Zbrush what are small annoying things you hate doing?(Making a script for all of the good ones!)

Sunray

Hello I got into zscripting not too long ago but I thin it's pretty cool because I always find stuff in Zbrush that I despise doing over and over again. As example extracting mask without thickness and a good edge that doesn't look all messed up. Why can't we bake all layers on all subtools with just one simple click in a button. I decided to start working on EaZy sculpting for us "lazy people out there" 

I decided to make it to challenge my self to learn zscript better and because I get sick off all the easy small things that I have done over a 1000th times now.

Feel free to drop ideas if you like to have added I currently have a button for:

-Mask extraction with a good edge.
-Inserting brushes onto your mesh even if it has layers and sdivs and all that shit you have to delete(It just makes a copy and deletes some stuff you will get the inserted meshes on separate subtool).
-button that will make sure you can still reconstruct sdvis after panel looping(just doing current sdvis x4).
-Baking every layer on all subtools on your ztool.
-Now working on enabling or disabling noise on all subtools.

Planning on making for now.

-Have all subtools go to a specified sdviv(if subtool doesn't have specified sdiv it will corrupt your file jk it will bring it to the highest sdiv)
-Have your subtool transformed to some random shape that will be fucked up just for fun

If you have any good ideas feel free to post them and I will try to make them just keep in mind that I'm still learning so I can't make some crazy insane shit.

The plugin will be on gumroad for free when I have some more features in it.

demilich

  Here is an idea I've had for a while. The ability to manage layers easier with hotkeyed zscripts to store/delete morph targets quicker.
 
  You can read the thread I started at zbrushcentral a couple of years ago.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?192866-Question-zscript-for-managing-layers

Basically the idea behind is to have a script or scripts that would allow you to:
1.turn on/off the currently selected layer

2.hide/unhide selected layer or hide/unhide all layers

3.hide-unhide layers by order (not necessary but cool to have)
     -- from bottom to top or vice versa since I assume most people have their newest detail at the bottom
    -- this would make it easier to cycle between all layers to see progression of details
    -- might be tricky since some layers in the stack might be off already.



 A zscript would make it easier to blend between layers using a morph brush or sculpted details. Also clicking the buttons for on/off and hiding/unhiding on a selected layer gets finicky when your mesh as at higher resolution. I assume its some sort of lag between the stylus pressure sensitivity and the fact that having layers at a higher resolution becomes more processor intensive. An example of this issue is you press the button to turn a layer off but it immediately turns back on. Multiple clicks have to be done to turn the layer off properly. A straight zcript command would bypass the step of manually clicking on those buttons.

Thanks

Sunray

@demilich
Oh man I can relate so much to the whole clicking layer off and on it's the worst going to take a look into it thanks.

Jakro

This sounds cool! How about a script that separated all subtools, then goes one by one and executes 'group visual'. then merging them all back into one subtool. I know there's an autogroups button but it is very slow and does not work very will with high poly counts. I'd also love an button that actually worked for the dynamesh polish. The default button in zbrush bugs out if you try to put it in you ui. as soon as you select another subtool the button will turn into a shadowbox slider, such a pain!  Oh I just thought of another, a button that enables/disables all subtools 'export subgroups' in the export panel found in the tools menu. 

CrimDa

Exporting all the geometry from the 3D platform to its own subtool in Zbrush is pretty annoying. There might be something for this now, but I haven't used the latest version in a while!

Sunray

@Jakro Hey man, I have no clue what you mean with the first part is it like an autogroups but it's suppose to works faster? For the second one it's done. Never had that issue but I don't work with polish I made a button that will dynamesh with a polish amount you can put into a slider.

@CrimDa Hey, Not sure what you mean just getting the basics primitive ztools into a subtool by hitting make polymesh3d?

Jakro

@Sunray yeah it would behave similar to autogroups but much faster. When autogrouping a subtool that has a lot of polys, it will lag and take forever. It's much faster if you split the subtool into part and then to group visual on each new subtool and then merge them back into one subtool. a macro for this would save a lot of time

Sunray

Jakro said:

@Sunray yeah it would behave similar to autogroups but much faster. When autogrouping a subtool that has a lot of polys, it will lag and take forever. It's much faster if you split the subtool into part and then to group visual on each new subtool and then merge them back into one subtool. a macro for this would save a lot of time

Yeah it can take pretty long but I don't know/think how you would split the subtool without first auto grouping it do you have any idea?

demilich

A quick method for autogrouping a subtool is just to go to the lowest subdiv and doing it there. The only time it becomes slow is when your mesh is decimated and you don't have subdivs.

Jakro

@Sunray There's a button called 'Split into parts' that will split the object based on separate meshes within a subtool.  

@demilich I use dynamesh primarily, it just produces a better result for the kind of assets I do/

Sunray

Jakro said:

@Sunray There's a button called 'Split into parts' that will split the object based on separate meshes within a subtool.  

@demilich I use dynamesh primarily, it just produces a better result for the kind of assets I do/

Oh that's pretty nice I'll give it a try.

Sunray

@Jakro  Hey I just runned a little test on a subtool with 7 mil points without sdivs it was able create auto groups in 1 minute and 48 seconds. The script does it in 11 seconds ofc this would take longer if you would need to reconstruct sdvis. But I think it works pretty nice 

I've got all the three things in it now any other good ideas? 

I will probably put the script on gumroad by sunday.

Jakro

@Sunray Nice! That's sounds awesome, thanks for that!

Sunray

@Jakro
 Hey man the plugin is up http://polycount.com/discussion/184854/zbrush-plugin-eazy-toolz-small-handy-buttons-free

@demilich
Didn't got the layers it was to complicated for now, hoping to get back at it when I have a bit more experience with zscript.