[Zbrush Plugin] zCycler : Brush cycle (Free)
polycounter lvl 5
Documentation: https://puppet-master.net/docs/zcycler/
Download : https://gum.co/zcycler
Description
Easy and transparent. Assign a hotkey to the main function of the plug.
It will remember the last used brush and will switch to this brush when you hit the hotkey again.
Features
- On the fly stereo Brushes switcher.
- Each brush can have a different Draw size.
- Multi alpha BRush Extractor
- Multi IMM brush Extractor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiAc2xaL0kA
Release Notes
1.1
- [New] Each brush can have a different Draw size.
- [New] IMM Brush Extractor
- UI Revamp
1.0.4
- [Add] header logo lead to
Online zCycler documentation
- [Add] Fancy alternative Cycle Ui Item for a nice integration into any custom UI.
1.0.3
- [Fix] Cycle Icon transparency
- [Fix] A message prevent the user, and abort the process, when using the multi alpha to ztool utility on Insert meshes brushes.
1.0.2
- [Fix] missing routine when using MultiAlpha Brush to Ztool.
1.0.1
- [Add] Multi Alpha brush to Ztool
Personal note:
I never used any brush cycler since i use Zbrush and finally i can't to work without it now
Feedback:
Please give me a feedback from your experience with the plugin.
You might have suggestion or some idea for any new features which must to be related to brush system only.
Replies
Still no demo, I'm writing the doc, and after i will make the video.
Read the release note in first post.
Still no video demo or walk-thought yet
developer mood remark :
3 hours to create the plugin and already more than a week to build the doc, fixing improve etc. tss..
Would be cool thou if Zcycler would have so many functions like Ztrol which had maximum visibility but sadly was to my knowledge never released.
The thread is called "[Zbrush Plugin] zCycler : Brush cycle (Free)". Therefore all you need in the body of the first post is :
- The description line "zCycler remembers the last used brush and switches to it at the press of a hotkey".
- A gif showing it in action
- A link to download it
- A short line of installation instruction, covering file location and hotkey setup.
And that's it. But instead of that, the OP currently consists of ... 3 full mouse scrolls of text and irrelevant pictures.
Now of course it could also be that zBrush users don't have a need for such a tool, but like with all tools it's hard to know without trying. Now for the kicker : personally when I see that a tool is not presented in a concise and clear manner, I tend to not risk installing it even if it is free. Because cluttered often goes hand in hand with overly complicated features (and sometimes bugs). Of course that is probably not the case here, but that might explain why you are not getting much if any feedback.
Good luck !
One thing to keep in mind is that these days your biggest target audience is most probably on Facebook groups (ten thousand Hours, Level Up, etc...) and not on Polycount. I have both AMT and QP statistics on gumroad and the amount of people coming from facebook is like 300% greater the Polycount audience, and it's tools for Maya, which is way more known/used on Polycount then Zbrush AFAIK.
If presentation is the issue here, i think it can be easily fixed, here's a bunch of tips if you don't mind
- See those release notes that no one ever reads ? put them in a Spoiler. Same goes for the "Help Me to increase my audience ans visibility" as most people don't read that (i care and i didn't even read it
To resume what i've just said, i'd pretty much compress the presentation into this
Brushes Cycler allows you to add your brushes to a radial (and transparent !) menu straight in Zbrush, giving you a convenient way of switching between brush types.
[NOTE - Here you can insert a line or two talking about PC/MAC support, special features, etc...- NOTE]
[NOTE - I'd probably use something like this but as a gif, just to show the usability really quickly. If featured on the front page, people will see on the second after that this tool is indeed fantastic before even clicking on it- NOTE]
Download - https://gum.co/zcycler
Home - https://puppet-master.net/zcycler/
Documentation - https://puppet-master.net/docs/zcycler/
Thanks !
The topic is sectioned in two parts, yes. And there is a part that is unnecessary to read if you don't want to,
and as Fansub has mentioned I could add a spoiler, but that was not the objective.
The people should be interested by the plugin that is the topic of the thread, but for me the most important isn't
this plugin itself. I looked for an approach to attract a little bit of attention from Zbrush users and environment artists
to discover what are the true plugin i develop for now almost 2 years.
Actually i only post stuff of my projects on my personal twitter profile.
but will a low amount of followers and its hard to have a lot of Retweet, but this is the way to get displayed on the popular
Section of the #zbrush hashtag.
I have a facebook account but have a none activity on my profile, i connect sometime 1 time all three months.
I took the time to register to different FB groups, but Level up just to cite this one, do not accept commercial
and link to gumroad even for free resources.
I don't think polycount isn't one of the best place to share with the community, thought that a dedicated forum for Techartist
resources plugin, scripts etc.. would be a better place, for people like me.
About the gif, yes it was planned like that, but finally after different test, i must to capture different region of the zbrush interface
i also must to edit the gif to add a message that tell when i press the hotkey.
I think a very short video of 30 secs would be enough.
Myclay > i remember that project, but yes sadly it had never seen the sun lights.
Thx you again all for the feedback i gonna update this page soon.
"did i received a single Thank from anybody ?"
The answer is sadly no.
Next time i will thinking a second time before to release any free stuff that consuming more that a week to make all the docs, video, plugin etc...
It was a learning step for me to release free stuff, i planned to release another plugin for free.
I just learn that people don't read entirely the message and respond off of the scope of the topic.
Some people stay vigilant and think a gift, could be possibly a poisoned apple.
I know now if you english isn't perfect or your first language, you could feel discriminated.
People like to receive but they don't want to give anything.
No one here as tested the plugin...
Personally, I'm a Zbrush user. And I can see that it is a plugin that is probably working really well for you, but it wouldn't work well for me. I prefer having my brushes either on the bottom of my screen, or using hotkeys.
Also, for me, it was too much information to look through in your post to attract my interest. I'm not clicking videos I cannot see what's in it before I click (you have a title page that doesn't tell me anything) and would have preferred gifs instead. In the normal skimming mode that I'm in when I'm browsing PC, there is nothing in this thread that is catching my interest at first glance, and so your first priority would be to clean up the presentation if you want people to notice it.
I would also advice against the posts of 'I didn't get any thanks for doing this'. Since you are most likely doing it for yourself, but giving it to the general public for free if they can/want to use it, you should be happy that you have made a good tool that can improve your workflow.
If you get someone that is downloading it, liking it and thanking you for doing it, it should be a bonus?
If you are doing things to get gratification from others maybe you should ask the community what kind of tools they feel they need, and/or are willing to pay for. Maybe even having a small fee for it might get some interest from the people that are suspicious about free content..
The only reason I noticed this thread in the skimming, was because of your quite un-appealing last post about not getting any thanks for doing things that you like and you want to do. No one has forced you to do this? So, it might not have been a hit with this, but maybe next will, or maybe someone will ask you to do a custom one. But, that attitude would push me away from asking you to do a tool for me, and it would push me away from further enquire into your tools that you have presented.
The situation is complex, I gave around the last two years to super develop Three Zbrush-game-changer Toolsets.
My objective was to test out how the release of a commercial plugin should be done.
I am not looking for more popularity, i am in the need of some visibility, even if both are extremely linked together.
I am not active on social network, if i am a little bit more now, I try to learn the code of all networks, and their functioning, that
not easy when you have a low visibility.
The example of the gif, you all are requesting , is cool, but do not reflect what will happen in zbrush , because it will be a composite image.
I feel like i already lost too much time on that plugin utility.
It's also a little bit like, even if i make that gif, there will always be a detail which again will make people unsatisfied.
If someone have a plan for this gif, if that would make you all happy.
I already had tested with licecap+photoshop and had inserted a text that popup and tell "press the hotkey"
would it be correct / enough ?
should I display a model, like a sphere on the canvas and show the strokes when i switch from brush to brush ?
Capturing a gif with licecap give me a very cheap result, look like a 8bits animated gif. it's looks horrible
Elithenia > the next version will have a smaller button Icon you could inject into your custom ui, i think you don't only focus on a dozen of brushes. it will also be a way for cintiq users if they don't when to bind a button to the brush switch.
just as spectator, this is commonly what happen when people post free resources, it's just illustrated the my morning mood, thinking about what wrong really.
Just to complete the painting "this illustration", look at there it's not my plugin but an old one.
I made the plugin because i read this one did not worked well will R7 and now R8.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?171107-Dark-s-Brush-Cycl0r-switch-between-you-last-brushes
Another pessimist perception i got, is that until now, i will never get any more attention from people of this community.
because they got a twisted opinion of me but of such kid reaction. Its not kid reaction, it's relevant to something else.
Maybe the world is changing, and people don't thank anymore, i have no idea but well, by respect i didn't posted on the older dark brush cyclor even if it was this two guy i wanted to make this gift.
I don't want that Pior or Fansub to get offended, because i listed negatively their reaction, i really appreciate sincerely they gave their time to explain me, how they read, my message, this is definitively such of feedback i need to receive first. but it's hard really, I feel a lot discouraged or even disheartened .I attempting to give of my person , spending a lot of my time, for a very very low visibility. that's sick situation. If i don't react like that, i have no other way to make me understand by all of you.
• You are trying to read too much into the lack of feedback. No one owes you their time - if someone doesn't download your tool, it's because they don't find it useful, or because of a multitude or other reasons. Or (in my case at least) they might be wary of tools showing lack of focus. For instance this switcher tool is supposed to be a transparent companion tool (great) but little details like seeing that it adds completely unnecessary graphics to the Zbrush UI is definitely a red flag, as it shows that the dev focus is not where it should be. Of course I may be reading too much into this, but you can't blame people for being conservative with their time and the smooth operation of their 3d program.
• And just to stress that point again : the english language is not a problem, but the structure of your posts is. I can tell that you are putting a lot of effort in this, but you are still missing some key elements required for efficient communication.
It has been brought up many times already : cut down anything that is not necessary and sufficient. Understanding this definitely takes time and experience - it basically relates to good writing practices, but also on basic understanding of customer psychology. That's probably the one part you really need to think about the most. After working at studios for years I noticed that there are two kind of tech people - the ones who do wizard stuff but have trouble presenting it clearly (with the consequence often being overly convoluted tools being developed but no one uses them because they don't answer a specific need to begin with) ; and the ones who are users themselves, and keep things straightforward for the benefit of everyone involved.
Ok i will try to get more confident and trust in me, when i am trying to explain something and must to do it in English would be easier in French, but it seems i construct my sentences differently in english that i would do it in French. If i can save me the must to make a french version and translate it after in english, I take it
Well I had added a gif now \o/
I hope you find it instructive, i am not must convinced by the current result ( I learn ).
About the key elements of an efficient communication, I learning too, and it's a too large and depth topic.
I am an autodidact in every aspect of my project commercial, marketing,web design, coding, everything it's unimaginable all the competences require to make live my project, it includes so many, you must to confront you in the exercise, and felt down, get up then retry, felt down again, and before you know what to not repeat as mistake.
Just to make an efficient tweet with only 140 chars is a competence to my eyes.
Create hundred of icons is another competences
Maintaining a social activity of a project ( or more) is another competence to acquire, you can't be at the field and the mill at once.
Video Editing and composing another competence....
Managing the project on my back also is another competence if you don't want to waste so much time on your organization.
You may had noticed that i took several months staying silent here about my progress with my more important projects.
I really pushed so much effort to create the perfect tools on every aspect of the creation, the one i pushed the more time is the zTexturer Toolset for material authoring.
It was like that, Starting new feature, target the best option that zbrush ui impose you, testing different method, but i like to have the most intuitive and the most easy and flexible workflow as possible, trying to fade away and prevent from being prompted by the file browser to export or reload import...
I test and a develop, i create again some stuff, and noticed that i could add more, and simplify again, testing to produce stuff, again, then finally, i found a solution to every situation and context.
Then lately i feel the toolset is complete a some point and is stable enough, so i start to write down the documentation, and at this moment you start to see all problem consistency/Ease of use, make sure that just one little option that after many time without, i think I Could finally add the code to handle option which prevent your from going to the default location of the function into the Zbrush interface.
The workspace Manager, is the starting point for everything, it's the root of your project, and it so possibilities and connectivity are limitless.
the Ps bridge has limitless possibilities
the brush system combined to the alpha lib and snapshots patterns give you limitless possibilities to create and mimic with an artistic approach to create real life materials. I preserve at the maximum the none destructive aspect of the creation fill the lack of procedural approach of the material authoring.
I really like to send you a copy of that Toolset, it's not a beta test, just an close-to-release version.
I don't need any feedback, just let see what people could create from the toolset.
I am very pride of my toolset
Sorry it took me long time to mind my answer @Pior thank you for your patience
Best Regards
Nicolas
zCycler : Brush Switcher has been updated.
Check the first topic for the detail.Best Regards
Nicolas