I haven't got a clue on ZBrush

Violet

I've used ZBrush a bit, and know all about building a rock, etc that looks really convincing and all that, but the interface has me confused.

I create a simple shape that I want to govern the initial shape of the rock wall, this is then imported into Zbrush and I get blobbing it up and it's a really mindblowingly decent program, but that's where it all goes to shite.

I don't want to create monsters in it, just rocks and mountain rockwalls.

After creating the lovely looking object I would *like* to create a texture from how the object looks with a material applied and a normal map. However, as soon as I subdivide, that's where the problems associated with my confusion start!

I understand it's not a modelling program and all that, but I just want to save a simple texture out based on the visual surface using the red/grey/etc material assigned to the object. I think I've sussed out normal maps (if I don't touch the UV settings - or for that matter, anything else), and exporting out the OBJ model using decimation master is excellent. If I could do the bits in between, that'd be great!

Apologies for my thickness.

Ace-Angel

This should help you get started:

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83605

Also, did you check out the ZClassrooms? They're the free tutorials on ZBrush's official site, you should check them out.

cryrid

Could you explain more about how subdividing is confusing you?

.morph3us

guess youre not adding support edges?

NordicNinja

Yeah, you're question is a bit confusing. It sounds like you're trying to export the color texture (polypaint) out of ZBrush along with the lighting information in the ZBrush materials? Are you trying to apply a normal map to your object in ZBrush or are you trying to bake one from your sculpt?

Exporting your polypaint information into a texture is pretty straight forward if you already have UVs. The options are under the Multi Map Exporter rollout on the right menu bar. As far as I know there is no way to bake the lighting/shader information into your texture map. Although that would be pretty friggin badass.

cryrid

You can capture the material as well, the problem is that the effect is going to be pretty similar to painting specular into the diffuse. It's only going to look the same from one very specific camera position, and the rest is going to just look bad and not like the matcap at all. This may not be much of a problem for planar objects, but if you want something like a golden statue, you're not going to get the same effect short of a shader that uses litspheres.

I suppose I'll add that there are a variety of matcaps out there so you can still get some interesting results if want to mess around with them, just nothing that fully resembles the matcap. Skinshade4 is a very faint effect so it's a good candidate. You could either use Zapplink to project the matcap to the polypaint, or bake a displacement map and apply the matcap to a displaced plane.

NordicNinja

Oh interesting, I didn't know it was possible. Good to know. :thumbup:

Violet

Subdivision isn't confusing me, it's the whole process, I think it's a problem with me understanding the program, although I don't want to do anything complex.

Here are the problems I have encountered:
When importing in a flat plane that has a shape to it, when I subdivide, the edges become 'soft' as well. Is there a way to avoid this?
I apply a UV Map in max when I export, however, I'm not sure if this is still usable in ZBrush, nor do I understand what UV Plane mapping does - on what plane X,Y or Z?
Painting a texture on the 'object' I have just built. I found projection master to be extremely basic - or is projection master something else?
Why do you have to reduce the subdivision level to create a normal or texture map?

I have no problem with building stuff, it's the interface that's confusing me. I can model every thing else in 3DS Max fine, but for rough surfaces, ZBrush would be very handy. I've gone through every other program with ease, and I can't understand why this one has me perplexed.

disanski

Well as other said we can answer your questions here but what you need to do is get yourself familiar with the package. It takes some time when you first start it and this is for most of us here (well it was for me)
Beside that dont try to jump ahead of you when you dont understand why is the plane not remaining it's sharp edges and it goes soft this is simply because yo dont have supporting edges to hold the shape, but if you dont know you just need to take a step back and go over it.
It is the same for the way zbrush renders the normal and displacement map - it calculates the difference between the lowest (or whatever level you are on ) and the highest subdivision level and that info goes to the map.
And please don't get me wrong here I am just trying to help! It really looks like you need to take it one step at a time.

Here is a link with some of the basic stuff about zbrush :
http://www.pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/
Give it a try and see if that helps

cryrid

When importing in a flat plane that has a shape to it, when I subdivide, the edges become 'soft' as well. Is there a way to avoid this?

That's subdivision smoothing. You can either add control edges to isolate/reduce the effect, or turn off the SMT option.

I apply a UV Map in max when I export, however, I'm not sure if this is still usable in ZBrush, nor do I understand what UV Plane mapping does - on what plane X,Y or Z?

If an obj has UVs, then zbrush will import them (though it will flip them vertically, so you'll either have to change the import settings to leave them alone, or use the option under the texture palette to flip the texture vertically)

Painting a texture on the 'object' I have just built. I found projection master to be extremely basic - or is projection master something else?
Why do you have to reduce the subdivision level to create a normal or texture map?

Projection Master basically drops the model to the 2.5D document, allowing you to paint or sculpt on top of it, and then project the result back onto the 3d model. One of the advantages is that it allows you to edit your strokes after you make them (you can move, rotate, scale them), or link it to a program such as Photoshop to do your painting. It's not the only way to texture in zbrush though, you can also Polypaint directly on the model.
There's no need to reduce the subdivision in order to create a texture map (you may even want to increase it if you're polypainting since it is vertex based), but for creating normal maps you decrease it so that it has something to base the normal map off of (like having a low-poly and a highpoly object in other applications such as xnormal).

Autarkis

What you can do to "bake" a matcap into zbrush is once everything is sculpted , go back to your lower subdivision level and create a displacement map. Once that's done you can create a simple poly plane, subdivide it many times ( no smoothing on the subdivide) and apply the displacement map from your original object to it. After that, you can apply a material to that plane with your displacement map details and render it out from the orthographic top view and save it out and import it in photoshop for further detailing.

Violet

I've tried the tutorials etc on that matcap thing, when I crop and fill I just get a blank surface.

http://sebleg.free.fr/tutorials/zbaking.html

I know this is defeatist but is Mudbox any easier than ZBrush? I just can't get past the user-unfriendliness of the the menu system, and I know people can use it, I can't figure it out - it needs to rehash it's menu system IMO, it's insane, I can't be alone on that opinion.

Violet

I've been using Mudbox for about 1/2 an hour and have thankfully achieved what I wanted!
Thanks for the help all!

DOG-GY

on a slightly off topic note: why does zbrush flip textures vertically?

Ace-Angel

You can disable the flip if you want, it's in ZSetup or in such location.

Violet

Haha, another of Zbrush's idiosyncrasies!
"Because it wants to."

cryrid

Violet wrote: »

I've tried the tutorials etc on that matcap thing, when I crop and fill I just get a blank surface.

http://sebleg.free.fr/tutorials/zbaking.html

I know this is defeatist but is Mudbox any easier than ZBrush? I just can't get past the user-unfriendliness of the the menu system, and I know people can use it, I can't figure it out - it needs to rehash it's menu system IMO, it's insane, I can't be alone on that opinion.

If I had to put money on it, then I'd say the problem you're running into is due to your UVs. If you have any that are touching the border coordinates, then zbrush will spit out a blank displacement map which would render every other step useless. That should be the only roadblock to getting a normal displacement map, and once you have that rest is a pretty quick and easy process.

As for the UI, everyone hates it when they first open it because they expect it to be like their other 3d programs. I know I hated it for a solid week before I finally realized what the 2.5D document was vs the 3d viewport I imagined it to be. Once I got that little concept out of the way the program really seemed to open up. Today I think it has one of the best UIs, especially for customizing.