Zbrush 4, layers and polypaint issue

Ihazard · Mar 2011

I've just polypainted a sculpt I did, made it look all nice, then created a new layer (the original paint wasn't on any layer) and then proceded to add further details, when I click off the record button, or anything to do with any layers on the layers palette, it wipes all of the original polypaint data but leaves the paint data stored within the layer I made where it was, can anyway help me from this problem? I don't want to lose my progress

also when I try to just create a new texture from polypaint I get a really weird image, the original painted areas come out black and the paint on the layer comes out as pure noise :poly127:

Arkadius · Mar 2011

Damn I don't know what to tell ya, a similar thing happened to me, I had to restart my work from an earlier save. I stay away from Layers in Zbrush.

Stinger88 · Mar 2011

oh. I didnt realise layers supported polypaint. maybe knowing that is a bad thing though. layers can be a burden in photoshop. Cant help you with that i'm afraid

When creating the texture from polypaint. Is the model UV Mapped? else you'll be getting a polypaint map thingy. not sure what they are called. But its a flat representation of all the poly colours of the model.

Screen shots would help. Can you show us whats happening.

disanski · Mar 2011

Try to grab a sphere and repeat the steps to see if this is what your problem is. I just did it and it is working fine here. Perhaps you hit some button or something

Good luck with solving this

spitty · Mar 2011

i'm not sure i totally understand your problem. have you been polypainting in the new layer? if you don't want the paint in that layer you can erase it using alt while painting with rgb turned on. is part of your mesh hidden? i've had issues with polypaint and layers if i hide part of my mesh.

something else you might look into is "split layer" you can use that to break your layer into one layer that has geo info and another layer that just has polypaint. you could then bake the polypaint back into the original mesh.

i had an issue with making a texture from polypaint, and turning off record on the layer fixed it when i tried to make the texture again.

tristamus · Mar 2011

Look at that. FOUR responses to your problem within a matter of 35 minutes. This is why Polycount is number 1 (IMHO) ;D*

*(Sorry to be off topic LOL...)

NordicNinja · Mar 2011

Ihazard wrote: »

also when I try to just create a new texture from polypaint I get a really weird image, the original painted areas come out black and the paint on the layer comes out as pure noise :poly127:

This happens when you try to create a texture from polypaint while the record button is active on one of your layers. Usually you have to turn recording off on all layers before you try and make a texture from polypaint. Unfortunately that won't help you in this case

I'm not sure why it would nuke all of your polypaint info like it is. Although I've seen this issue brought up before I'm not sure what causes it or if there is any fix or workaround.

edit: I guess spitty beat me to it

lillababe · Oct 2012

It's a layer / polypaint related issue - JUST do a "fill object" with RGB checked!!!

)

KonginChains · Feb 2013

i have a similar problem. I can't fill object with a color on my entire object with 100% RGB if i am in recording mode in one of my layers. however if i turn all layers off, i can fill my entire object with a color, but as soon as i go back to one of my other polypaint layers into recording mode, it wipes all the changes i just did. Another problem is after you polypaint inside a layer and you hide parts of the mesh so you can work better, all the polypaint you did somehow gets messed up until you unhide everything in your object again, it seems like a zbrush bug you can't get around

.

ryokukitsune · Sep 2013

I'm going to take a shot in the dark and throw this out there and hopefully it'll help someone down the road (if you came a crossed this thread through google like I did)

you might want to check your UVs. I discovered that, yet again, Zbrush has eaten a perfectly good UVset and I'll probably have to reapply them on the base mesh and then transfer over a working set. it seems to have done this on both my UV base file and my polypaint file so its back to UV Master/Maya to do the projecting again =/

its frustrating I know but at least you still have your polypaint data, worst case- you'll just have to reproject it, best case- you re import your UV'd base and everything in hunky-dory.

good luck to all and to all a 3-15 RGB intensity ....

Neox · Sep 2013

just heard that yesterday, maybe it was posted before and i also didn't test it but create a layer first that you fill with a color and then do your new layers

drTas · Apr 2014

THANK YOU!
I was having a similar problem with Project All leaving artifacts and Merging loosing the polypaint. Turning off RGB totally solved both those issues for me!

robguest · Sep 2014

I was having the same problem. My fix was kind of what Neox said.
I already painted, so I added a new layer under my current, filled that with a solid color, then turned off recording on all layers. Then, when I created a texture from polypaint, it didn't wipe everything out.

SubtleModeling · Jan 2016

Sorry for bump but it's an easy fix, it's happening because you're baking the polypaint to the mesh without taking it out of record.

Li the fat one · Aug 2016

I have the same problem. When I add a new layer, the whole object turns black while it works fine in other projects. I fix it by turning off dynamesh and dynamic subdiv.

musashidan · Aug 2016

Li the fat one said:

I have the same problem. When I add a new layer, the whole object turns black while it works fine in other projects. I fix it by turning off dynamesh and dynamic subdiv.

Layers are topology dependant and are tied to the sub-div level they are created on. DM and DS, when active, are designed to change topology frequently. Layers in ZB are in need of a serious update, which is top of my wishlist for ZB5.

JimZello · Sep 2016

I was also getting this problem, on a default mesh that I had been editing for a while. Layers would mess it up, and nothing worked until I took the mesh and made it it's own Make PolyMesh 3d. then all was right with the world

Cortes · Nov 2016

bump cus I just had this problem. Here's my issue:

1. I want to paint Guy blue. So I fill color on layer 1 with blue on the the Guy.
2. I make layer 2. hit record, change color and try to add white lines on the blue.
3. Everything gets messed up.

Any help would help.

musashidan · Nov 2016

There's a button called 'Alternate' disable that and try again.

Elithenia · Nov 2016

I have an issue where if I record and paint and don't do anything all if fine...
HOWEVER... should I wish to save in the middle (because god forbid you want to SAVE things :P ), export textures, or even just click off the layer/rearrange or just accidentally click off the recording.. When I try to continue the polypaint doesn't recognize any colour input but just gives me a solid black (brush still works) and I don't know how to fix this without restarting the entire polypaint...

Would appreciate any help as to why this would be, and a massive amount of virtual hugs to anyone who can help

Nemecys · Feb 2017

My Quick fix #1
The issue for me on Zbrush just now was because the Layer was still on Record mode.

I had shuffled layers all over the place and changed the order and thought i broke it, thankfully just stop the recording on the Layer and then you can get your texture from polypaint to work and so does Bake All.

Old thread i know but an issue that can still appear in Zbrush so hopefully this little oversight fixes it, i thought i lost hours of work but now its fixed!

truedeja · Jun 2017

@spitty
@NordicNinja
Thank you! this nugget just came in handy to fix my layer record mode issue too. 6 years later and still coming in handy

goekbenjamin · Oct 2018

Nemecys said:

My Quick fix #1
The issue for me on Zbrush just now was because the Layer was still on Record mode.

I had shuffled layers all over the place and changed the order and thought i broke it, thankfully just stop the recording on the Layer and then you can get your texture from polypaint to work and so does Bake All.

Old thread i know but an issue that can still appear in Zbrush so hopefully this little oversight fixes it, i thought i lost hours of work but now its fixed!

THIS, has saved me just alot of time and headache!
Thanks so much @Nemecys

Zbrush 4, layers and polypaint issue

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