FJTools - ZBrush plugin
greentooth
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
Replies
I recorded a short video featuring some of the highlights:
From what I can tell, this is an issue with ZAdjustor though. I ran into the exact same issue when using Ctrl+v as the ZAdjustor Hotkey without running any other plugin.
I know this doesn't really help you, so I fear you might have to decide which plugin is more important for your workflow. Sorry that I don't have better news for you
Have you tried to get in touch with the creator of ZAdjustor yet?
I found that the QMask does no work... wonder why. Using 2021.1.2 Zbrush.
It's an awesome time-saver, thanks!
I also got a report about an issue with coloring in 2021, so I'll release an hotfix soon
Changelog:
Hi i have same issue. i fix this issue with running any macro after using fjtools then i can resize brush with ZAdjustor and have no issues. its bit tricky don't forgot click any simple macro after fjtools but work for me al last.
On my end the updater still thinks there's a newer version after installing 1.5.4 . It's not an issue for me at all, just thought you might want to know about it.
Thanks again for your awesome plugin;
cheers
Ahh right, thanks for letting me know @torba!
Nice to meet you.
Thank you very much for developing this wonderful plugin.
Thanks to this plugin, I am able to work much more efficiently.
I have one problem: I am using a 3D mouse called spacemouse, which is sold by a manufacturer called 3dconnexion.
When I use ZBrush with FJtools installed and try to move the camera of the spacemouse together with the viewpoint movement of a normal mouse, a bug like the one shown in the video (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DtJfNwCNPEZq3RkDw50zBL3kqWRCwolp?usp=share_link) occurs.
I get a bug like the one shown in the video (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DtJfNwCNPEZq3RkDw50zBL3kqWRCwolp?usp=share_link).
It does not happen every time, but it happens when using certain functions of FJtools. For example, the Quickselect function and the Modeling function.
As a first aid, I use Clean tool master to delete the undo history and the bug disappears, but it comes back when I use the specific function again.
This bug happened a long time ago when 3Dmouse was first officially available in ZBrush, regardless of FJtools, and was fixed in a subsequent ZBrush update.
I think the problem is on the ZBrush or 3Dmouse side, but if you have any suggestions on how to deal with it, I would appreciate it.
I deeply appreciate your development.
Hey Tsukumo!
Thanks a lot for reaching out and your kind words! I'm currently out of town, but will take a look at your issue once I'm back.
It's also great that you recorded a video and I hope I'll be able to fix your issue quickly :)!
Hey folks!
I just released a patch of FJTools to version 1.5.5. The update includes:
Hope you can still put the plugin to good use :)! If you find any new issues, or have ideas for new features, please let me know!
I just released version 1.5.6 of FJTools!
This is what changed:
I'm sorry you are experiencing issues with the plugin
I did a quick test, but was not able to reproduce the problem you described.
- Which version of ZBrush and which version of the plugin are you using? (You can find the version of FJtools by hovering over the Title Icon)
- Did I do anything different in my setup then you did?
I have got the newest possible version of FJTools, 1.5.6 and 2022.0.8 (latest for 2022 year). I tried every other combination.. with brush size turned on, diffrent imm brushes, etc but nothing helps... I noticed that gear name is FJIMM_1. And with every next try it gets FJIMM_2...3 and etc. I dont know if it is a clue. Setup is the same.
assigned to the clay buildup brush. When I removed it, the problem disappeared and all imm brushes work. Do you know how to get around this problem? I want to leave this shortcut because it is very convenient for sculpting
Edit: I tried assign there any other brush and this problem still appears so it must be a problem just in this key "2". I can't have there any shortcut.
That was super helpful. Thanks for investigating!
I was able to reproduce the issue and found the code that's responsible. I'll try to find a solution and hope to get back to you next week!
But I'd advise not to bind "Delete All" to either "1" or "2" :P
Hello, your FJTools plugin is really great!
But when we were using batch naming, we thought it would be nice if we could specify a color for batch naming, so what you see is what you get.
Example:
I have 50 subtools,
If I need 5 create folders to batch name it means I need to drag and drop 50 times into these 5 folders.
And if I match these 5 folders to the colors, then I just need to set
1.red=(name1)
2.blue=(name2)
3.green=(name3)
4.black=(name4)
5.whtie=(name5)
Then by clicking on 50 subtools to give them these 5 colors, you can complete the batch naming.
red=(name1) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
blue=(name2) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
...
Isn't that easier?!
Thanks a lot for reaching out and the great proposal
While it might actually be possible from a technical perspective, the script would be fairly slow and the association between name and color would be very challenging from an UX perspective.
Therefore I want to propose an alternative method, that you can already try with everything the plugin (and default ZBrush features) have to offer:
ZBrush allows you to quickly setup folders by utilizing the multiselect feature. It's part of the transform gizmo and you can see it in action here:
While having multiple Subtools selected this way, you can then quickly create a new Folder by pressing Ctrl+F!
Once you are done you can then use FJTools to rename all your Subtools and while you are at it you can then give them a color to quickly identify the groups.
Would that work for you? Or did I miss your point?
Renaming/Coloring does unfortunately not work with the multi select feature, as you already noticed.
What you can use the ZBrush feature for though is to quickly create folders, which you then can use for the different FJTools features. This way you can "save" a selection in a folder and I would advise this workflow if you want to repeat actions of the same set of Subtools!
If you only want to do an action a single time, there is another feature of the plugin I want to
highlight
(I talk a bit more about the feature in this video:
Below you can see, how you can use QPick alternativly to Create Folders/tint, or rename your Subtools:
Is this more what you are looking for?
I'm sure if you have general understanding of Python, you should have no issues creating your own plugin! I learned everything I know, from:
(https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ouelletjonathan.zscript&ssr=false#review-details) which helps A LOT.
What I need it for:
Thanks a lot for reaching out, I’m always interested to hear about new ideas for the plugin and I’ll absolutely investigate if there is something that can be done about the features you asked for!
The biggest issue I see is that there is no feature of ZBrush (I know of) that I could make use of to copy/paste/limit how Polygroups are generated. For all features within FJTools I use either
Polygroups>Group Visible or Polygroups>Auto Group.
Therefore I can't tell ZBrush to generate a “red, a blue and a green one”, neither can I ask for “only use 5 groups max”. At least not out of the box, but I will investigate!
A small recommendation for your existing workflow. Instead of using QPick to color your Subtools you could also make use of the combination of “QColor, UserColor mode, and sampling colors with the default C hotkey”
(like I showcase here:
Would you mind explaining to me what you will use these 7-8 Polygroups for eventually? iirc you are working on miniatures, so I assume this is for your 3D printing pipeline?
I’m just asking if you e.g. would use them in Substance/Adobe Painter to bake ID maps, there might be other options as well!
Transpose master somehow manages it, but it doesn't keep PGs: if you change them in the combined version, they're not transferred to the original subtools.
-and if that's not possible: colorizing chosen subtools to a set number of colors more or less randomly.
I'm not 100% convinced this would be a great fit for the plugin, but worst case I can do a small custom thing for you
Limiting on the number of colors the randomized function on the other hand could would make sense for a larger audience though. I'll have to think about that one as well.
I also started to work on the possibility to switch between differnt swatchsets.
😍
Back with progress on the swatches! Unfortunately the interface took a lot of time to get into shape, so I haven't had the chance to look into anything beyond that.
As of now there are:
I wrapped up and polished the color range feature to a point where I feel comfortable to share it. If you (or anybody else) want to give it a try, you can get the preview version here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ycfYaWCK3G5zszChtErktC5gyj83E9WU/view?usp=drive_link
I'd love to hear if everything works as expected and if this is actually what you needed
I'll see what I can do about your other ideas now!
A super quick rundown:
When you select the range mode you then can define in which range colors will get selected. The selection is actually not fully randomized, as the script will try to lay out all colors of the range before repicking an already selected color.
The reasoning is, that with a range of e.g. 2 colors you could technically always roll only one color and since the idea is to aim for maximum diversity I decided to go this way
Thank you for your work. This is perfect!
The range length and offset sliders work great and speeds up my workflow significantly!
The way you made the algorithm roll through the available colors also works exactly as I'd imagine it.
If each colorized subtool could have a suffix added to its name (color name I guess) then selecting them afterwards would be as simple as Create Folder by Suffix.
cheers