option. This seems to work like the lock which isn't here.

[@grabbitt]

might have change since upload sorry about that

[@gower1973]

I’ve only tried sculpting once in Blender, mainly because their is no proper retopo tools, but this is great info for us beginners to get started, I always wondered how you saved those texture brushes, is it possible to append them from another file, that way you could build a categorised tool shelf, just pull in the required blend file

[@grabbitt]

Yes you must go file. Append and choose the brush

[@mattpallotta]

Still Valuable information today.

[@IAmPantsu]

cool!!

[@tbe320]

thanks finaly i unsderstand how to use alphas

[@GroundbreakGames]

I've been using an alpha tga of human blood vessels to create mountains. It works perfectly.

[@grabbitt]

nice idea :)

[@GroundbreakGames]

@@grabbitt Its amazing how micro and macro nature is all based on the same algorithms.

[@grabbitt]

yes indeed :)

[@fabianoperes2155]

Really nice. How can I make a curved seam? I want the line to bend with the curve.

[@grabbitt]

yes check out my video on hte different brushes and you can use the curve brush for that

[@huguesstefanski7298]

Thanks this is just what I needed! Edit: any good resource for free alphas to use? Edit 2: I will check the first video 😅

[@Katerin-fr6jm]

Thanks, it was so helpful! Would you help me find the "lock radius" function, please? I don't have this icon =(

[@grabbitt]

I'll have to check again myself. Probably in the options

[@wojt3d415]

cool oneee

[@yapanwolf]

thanks for tutorial. I was found when i creat alpha brush with "Anchored" and "Area plane" option my brush doesn`t rotate. how to enable this option or maby it`s a bug?

[@grabbitt]

Might be a bug

[@lordyrich]

TY Sir

[@grabbitt]

Thanks 😃

[@Palestine-first]

thanks >3 it

[@lenstobrush7266]

Hi thanks for this very informative tutorial. I just wondered is there a way of getting these brush/alpha presets into the new Asset Library. If I create a library of rock alphas I would not want to append them to every blend file thereafter. Can brushes and theirs setting be saved and accessed easily in other blend files?

[@grabbitt]

Kind of yes but you have to set a new start up file

[@plaskowickim]

Any chance for a new version of the video using the Blender 3.2? I can see that a lot of things has changed since it has been recorded...

[@stephanechataignie]

Awesome tuto for a good understanding of the tool. Do you know if it is possible to display brush or texture on screen as it was possible on the 2.79 in the "Options" ? I can't find it anymore with the new UI Thanks ;)

[@grabbitt]

d you mean stencil?

[@stephanechataignie]

@@grabbitt Nope, on stencil there is a vizualisation of the texture. I asked mostly for the others mapping. On 2.79 there was a tab nammed "Overlay" where we could activate the transparency of the curve and the texture. I cannot find it anymore on 2.90

[@276matto]

Y O U A R E A M A Z I N G ! ! !

[@petertremblay3725]

Hi Grant, is there an addon that add a panel for alpha since always going in browser is counter productive?

[@grabbitt]

you can get the browser window up which might help

[@vi-soundscapes]

Hey Grant Abbit, Out of curiosity do I need to have a squared brush texture, like when I import rectangle one the Blender will stretch it?

[@grabbitt]

Yes

[@chihuahuasrule1175]

Hello, I have an issue with my stamps and I never see this issue on tutorials. My stamp depressions show the round outline of the round cursor button. How do I get rid of that so that I only see the stamp?

[@rayen_daadaa]

@grant you've missed to put the link of the video in the corner 2:40

[@grabbitt]

Thanks. I have to upload before i can put the links in the corner :) i'll do it now :)

[@ShutterAuthority]

@@grabbitt Hey Grant, cant seem to find that tutorial. Could you please link it to me? Thx :)

[@grabbitt]

@@ShutterAuthority in the description i believe

[@Dhieen]

how do you rotate your alpha easily? there is the angle option under area plane but its not the best practical thing! in substance painter you can easily rotate

[@J0NM]

Hi! Sorry for the question, I'm new in blender. I've used the textures but when I export all textures are gone it happens when I change to modeling too. Do u know what I"m doing wrong? TY

[@bibekshakya3217]

Wow grant such a understandable tutorial but have a question that where did you downloaded those textures ? Is it jpg file or anything ?? can you give me the link to those textures and what is it called is it displacement texture?

[@grabbitt]

See my next video in this series

[@Padraix]

Great video . But when i want use brush texture on different object (example oval), i can't. Why?

[@grabbitt]

Should be fine if it's in sculpt mode and has the vertices

[@MrFrost-xh6rf]

After placing alpha brushes on dense meshes. Then turning that into a bump map and placing it back onto the low poly base mesh, my question is, how do you apply image textures on it after that? Or do you have to bake the diffuse map also when you bake the normal map. I hope this makes sense. In new to sculpting and baking

[@grabbitt]

You bake diffuse maps and normal maps

[@sdrawkcabdaernacuoy]

Thanks Grant! Santa should be bringing me a new computer, so I'll finally be able to handle enough subdivisions in order to sculpt fine details.

[@grabbitt]

That is the problem with this method :)

[@SI00000]

Great tutorial Grant. I have a question if you can help. The area plane feature for the brushes in blender seems to only be in sculpt mode. I was not able to find it in paint mode. Does it exist for paint mode? If not how can it be added? Thanks.

[@grabbitt]

Only in sculpt mode currently

[@SI00000]

@@grabbitt I guess we'll have to wait.

[@Captain-Cat]

Nice vid. Can alpha brushes be used like this in texture painting? I just wonder if those buttons could be texture painted onto a model as a brush in the same way instead of sculpted? I mean I know a high res sculpt can be baked onto a low poly model as a normal map, but I wonder if this alpha brush thing can also be a texture painting technique or not.

[@onibean]

Yes, works on texture painting too

[@grabbitt]

Yes they can :)

[@Captain-Cat]

awesome thanks guys

[@gower1973]

They act like height maps in texture painting

[@Captain-Cat]

@@gower1973 that would be great.... are there any tutorials or docs for the settings for texture painting with an alpha brush, I seem to be struggling with it currently.

[@AngriestAmerican]

How does this mesh export for 3d printing?

[@grabbitt]

As an stl

[@orphydiancg7759]

can we use the stamps/stencils that come as defaults with other softwares like Cinema 4d or Mudbox with Blender sculpt brushes? did someone ever tried that ? Cinema 4d has tons of high quality and usefull ones I would like to use in Blender. Interested in a way to import those.

[@grabbitt]

if they are black and white images then yes

[@orphydiancg7759]

@@grabbitt great, I wish blender woulld include a curated colection of this alphas as an addon and to be fast accessible.

[@grabbitt]

yes that would be nice :)

[@shubhamparte4335]

How to save them in blender in general so that each time i make new project i dont have to load them again and again..

[@grabbitt]

Look up false user

[@smallbusinessideasforpakis1072]

thanks for sharing

[@titos781]

Hi Grant thanks a lot great tutorial , i need help with something tho on blender 2.93 there is no lock icon on radius could someone tell me how to lock brush size where is the lock on 2.93 ?

[@grabbitt]

Not completely sure what you mean

[@titos781]

@@grabbitt hey :) you lock radius on buttons example and brush size stay the same but in blender 2.93 there is no lock icon to do so what version you use on video and if you know how to lock radius on 2.93

[@dreroelandt2246]

@@titos781 I was confused too- but I just found it ! under 'radius', there's an option for 'Radius Unit" --> switch it from "View" to "Scene" and it will keep the brush size constant

[@gustavodutra8578]

11:04 At this part. Im trying to do this with a non sphere shape alpha. So i get a sphere around my alpha, everytime i apply it. How can i get rid of it ?

[@grabbitt]

brush falloff

[@gustavodutra8578]

@@grabbitt Which brush fallout should i use ? I used the constant straight line.

[@2011manbeast]

Hi, It seems like every time I use an alpha Brush, instead of stamping out a single image, I get a bunch of them. How do I get the brush to only stamp one?

[@grabbitt]

check the tile option

[@curtisnewton895]

13:35 how do you rotate/preview the result before applying ?

[@grabbitt]

Stroke settings-anchored

[@p_penta6820]

I have a square like texture but when i try to apply it on my mesh it 'cropped' the texture, i think it because the brush shape is round? Is there a way to fix this?

[@grabbitt]

that's a good question and unfortunately the only way i know is to take it into an image editing programme to fix it

[@p_penta6820]

Ahh i see, i'll try that and also i try improvising by making the texture smaller so the square shape got duplicated like using an array. Beside that thank you so much your channel help me grow faster 🙏

[@veridesign4866]

I've followed the tutorial in this video to create textures, but mine can't be sclupting texturing in blender 2.9. I don't know where the problem is? can you help me with this problem

[@grabbitt]

It should all be the same

[@cristianeni6567]

Where can i get all these textures?

[@grabbitt]

In the next video in the playlist

[@zoltanbaroti7998]

When i go to rendered view, my textured sculpts disappear. Any rips?

[@grabbitt]

are you using multires. if so check viewport settings

[@zoltanbaroti7998]

@@grabbitt yes i did, thank you, solved :)

[@CR-qc9sl]

How can I save my new brush? There is no save icon.

[@grabbitt]

i may do a video on that soon

[@spittingame4241]

I have a Multi-resolution modifier on with 16 million faces. What sitting should I have on where I can apply the skin alphas WITHOUT adding or subtracting to the objects/character?

[@grabbitt]

not sure what you mean

[@spittingame4241]

@@grabbitt it looks like you are applying the texture without adding or subtracting around the textures evenly. As if the textures are being stamped onto the objects without taking away from the geometry. If I want to work on a beautiful woman I don't want to apply pot marks on her face while simultaneously putting down the skin pores. I hope that makes any sense.

[@grabbitt]

@@spittingame4241 I changed the strength a lot but it's more to do with the alpha itself as to whether it stamps the way you expect

[@spittingame4241]

I bought my skin alphas from CG Sphere. He has a KZbin channel. But I understand what you mean 👍🏿

[@naveenjain2256]

10:28 unable to find curve option in 2.9 plzz solve it

[@grabbitt]

its called falloff now

[@onyxkane]

i want help i want to put emmision texture on smoke in cycles please help

[@grabbitt]

I don't use smoke much so I can't really help

[@onyxkane]

okk but still thank you to reply

[@Lou-li5mv]

Grant, I have a big problem that I hope you could help me with: I'm trying to use wrinkle textures as alphas to make the skin of my characters more realistic, but when combined with the default draw brush, this leads to the brush "raising" the skin instead of just imprinting the finer details of the wrinkles, and that changes the facial structure a lot. When I lower the brush's strength, this also leads to a loss of depth detail for the wrinkles/pores etc.. What can I do so the mesh of my character is only minimally changed in height instead of being moved around by the draw brush?

[@grabbitt]

You can hold down ctrl to dig in but otherwise you will need to adjust the strength

[@NoureldenRihan]

One Thing you can do is in the Sculpt Tool Panel Under Texture Tab, Reduce Sample Bias, It'll help.

[@grabbitt]

@@NoureldenRihan thanks

[@DvirElisha]

Where is the brushes library?

[@grabbitt]

There isn't one in blender you need to download them. See other video about where to find alphas

[@SheenaFallenRox]

I went back and tried to do this to the dragon head. When I go out of sculpt mode and into object mode, the details I did with the texture brushes disappear. How can I fix this? I've tried saving and reloading. Thank you!

[@grabbitt]

The levels in the multi resolution modifier

[@SheenaFallenRox]

@@grabbitt thank you!

[@anne-marie1039]

Can somebody maybe help me? My brush always does a circular inflate or dent to the mesh if I use the brush with the alpha. I can not get the brush to ONLY apply the white part of the alpha to the mesh. Its always denting or inflating my mesh as well. I bet its a brush setting but i cant figure it out.

[@grabbitt]

See fall off

[@anne-marie1039]

thanks for the tip. i already tried some settings there. if i set falloff to constant for example, i will extude a cylinder shape from the sculpt. so its basically the same issue, just not smoothed. and on top of this cylinder then lays my alpha. i have no clue why i have this. the alpha i use is only a "crack", so basically one line. is that the cause of the issue? but i also saw people use alphas for engravings and such...

[@younggamerz328]

if i had a high poly model and cant add subdivision than what can ido then

[@grabbitt]

Remesh

[@younggamerz328]

@@grabbitt remesh means

[@younggamerz328]

@@grabbitt how to remesh it