Why is my ZBrush model dark?

SiegePerilous · Oct 2012

I fixed this. Now it's happening again. It seems to have something to do with a background image that was overlaying the model. Somehow a texture is only appearing on top of the model, then when I get rid of the texture the model is dark.

I've just spent a bunch of time trying to figure out what I did last time to get my reference image background to work in ZBrush. After giving up at that (failing after trying both Document -> Import and variations on Texture Import and Image Plane) I just tried to get back to modeling.

Now my model is dark for some reason. I've tried a million things to get it to not be dark and none of the normal answers seem to work.

1. It isn't accidently pressing C. I've swapped the two selected colors and tried to apply them both via Color -> FillObject with RGB on and the subtool preview in tools changes color but my model stays dark.

2. It's not completely black, ie. it's not due to a Flat Color Material. I've also changed materials and Filled with no success. Every material shows up uniformly very dark.

3. It doesn't appear to be due to masking. I've ctrl+clicked off the model, boxed an empty space and ctrl+click etc and the color doesn't change. When I try to mask it it doesn't change color. I can still hide parts of the model with ctrl+shift.

4. I've cleared the area by going out of edit mode and used ctrl+N then dragged a new model...still dark.

Interestingly, no matter what color I Fill with the model color does not change, just stays dark.

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SiegePerilous · Oct 2012

I've figured out via the pixologic tutorials and info pages how to get my ref images working again, but for some reason my model is still semi-opaque (or so it seems) as the reference images shows on top of the model (not passing through it as if it were not set far enough back). And no my Model Opacity is 100% so that shouldn't be the problem. Is there another opacity slider somewhere?

If I turn the texture reference off the model turns dark again.

This is infuriatingly preventing me from moving forward. Any help would be appreciated.

Dan! · Oct 2012

try checking the texture tab and make sure you didn't accidentally apply a texture to it-
Texture-texture on/off

SiegePerilous · Oct 2012

Well there's no texture on the brush. There's no texture in Texture Maps inside the Tool. There's 0 Texture Off. on the top slider in Texture tab.

I also have no Layers. No other Subtools...

I'm almost to the point of simply exporting an .obj file and reimporting...

SiegePerilous · Oct 2012

Well when all else fails apparently a good ole .obj exp/import will get it done.

Still no clue why this is acting like this, but now the reimported obj file looks fine.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

FTVideo · Nov 2013

I came across this thread with the same issue. I discovered that it is a masking issue NOT solved by control + click to clear the mask. You have to go to masking dropdown and hit clear.

dwall · Jan 2014

I found a small brush icon next to the subtool in the subtools dropdown menu that you can toggle on or off.
When it's toggled off the whole subtool is darker than if it had been masked but not entirely black and you can't edit at it at all so I guess it's the same as the OP described.

I'm as much of a beginner as you can be regarding zbrush so I apologize if I'm not providing relevant information.

cryrid · Jan 2014

dwall wrote: »

I found a small brush icon next to the subtool in the subtools dropdown menu that you can toggle on or off.
When it's toggled off the whole subtool is darker than if it had been masked but not entirely black and you can't edit at it at all so I guess it's the same as the OP described.

I'm as much of a beginner as you can be regarding zbrush so I apologize if I'm not providing relevant information.

Just so you know, the brush icon just toggles Polypaint on and off (the same as if you would click Tool: Polypaint: Colorize). Its just a quicker way of toggling the option instead of having to jump back and forth for every subtool (you can also shift-click to toggle them all at once).

When polypaint is off, the model will use the currently selected material and color (which may make the model appear accordingly darker). Also, it introduces Inactive Subtool Dimming, which darkens unselected subtools by a value defined under Preferences: Edit: Inactive Subtool Dimming.

Stevehoo · Feb 2014

Just had the same issue. No matter what material I picked they were all much too dark than normal. Infuriating. What could it be?

I had been using Image Plane under the Texture menu. There, I had set the opacity of the model to be quite transparent. Thus, my model was letting some of the background image through. But once I had cleared the background image, the natural dark background in Zbrush was showing through making my model look dark.

Phew.
HTH

DesigNerd3D · Sep 2014

do you have your color picker set to a dark color like black? The same just happened to me and I finally realized changing the current color in the color picker to white made it light again.

sweetcrazy · Oct 2014

it's a bug within the "image plane" under "texture"
go to "model opacity", change the input to anything but 100,then set it back to 100. It will fix the issue:>

animatoring · Mar 2015

When I had the same error something like this:

before error

after error

I was able to fix it by changing the material from Matcap Red Clay to Matcap Red Wax.

jadetiger · May 2015

I had a similar issue where no matter what texture I turned off, mask cleared, or material I chose, the whole model appeared very dark. For me it wasn't a transparency issue either. I solved it by opening zbrush and creating a primitive. The default primitive loaded the materials correctly, and then from there I reloaded the tool and all the mats/polypaint came in correct. It seems like there was an error with the material on the original tool and by loading the original material first, the tool's bad mat was overridden . Its possible this had something to do with the switch to a newer version of zbrush. Hope that helps!

fedev · Nov 2015

I found the problem, It's the freakin icon on the subtool menu. on the side of the subtool image there's this stroke icon that changes darkness

kay-vonlanthen · Apr 2016

i had the same problem twice the last few weeks. turns out it had nothing to do with layers (what i suspected) i simply had a texture applied. some random alpha i used down the line. no idea why it did that. JUST MAKE SURE POLYPAINT DISPLACEMENT AND EVERY OTHER TEXTURE RELATED CHANNEL IS TURNED OFF AND YOUR COLOR IS WHITE. u should be good to go.

Jordy_93 · Sep 2016

I was messing around, and played with the Pen Shadow tool. It makes it darker but if you hold ALT, It brightens the mesh back to its original color. Im not sure if its the right tool for it. but hey its better than nothing. try it out.

zacvrono · Mar 2017

sweetcrazy said:

it's a bug within the "image plane" under "texture"
go to "model opacity", change the input to anything but 100,then set it back to 100. It will fix the issue:>

This fixed it for me. Surprised they haven't fixed that by now.

tshanman · Aug 2017

sweetcrazy said:

it's a bug within the "image plane" under "texture"
go to "model opacity", change the input to anything but 100,then set it back to 100. It will fix the issue:>

This fixed it for me as well. For some reason, my model opacity was set to lower than 100 as default (I think it was 80ish?). I have NEVER went in that section of the menu to change it before. Thank you for the fix!

NFEX · Jan 2018

sweetcrazy said:

it's a bug within the "image plane" under "texture"
go to "model opacity", change the input to anything but 100,then set it back to 100. It will fix the issue:>

This fixed it for me! mine was set to 100 and yeah apparently it IS bugged. (using 4r7)
Thanks for the fix!

starakat · Jul 2018

NFEX said:

sweetcrazy said:

it's a bug within the "image plane" under "texture"
go to "model opacity", change the input to anything but 100,then set it back to 100. It will fix the issue:>

This fixed it for me! mine was set to 100 and yeah apparently it IS bugged. (using 4r7)
Thanks for the fix!

i’m using 2018 version and this fixed it for me. Thanks everyone!

stoofnie · Oct 2018

sweetcrazy said:

it's a bug within the "image plane" under "texture"
go to "model opacity", change the input to anything but 100,then set it back to 100. It will fix the issue:>

I could kiss you! What an annoying bug.

IronZephry · Aug 2019

I've found another way that this can happen - if you accidentally click "C" - it will change your model to the color your cursor is over - to clear this just change the colors at the bottom left (under brush, alpha, material) to white.

michaelwharton · Nov 2019

SOLVED

Had same/similar problem and solved it.

In my case all geo went black and no matter what material or texture was on it it was still black...

I did not realize I accidentally hit the ‘v’ key which switches the black and white (Main/Secondary) color swatches on the left palette. I normally Don’t touch the ‘Alternate’ button below it, so did not even notice they had switched.

hit ‘v’ and get the Main color back to WHITE and hopefully it might solve your problem too.

Why is my ZBrush model dark?

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