Capturing Normal Map from 2.5D canvas in Zbrush

xheinerin

Hi there guys,

I've been sculpting some simple textures in Zbrush, but I am very new to the software and would love to know a way to render/export the canvas as a normal texture with different YZ orientation - so far I tried applying NormalRGBMat and rendering without shadows, but the resulting colour information seems vertically flipped (like when the Green channel becomes inverted, however this doesn't seem to be the solution).

I end up spending huge amounts of time exporting massive meshes into 3DsMax and using planar Projection mapping.. There must be an easier way, but I can't seem to find it online.

Thanks in advance! :thumbup:
Xhrn.

electricsauce

I use the normal matcap from Daniel Lieske on the zbrush site with the mrgbgrabber. You can always invert the green channel in Gimp/photoshop.

ENODMI

with the normal map matcap applied, you can also just hit printscreen and paste into photoshop if thats enough texture resolution for you

leleuxart

Theres a few different ways, but they sometimes mess up the resolution based on my experience.

Like ENODMI said, you could always print screen if the document size is large enough for you.

There is also a Tileable Texture plugin that exports out the current matcap and depth at 100% document size. It doesn't seem to work all the time for me. It works one time, which is enough for me to get the depth at least.

I prefer to just Export Document. The thing is that you need to set the document size to be 100%. Even if you can't see the entire thing in the viewport, exporting it will be the correct size. If you are using a smaller version in the viewport, then it will only export out that size.

For the Normal map, the default matcap is really overbearing. I've downloaded one that has a lot more accurate values. I can't remember where it's from or who it's by, but a little Googling should help you find a few different ones to try out.

It's also a good idea to adjust some of the render settings and do a 'Best' render before each export. Turn off shadows when doing the Normal map and some of the other matcaps. I do two exports near the end with two separate materials for a cast shadow and more of a 'fake' one on the meshes themselves.

Hope this helps :thumbup:

xheinerin

Many thanks for your answers, guys. Zbrush and I are slowly starting to get along.

Through much stress and trial and error, the best method indeed seems to be:

- First download a more finely tuned Normal matcap from here or here,
- render on Best, shadows off
- Switch to mrgbgrabber under Tools, select the canvas, then GrabDoc/Export under Texture
- Flip Green channel if necessary (didn't work for me when trying to work from a screenshot)

Thanks again for your help! :thumbup: