Zbrush: The Confusing Aftermath of Projection Master

redhonour · Mar 2014

I've regularly begun to encountered a host of weird problems after using Projection Master. I'm sure they have something to do with my lack of knowledge of 2.5D mode...

Today's issue is this: Every subtool I draw onto the canvas comes out squashed

Step by step:

I activated Projection Master.

Used the SingleLayerBrush with alpha masks to sculpt in some details

Somehow, at this point, another subtool was drawn out in 2.5D mode. Not sure how, or why. Certainly didn't do it intentionally

So I cleared the canvas with ctrl+N

Made sure my RGB and Z intensity were set to max and that MRGB was active, then drew out the subtool.

Comes out squashed as hell. Not only that, ALL of the subtools come out squashed I draw em out

What gives?

redhonour · Mar 2014

Bump for this, cos this project is essentially ruined unless I can find a solution

I haven't had much success in searching for an answer on polycount or elsewhere.

Recently, I had a problem where I could not sculpt on a mesh and this was solved by setting the Z intensity and RGB values to max before you draw out the subtool on the 2.5D canvas

Squashing however, I still got no idea

cryrid · Mar 2014

The screenshot might be more useful if it were to show the full UI, or what your model is supposed to look like. I'll take a wild guess otherwise and say to check your Draw: Height and Draw: Width settings to make sure they are at 100%

D4V1DC · Mar 2014

There is more to p.master like say goodbye to sharp edges if all you want to do is project the details onto another mesh or a cleaned up one.

Just drop something that might help a noob or anyone, if you pull those points out with move elastic and match them up nice enough you get to keep them, if this is anywhere i had to figure this out myself.

However I still haven't figured out a way to retail 100% of the projection details of the old mesh, if you notice flipping between the two that you loose some and no amount of settings that I'VE tried have been able to retain 100% of the projection, unless i go a subd higher.

I don't see how that is really efficient, maybe that is just me, also it will sort of leave the mesh slightly muddy forcing you to add more details, or it is just my meshes.

Also is anyone else getting issues with clay polish?
If you mask an area hit clay polish once or twice or more keep the mask and try to smooth some parts you'll most likely to see little black spots on your masked area.. or is it just me?

Sorry red i never ran into your problem, that sounds really bad though i hope you manage a fix, i'd had to ruin a mesh, i save 60 back ups just to be sure it never happens.

redhonour · Mar 2014

cryrid Thanks for the help! Unfortunately, no joy with the Draw: Height and Width

I've been busy so haven't had much time to look into the problem more

I can continue my project if I export all the subtools, which isn't ideal. But thems the breaks

Still, I'd like to know what happened so I can be better prepared to avoid this in the future so I'll post a cap of the project this evening

redhonour · Mar 2014

So I finally had time to properly re-examine my steps and find a way to reproduce it

I've been able to do this three times more to three other test projects. At least one project was started at my home computer. The rest were started and only worked on at a work computer.

It seems to have something to do with saving the project while in 2.5D mode on different stroke settings, something you might do if you're going from 2.5D to Edit mode a lot (like Projection Master). In my tests, I didn't do anything but go between edit mode and draw mode, switching only brushes and stroke modes:

Open Zbrush
Make a new primitive -> polymesh 3D
Enter edit mode
Exit Edit mode
Immediately change stroke type of the brush (I changed it to freehand, but dots seems to work too)
Switch to SimpleBrush (sometimes you have to change the stroke type here too; didn't seem necessary though)
Save the project
Reopen the project
Switch to your subtool, change the stroke back to drag rectangle
(Note: notice that your RGB and Z intensity are mysteriously set to 25 now. Drag those to 100 if you want, doesn't seem to fix the squash)
Draw out the tool. Iz now pancake

Solution: The tool can still be salvaged by exporting then importing into a new project. Saving/loading as a tool doesn't seem to work.

I know I can't be the only dude to run into this, so if anyone knows a better fix it would be much appreciated!

cryrid · Mar 2014

Make sure you have the following values when you draw out your tool afterwards

Draw: ZIntensity = 100
Draw: RGB = 100
Draw: Depth = 1

redhonour · Mar 2014

Thanks! I think you're right that Depth is the setting that fixes it. I just checked it and it is mysteriously set to 0.2. As mysteriously as RGB and Z intensity being set to 25 when I didn't touch the sliders.

I'd checked my RGB and Z intensity extremely regularly, so I knew those weren't the culprits. But I've never ever touched Depth, so I didn't know it was even a thing.

I still wonder why saving in this particular manner causes Zbrush to change all three of those values? Does it change more?

I'm glad to have a solution, but the question still interests me, I guess *shrug*

Thanks again

Zbrush: The Confusing Aftermath of Projection Master

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