Zbrush rendering for printing

beartraps

I need to print an image at 6000 X 4800, I know if I AAhalf I have to double the size but Zbrush won't let me go much higher than 8000 x 6000. Is there a way to increase the document size Zbrush will allow?

Also, when the document size is really high like that it becomes extremely hard to judge the placement of my model because its so zoomed in. Is there a way to zoom out when in a large document size?

CompanionCube

does the image really need to be 6000 x 4800? that sounds excessive

divi

F toggles between framing the active subtool / all visible subtools.

don't think you can go higher than that 8xxx value. not sure though if there's some file edits to get it to allow it.

pior

check out Genuinefractals for Photoshop. It's really, really good at upscaling. You'll be surprised!!

Firebert

pior wrote: »

check out Genuinefractals for Photoshop. It's really, really good at upscaling. You'll be surprised!!

used this at work quite a bit for printing.... blown a standard 8/5x11 to 15ft wide. Still holds up, but it does give it a slight "painterly" effect in my opinion. just need to make sure the source image is a high enough resolution, which if you use your max doc size out of zb, it will work just dandy.

beartraps

Thanks pior, Firebert, I'm gonna check out that plugin.

leechdemon

Fine-Grain Noise Overlays in Photoshop can help to break up large chunks of solid colors when printing. I used to work at a large-format print shop (5m paper widths :poly124:), and we'd sometimes add fine-grain noise to images. It doesn't really "improve" the image quality, but when deciding how to print the image, the printer responds better to variation than solid colors. You get less uniform ink distribution, and it registers visually as being less of an issue than just large chunks of solid colors.

Another trick is to blur the image slgihtly before upscaling it. Again, you don't gain resolution, but you'll get less pixel blocks that way. You can also get fancy and do this on a separate layer, then try to mix it somehow (or in certain parts of the image. For that matter, faking Depth of Field could be to your advantage...

For example, if the image is of a large scene, and the overall image is being hung on a wall someplace, you can make the foreground (bottom of the image, usually) slightly out of focus (blurred; that way you won't notice pixelization), and the main focal point will be farther from the viewer (higher up on the wall), so you won't be able to notice the resolution it was rendered at anyways.

Hope these tricks help!