FJTools - ZBrush plugin

floon

Hey fellow Polycounters!

FJTools is a Plugin for ZBrush, that will help you to organise your Subtools and speed up your workflow in general. It does so by automating repetitive tasks, or solving them intuitively.
You can find the plugin on ArtStation, Gumroad and Cubebrush.

Disclaimer:

The plugin is designed for ZBrush 2019/2020/2021/2022/2023 and was thoroughly tested on a Windows machine. Mac support was verified as well, but as I do not own a Mac, I could not test it myself.
Previous versions of ZBrush are NOT supported.

Feature breakdown:

All features are explained in a mini video series, which can be found on the plugins’ ArtStation page or YouTube!

Installation:

To install FJTools simply copy the "FJTools_1_5.zsc" file, along with the "FJTools_1_5_Data"-folder into the Zplugs64-folder of your ZBrush 2019/2020/2021/2022/2023 installation. The path should look similar to this:

...\Pixologic\ZBrush 2019[2020][2021][2022]\ZStartup\ZPlugs64

...\Maxon ZBrush 2023\ZStartup\ZPlugs64

Done!

Upgrade:

Should you be upgrading from a previous version, make sure to delete the old .zsc file AND the corresponding data folder first. After that just follow the installation above.

Also be sure to check out thehttps://youtu.be/0ZDVoJCECyY FJTools 1.5 — Feature Highlight video, to see what has changed!

 Special thanks for helping to find a nasty bug:

• Cagatay Ozkan https://www.artstation.com/cagazoid

Sunray

Hey man, I tried installing it on 4r7 but it won't show up did they update zScripting in 4r8? maybe the zsc is blocking it in the older version. As far as the plugin goes I'm going, to be honest, it still feels pretty useless ZBrush already has a built-in expert mode by hitting the tab key. But I do like the option off keeping a tab. But that didn't work it broke really quickly I would also suggest making the expert button to a toggle it just looks better imo. And it's easier for testing purpose to see if you're actually in expert mode. The cycle multimesh is kinda cool, but I would prefer to just use my mouse. Since it's easier than letting go of my ctrl alt keys to get to the hotkeys. 

Anyways hoping to see some nice features in the future.

floon

Hey @Sunray thanks for giving it a spin!
First of all yes this is an 4r8 only plugin and Pixologic indeed changed a few major things regarding Zscript. I don't use any of them yet, but already have a version check in place, since I plan to use some of the new functions in future versions of the plugin.

About the expert mode. What is assigned to tab by default is actually a button that can be found here Preferences:Interface:Float Menu (in case you would want to change its hotkey ). My version is just an extension to this, so the user is able to add the other panels as well.
Your suggestion to make the "Expert Mode"-Button to a switch button is a good idea! Thanks for pointing this out .

If you have a cool idea, or find yourself doing some steps over and over again let me know and I will see what I can do!

Sunray

@floon Hey, Do you know where to find an update log or something about Zscripting I didn't hear anything about it. And do you also know if older scripts will still work in 4r8?

floon

You can find a changelist here .
Many older scripts should work, but some (especially when working with subtool states), or when using the ZFileUtils .dll  (an update is on its way but not out yet) will not.

floon

FJTools 0.2 was just released!
 
New features:
-"BrushToSubtool" converts all stored VDM to subtools
(does not work with IMM Brushes yet!)
-"CleanBrush" deletes all stored meshes of the brush
-"SubtoolToBrush" attaches all subtools back to the brush
-"SkipFirst" when active, skips the topmost subtool while adding to the Brush
(in case you have a buffer for naming purpose)
 
 
Fixes:
-The “ExpertMode”  now is a toggle button and locks the configuration while active. This was done to prevent confusion, when editing modes while already in the ExpertMode.
 
-The Cycle-Buttons (Down,Up,Random) now refresh the preview, inside of the item bar of the Multimesh brushes.
 
 
Known issues of version 0.2:
-While active the “BP” button prevents the locking up mechanism of the ExpertMode
-”BrushToSubtool” only works for VDM (Vector Displacement Mesh) Brushes,
not IMM (Insert Multi Mesh) Brushes yet.
 
 
If are having other issues/ideas for new features please let me know !

fuzzzzzz

hmm the expert mode is buggy, when every options are enable, the expert mode just open the bottom one.
i know you can't to change this behavior but it's very frustrating that when you hit expert mode  button, it just throw you away from the plugin configuration,.

Well, I am not sure this features is anything useful, i don't see what can i do with that. Polish it and it could lead to something more complex with  multiple custom panels on both right and left dividers.

I see you have added a brush to subtool, like i did that last week. no comment huhu
The subtool to brush is just what zbrush doesn't already from the brush:create panel.

The clean brush works well don't know why pixologic has forget to add this "delete all meshes" button the label is too long probably ;o

About the multi mesh i don't see the benefit of it,
we can assign an hotkey to the multimesh selector and enable the random by changing the multimesh selector from brush >modifiers

floon

@fuzzzzzz thank you for taking a look and writing a feedback!
 
About the expert mode:
Unfortunately the Dividers don't have states, therefore I can only simulate a click on the interface item, but not check their current state. Afaik the bottom panel is hidden by default, so when you define it as part of the expert mode, it just switches its state. To be honest this is mostly in there for consistency. My advice would be to leave it out of the configuration.
I see how it can be annoying when the configuration is not available in active mode, but I guess this is the downside of hiding the interface (also I never missed that possibility).
 
About the MutliMesh section:
The ability to convert a brush to its subtools, was apparently really needed when two people came to the same conclusion and the default "Create MultiAlpha Brush" - button I honestly overlooked.But although my solution is slower, with the "SkipFirst" option I still prefer it...but might rework it. Thanks for the hint!
 
All the selection buttons are pretty much only personal taste.
I don't like hotkeys on sliders and I hate that the interface doesn't update when using the select slider (all the submeshes start to light up).
Same goes for the random selector it in the brush settings. Also with the random button I can decide when to switch to the next mesh, so not necessarily after each stroke.
 
Again, thanks for writing this up, I now have one or two things to think about !

floon

Good news everyone!
I reworked FJTools and am about to release the new Version with new grouping and renaming features.
Before I do so though, I would like to take the opportunity and ask for one or two of you fine people to give it a last testrun.
I allready released a mini closed beta, so the plugin should run quite stable, but I still do have some questions about how I could improve usability in a work environment.
Would someone be willing to sacrifice a few minutes and give it a spin?

To spark your interest, I want to show you a cool synergy I especially like with the "Transpose All Selected Subtools" feature of R8

floon

Hey!
I just released FJTools version 0.3 , which you can download via  gumroad  !
Check out the top post for more infos!

Koromo

@floon

Thanks for the tools! I will use them for transposing a character when i finish her in a few days, cannot wait to see that synergy with Transpose all as i have more than 60 mini subtools

But before testing blindly clicking the options randomly...what´s the workflow with the "isolate prefix" showed on the gif??

floon

Hey @Koromo
thanks for the interest!

To use the “isolate prefix function”, you simply need matching prefixes across your subtools names.
What the plugin does; it looks at the name of the currently selected subtool and checks its prefix (it considers everything before the first _ as the prefix).
Then the script cycles through the rest of the subtools, looks at their prefixes and if they match with the prefix of the initially selected subtool, runs a function.
E.g. “hand_left_high” would be associated with other subtools that start with “hand_”. Hereby it does not matter how many underscores are present in the name, only the first one matters.
To help with this, the plugin also offers some renaming options, but you do not necessarily need to use them, so you can still name your subtools manually.


To achieve what I did in the gif above:

• set up your prefixes to group cohesive subtools
• select one subtool of the group and press “isolate prefix”
• activate the new "transpose all selected subtools” feature of R8 (check out Michael Pavlovich’s video, to learn about it) 
  
• now it gets slightly tricky, or as you call it in Zbrush “standard workflow” ;D
• while still only your isolated group being visible, invert the selection (ctrl+shift+click)
• your group should now have a scanline effect
• unhide all subtool and invert your selection again(ctrl+shift+click)
• move/scale/rotate your group all you want
• don't forget to clean your selection after you are done (ctrl+shift+drag)

Let me know if that worked for you, or when you have any further questions!

Ouran

Hey @floon
Dropping by to thank you for the plugin. Will definitely come in handy

floon

Thank you @Ouran for giving it a try!
Let me know if you encounter any problems, or have an idea for a feature that would improve the plugin .

Ouran

Here's one: rename subtools based on live booleans groups!

floon

Have not really worked with live boolean so far, but I will read up on the topic and see what I can do!
Thanks for the hint!

Edit:
Good news, it seems to be doable and will most likely be part of the next update !

CreativeLeo

floon said:

Have not really worked with live boolean so far, but I will read up on the topic and see what I can do!
Thanks for the hint!

Edit:
Good news, it seems to be doable and will most likely be part of the next update !

Hey, I was thinking about an feature which can be called "Magic Mesh". Its purpose will be to make Copies of original mesh on unmasked "Original Mesh" area where user can have "4 option to check", 1) X axis, 2) Y axis, 3) Z axis 4) Random Rotations.

Other option for this feature can : Copies Count, Aligned to points or mesh, masked and unmasked portions of mesh. 

cromadbomber

Ouran said:

Here's one: rename subtools based on live booleans groups!

+

floon

Thanks for the feedback !
Currently I am quite busy with work, due to our upcoming release.
I will hopefully get back to the plugin in the new year though.

@CreativeLeo
I think a similar Plugin already exists called Positioner. Check it out !
You also might want to take a look into the array function of ZBrush, which might do most of the magic you are looking for.

floon

I am very happy to announce today’s release of FJTools Version 1.0!

New feature:

• Boolean Groups  are now also available in the Naming section
  
• Color you have now various options to apply polypaint to your subtools. This will make assigning ID Colors for baking a piece of cake.

Fixes:

• Expert Mode was further worked on and now should works as intended. No more 50/50 chance if a panel actually hides/unhides. The only problem that remains is that you need to tab your hotkey twice, if you have used and other plugin. This is because Zbrush can only run one plugin at a time and therefore FJ Tools needs to be reactivated. As far as I know, there is nothing I can currently do about it, sorry .
  

• Scrollbar now resets properly

• Hide/Unhide all Subtools now also works, if the selected Subtool is not visible in the Subtoolpalette

• KeepTopmost will no longer reset its state, when selecting another plugin
  

floon

Hey gang!
Version 1.1 of FJTools just went live.
You can get it either via Gumroad or Cubebrush
 I hope you like the new features and please let me know if you encounter problems, or have any suggestions!

Check the top post for a full feature list!

New Features in 1.1:

• Supports suffixes along with prefixes for all operations.
• Copy/paste of Subtools between different Tools, without loosing name/subdivisions
• Delete all hidden Subtools
• Invert visibility
• Remove/replace parts of Subtools names

General performance was improved as well as the UI.

Special Thanks to:

Eric Blondin, for giving me super valuable Zscript tips and continuous feedback! Website | Artstation

Vincent Ménier, for inspiration and testing the plugin! Artstation

floon

https://youtu.be/JlMRmr9gxpk

I am happy to announce that FJTool 1.2 just went live!

This is a free update for everyone who downloaded Version 1.1. Simply log into the account you used to download the previous version and get the new one!

Next to many minor improvements the biggest change is the new "QuickSelect" feature, which I think is a great addition to the plugin.

I also recorded a mini tutorial series explaining all existing features , which can be found on the plugins’ ArtStation page or YouTube!

If you are interested you can find the plugin  on ArtStation, Gumroad and Cubebrush.

Special Thanks for the awesome feedback to:

• Joe Atilano https://www.artstation.com/joeatilano
• Ognyan Zahariev https://www.artstation.com/ognyan
• Martin Hones https://www.artstation.com/mhones
  

torba

Hi Florian,
Just installed v1.2 and it works great.

I have a suggestion if you don't mind. It regards the QuickSelect portion.
This is something that would fit my particular workflow so I won't mind if you find this unappealing/unnecessary etc

I think it could be interesting if you added another button similar to *AdaptiveMode. It would be a *thenHide button that would hide the subtool after performing the current QuickSelect action.

I believe this would work well for tools with lots of similar subtool that you'd want to add prefixes to for example.
Imagine a big tree model wit lots of separate subtool of vines, branches, leaves, separate bark pieces etc, etc.

How this would work is you'd press the *thenHide button and then pick QPrefix  and choose the prefix leaf_ for example. You could then go around the model adding the leaf_ prefix to any leaf you find and each one with the prefix already applied would get hidden. You'd then be sure all leaves have the correct prefix and also you wouldn't be confused as to whether any leaf already has the prefix or not - if any leaf is still visible it means it doesn't have the prefix yet.

I hope this makes sense.

This would probably only work with the QPrefix and QSuffix functions.


Just a side note here:
Unless there's some limitation in the scripting engine, it could be more intuitive if the QMask function depended on the *AdaptiveMode button as well. Without *AdaptiveMode it would mask the entire subtool and with *AdaptiveMode turned on it would mask just the polygroup.
Masking entire subtools is not maybe a common thing to do, but I can imagine how one could use it in conjunction with say Transpose All Selected Subtools in Gizmo 3D mode.
If this was the case then I suppose the *thenHide button could be used in conjunction with QMask as well: each masked subtool would be hidden so that you'd know which ones are "done" already.

Ok, hope you don't mind my musings. Again, I really find your plugin great. Thanks

cheers

floon

Hey @torba !
First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to write the awesome feedback and for sharing your ideas! I really appreciate your input and will definitely consider them, when I will start to work on the next update.

That being said, let me get a bit more specific:
Technically the AdaptiveMode could be used to work like you described, together with the Qprefix/Qsuffix. Sofar it only has a sinergy with the QColor mode, so this is definitely something I will take in consideration.
I also get where you are coming from; you can’t see if a Subtool already has a affix or not and I agree that this is not ideal.

• What you are describing could already be done though, just not as elegant:
• Unhide all Subtools
• QHide those you want to append the affix to
• InvertVisibility(of the Manage-Subtools section)
• PrefixToVisible (of the Naming section)
• This way you would still “intuitively” choose, to which Subtools you want to add an affix, it would just require a few more steps.

Regarding QMask:
The function does not actually  “mask” a particular polygroup. Behind the scenes QMask isolates the polygroup below the cursor and then inverts the current mask. This approach allows you to add AND subtract polygroups to a mask, but comes with the downside that you can’t really mix it well with painted masks.
What this allows you to do though, is masking complete subtools Simply by moving your cursor to the blank canvas and pressing you QuickSelect hotkey. It will invert the complete mask -> mask the Subtool.

I have not really thought about the “Transpose Subtools” function in conjunction with the Quick Select feature. But I just tested it and because QMask first isolates the Subtool first (as in ctrl+shift+click), you can actually use QMask to add Subtools to your multi Subtool selection!

I hope that was not too confusing and thank you again for sharing your thoughts!

torba

Hi @floon
Thank you for your comprehensive answer.
You're absolutely right. What I'm asking for is practically already there, just requires a little more imagination.

Thanks again for your very cool plugin.
cheers
Rafal

pasha_sevez

@floon
Hey Florian, really helpful tools. I've been using it since 1.0 and it was always very handy - especially, the feature of managing and copying multiple sub-tools at once. Thanks for your work! 

floon

Hey @pasha_sevez!
I am really happy to hear that you like working wit@pasha_sevez - especially when it comes from someone who has been using it for so long!
Have you had a chance to try the QuickSelect feature yet? I really like the concept and will probably work more in that direction.

pasha_sevez

floon said:

Have you had a chance to try the QuickSelect feature yet? I really like the concept and will probably work more in that direction.

Haven't tried all of the new features, but I've checked the tutorials and gonna test it very soon. I'll leave you a feedback on this functionality afterwards surely.

floon

Looking forward to hear from you then !

pOgOstyle

Did't wanted to spam this thread - but im also a day one user and this tools are gold now! Never got my hp faster rdy to bake! Thanks.

floon

Thank you very much for your comment @pOgOstyle ! Definitely no spam!
I don't get too much feedback, so hearing that people are actually using the plugin, really makes me happy!
Please let me know if you are heaving any issues, or ideas that could improve the plugin further.

floon

Hey Polycount,
I am currently looking for a few mac users who would be willing to try FJTools. The port is almost complete, but I want to get some feedback, before I fully release it.
Should you be interessted, please let me know so I can hook you up with a free version !

floon

Sneak Peak of an upcoming new feature that allows you to select multiple Subtools at once!

This will allow you to set up Boolean Groups in no time and will work with most of the existing features .

torba

Looks promising!

floon

Hey folks!
I am back with some news about the upcoming 1.3 release:
All features I wanted to implement are done and I will start polishing now.
If everything goes according to plan, the release will be in the end of February!

I also wrote a blogpost on ArtStation talking about some of the new features:
https://www.artstation.com/floj/blog
One of which are are “Visibility Sets”. Using them you will be able to quickly save/load different visibility setups !

floon

I just published an article regarding FJTools in ZBrush 2019 on ArtStation and also showcased a few changes regarding the color swatches!

Tl;dr:
Neither old, nor the upcoming version 1.3 of FJTools will be compatible with ZBrush  2019 .
After the 1.3 release, which will be very soon now, I’ll focus on porting it though.
Also more (customizable) swatches and settings:

floon

FJTools 1.3 is live!

Check out the video below, to see what has changed in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PpNq5CMEI8

A minor downer: This update will not bring FJTools to ZBrush 2019. I will start porting right away, but all early adopters among you will have to be a bit more patient.

New features:

• QPick which addition to the QuickSelect feature. It allows to select multiple Subtools, that then can be used by other features of FJTools
• Visibility Sets that allow to store the currently visible Subtools in a config file and load them whenever needed
• new sorting features (SortBelow/SortToBottom)
• “Fix names duplicates” feature, that will make sure every Subtool has a unique name
• a setting section, in which the plugin can be customized

Fixes and improvements:

• improved responsiveness of the UI
• restructured the UI (the Grouping section was divided into a new Visibility-section and the Mange-Subtools-section)
• reworked the Naming section, which now is more compact. It was also extended to support Boolean Groups and QPicked meshes
• extended the visibility based features to Boolean Groups and QPicked meshes
• some visibility based functions caused problems, when the selected Subtool was also topmost

• pre- and suffixes will now automatically be separated by an underscore (this can be disabled via the settings)
• QHide will no longer hide the currently selected Subtools, which often happened unintentionally (this can be disabled via the settings)
• QMask no longer creates gaps between adjacent Polygroups and should only rarely create artifacts
•  QMerge will now maintain UVs

• textures will now be disabled when colorizing Subtools, to better show what is happening (this can be disabled via the settings)
• amount of color swatches has more than doubled
• color swatches and their labels, can now be customized via the settings
• fixed an issue that occurred when colorizing Subtools with multiple layers
• random color generator was not as random as I thought it was. Now it is!

• the Manage-Subtools section now also supports multiple modes
• fixed an issue with Apply Array when the Subtool had multiple subdivisions
• SortToTop now will maintain Boolean Groups
• Copy and Paste will now maintain the state of the pasted Subtools

floon

Hey fellow Polycounters!
The good news is, that I am almost done porting FJTools to ZBrush 2019.
I would love to get some feedback tough before releasing it. So if any of you would be interested to get a preview version, please let me know!

The bad news,.. well  there are none. No need for bad news all the time  !

CrazyMoon

Can't wait to get the 2019 >< !! It's been such a key part in my pipeline lately been recommending it everywhere lol . Tragedy to not have it in 2019 yet  . Love the plugin man!! So helpful! 

floon

Hey @CrazyMoon
It’s always nice to hear that the plugin is well received! Also thank you for spreading the word !
I wish I could have been faster, but because of the heavy changes in the Subtool palette it took a while.
Feature wise the update is done though. I only need to play around with it a bit more to make sure everything works as intended.
So expect the update to be released soonish !

floon

The port to ZBrush 2019 is finally done and FJTools 1.4 will be released next week!
Featuring folder support for all functions and a more intuitive way to work with the plugin:

torba

This looks very cool!
Looking forward to the release.

floon

FJTools 1.4 is live!

Check out the "Feature Highlight"- video to get  detailed information about all the changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPpxVNPuc9s

New features:

• The “QuickMenu” was introduced to improve the usability of the plugin
• All categories were extended to support folders
• A new “Create Folder” function was added in “Manage Subtools”  
• General performance was improved
• Countless bug fixes

Special Thanks:

• Marcus Civis (a special thanks to Marcus for his effortless help on ZBrushCentral)
• Gabriel Bona ArtStation
• Stefan Berentzen ArtStation
• Rafal Zelazo
• Felix Wolf ArtStation
• Fabio Goncalves Gumroad

floon

It's time for another update!

I found a some bugs and a few minor incompatibilities with ZBrush 2020 I want to fix.
But this would also be a good time for some quality feedback! So should you have any troubles with the plugin (especially in combination with ZBrush 2020), or ideas on how to improve it:

Please let me know !

The Devo

Hey Florian!

Thanks for the great tool man. It's a fundamental part of my workflow nowadays.

*edit- You know, while typing this request, I never really noticed that qMask basically does what I was asking for, so nvm. Though, I supposed having adaptive mode on qhide might still be a nice addition

floon

Awesome idea Chris, I Implemented it right away !
In the next update QHide will hide Polygroups of the currently selected Subtool, while still hiding Subtools if the mesh below the cursor is not part of the selected Subtool.

The Devo

Man, that's great!

I do have another request, though I'm not sure how feasible this one is. It would be awesome to have a toggle to turn on and off polypaint on  subtools. I've gotten attached to using the radial menu with my UI off, but for some reason Zbrush likes to turn on polypaint when I undo (kind of like the old Photoshop layer dance where you kept bouncing back the previous work layer). Some way of using your screen-space functionality to toggle polypaint would certainly save some annoying clicks. Even a universal toggle (turn all on/off) would be cool.

floon

I added a Show/Hide-Polypaint function to the Color-section. This way you can use all filters (folder/bgroup/...) to decide of which Subtools you want to see the Polypaint information

The update 1.5 for ZBrush 2020 is also almost feature complete and I'll start testing soon.

So in case anyone is interested to give it a pre-release spin, let me know (especially a Mac user would be welcome)!

floon

Let’s try something new!

In the past I often reached out to individuals, to get feedback for my plugin. This time around I want to mix things up a bit by doing an open beta test!
Here you can see a few of the new features:

• Possibility to colorize Polygroups
• Reworked naming system that allows to rename by folder name and chain pre-/suffix
• New modelling section with subdiv-friendly mirror functions
• A primitive / IMM Mesh insert tool
• ...

So feel free to grab a version and share this with anyone you think might be interested!
I’m looking forward to hearing all of your feedback. Be that on issues, anything you think could be improved/added to the plugin, or simply if the plugin helps you in your workflow.

Version 1.5b runs in ZBrush 2019/2020.1+ on Mac and PC and you can download it hassle free from here:
http://tiny.cc/fjtools15beta

The Devo

Hi Florian,

*Edit- so I deleted the zmt from the startup folder, and reinstalled FJTools, and it seems to have worked out the material problem. Not sure what happened there, but it's working again. I'll leave the original comment in case anyone else runs into this.

I finally got around to updating to Zbrush 2020. I've been using your 1.5 beta in 2019 with no issues, but with 2020, I'm running into a problem with the qpick material. It seems to be using Jellybean (or something like it) for my qpick instead of fj_highlight. I've not had this happen before. It makes it much more difficult to see what's been picked. Otherwise, the tool seems to function normally.

One thing I've noted that is changed from 1.4 is that the radial menu no longer remembers the last selected menu.

I like the modeling tab. Nice addition. It would be nice if the insert meshes could be done via the surface normal like a regular insert mesh, but I have found at least the sphere to be useful in it's current form as well.

This remains a great tool, man. Thank you for the updates.

floon

Hey Chris!

I'm very sorry for the late replay, apparently the notification got lost somewhere .

I actually plan to release the 1.5 update tomorrow, which should also include a fix to the radial menu issue you mentioned. So stay tuned!

Also thanks for the feedback on the primitive generator! Ideally would work the way you described, using the surface normal. Unfortunate I haven't found a solution for this yet, but I still plan to improve it in the future.