ZMATS PLUS - Plugin Upgrade

[Svengali]

ZMatsPlusSplash.jpg

What is ZMATS+?

ZMATS+ is an upgrade to the original ZMATS, a handy manager for ZBrush Materials and light setups.



:ex: :ex: :ex: WARNING TO CURRENT ZMATS USERS:
:ex: :ex: :ex: BE SURE TO USE THE ZMATSPLUSUPDATE VERSION!!!


Two alternate ZIP files are made available for upload here:

:b3: For people already using ZMATS, you should download ZMatsPlusUpdate.zip.

:b3: First time ZMATS+users will want to download ZMatsPlus.zip which includes ALL the files and subdirectories needed for a completely new install.


NOTE: When I posted the original ZMATS, some people mistakenly thought it included a library of materials. Nope. The scripts for ZMATS and ZMATS+ simply provide users with a tool for MANAGING materials. You have to create or load your own library. There are several existing libraries that you can download and convert for use in ZMATS+. Read about these options in the original ZMATS thread >> HERE << (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=23721) . Be sure to checkout the handy filename conversion utility generously posted by Marcus_Civis in that same thread.


ORIGINAL ZMATS FUNCTIONALITY

:b3: Multiple Bank Storage: There are five Material BANK buttons (A,B,C,D and E) and one Light BANK button, each bank can store four hundred materials or lights. Total material storage for ZMATS+ is 2,000 different materials and 400 lights.

:b3: Each material being stored is applied to a sphere. (The spheres are branded with a depressed "Z" to better display some characteristics of the stored material.)

:b3: Many times the character of the material depends on lights and color. Besides the material, ZMATS+ also stores the lighting setup and the RGB color in use at the time the material was stored. You can separately reload the lights and/or color by clicking on the mini-icons in the lower left and right corners of the material's window.

:b3: An Undo button lets you recover a previous material if you accidently load a new material before saving the old. The Undo operation is one level only.

:b3: The Help button provides a complete explanation of ZMATS+ button functionality.


ADDED ZMATS+ FUNCTIONALITY

:b3: A new LightBank button has been added. This bank can store upto four hundred lighting setups. Each setup is displayed as a Best Render shining on a standard sphere which displays a good approximation of the lights' effects.

:b3: The new Find button brings up a window displaying a block of forty materials at a time. Ten page blocks of materials can be veiwed sequentially using the arrow keys. You can also jump directly to any one of the ten blocks by pressing one of the ten block buttons. At anytime you may click on a specific material thumbnail, which immediately loads that material. The five slot windows are updated so that the loaded material is displayed in the center slot. If you wish, you click the light icon or color icon of the material you just loaded.


INSTALLING ZMATS+

Current ZMATS Users:

:b4: Installing ZmatsPlusUpdate.zip is simple. Just unzip the contents into the ZPlugs directory. Answer YES TO ALL and the necessary files, new and updated, will be installed leaving your existing materials intact. A new Lights subdirectory will also be added along with the necessary light files. :ex:If you are worried about overwriting existing materials, you should first make a backup copy of the Bank directories just to be safe.

New ZMATS+ Users:

:b4: Installing ZmatsPlus.zip is simple. Just unzip the contents into the ZPlugs directory. All the necessary files will be placed in a ZMATS subdirectory except for the ZmatsLauncher.zsc script which must be in the ZStartup\ZPlugs directory.

When you restart ZBrush2, look for a ZMats button in the Zplugin menu under PSNAP group.


This ZMats button can be Control-dragged to one of the shelves on your interface and made a permanent part of your startup UICustom.cfg file by pressing Control+Shift+I. Now, anytime you need to load or save a material or light setup, just press the ZMats button.


ZMATS FOLDER AND SUBFOLDER CONTENTS
The installed version of ZMATS+ should look like this:

ZStartup\Zplugs subdirectory will contain:

:b1: ZmatsLauncher.zsc
:b1: Zmats subdirectory

ZStartup\Zplugs\Zmats subdirectory will contain:

:b1: Zmats.zsc
:b1: Zmats.psd
:b1: Zmats.jpg
:b1: ZmatsPlusThumb.psd
:b1: matexample.psd
:b1: EMPTY.jpg
:b1: Left1.jpg
:b1: Left5.jpg
:b1: LeftEnd.jpg
:b1: Right1.jpg
:b1: Right5.jpg
:b1: RightEnd.jpg
:b1: light2.jpg
:b1: undo.ZMT
:b1: UnDoA.ZMT
:b1: UnDoB.ZMT
:b1: tempMats.ZMT
:b1: templights.ZLI
:b1: Mtemp.ZMT
:b1: LightMat.ZMT
:b1: background.ZMT
:b1: undo.zli
:b1: UnDoA.ZLI
:b1: UnDoB.ZLI
:b1: ztool.ZLI
:b1: bankA subdirectory
:b1: bankB subdirectory
:b1: bankC subdirectory
:b1: bankD subdirectory
:b1: bankE subdirectory
:b1: Lights subdirectory

ZStartup\Zplugs\Zmats\bankA subdirectory will contain:

:b1: BankA folder.txt

ZStartup\Zplugs\Zmats\bankB subdirectory will contain:

:b1: BankB folder.txt

ZStartup\Zplugs\Zmats\bankC subdirectory will contain:

:b1: BankC folder.txt

ZStartup\Zplugs\Zmats\bankD subdirectory will contain:

:b1: BankD folder.txt

ZStartup\Zplugs\Zmats\bankE subdirectory will contain:

:b1: BankE folder.txt

ZStartup\Zplugs\Zmats\Lights subdirectory will contain:

:b1: LightBank folder.txt

[Bas Mazur]

Hee, thanks for this. You are gold!!
Is there a way to add the names to the materials like Nice Rusty or Svengali skin?
Now we only get some numbers.

[Atwooki]

Hey that's excellent, Svengali! Looks to be a nice overhaul here.

Thanks for all the hard work you've put into these plugins and scripts;
and yeah:

Names... Names :D

cheers

Chris

[vlad74]

Respect, Respect and again Respect.:tu::tu::tu::tu::tu:

[aminuts]

Woohoo! Andreseloy was right...October IS a good news month!:D

[Svengali]

First things first...

I have to say a big thanks to Aminuts for his generous investment in testing time on the new version of ZMATS+. He straightened me out on a number of problems 'til we got it all working. Gratitude, big guy!



ABOUT NAMING MATERIALS

Ah, yes. The issue of names. Well, perhaps after we get that terrific new ZScript text-user-input command in ZBrush 2.5, I'll try to add names to ZMATS+.

Personally, I'd like to be able to name the materials, too. Have not been able to figure out an elegant way to display names along with material thumbnails. Any useful name is going to be longer than seven characters. I considered displaying names as roll-over popups for each of the five material windows - that could work. For now though, all we've got is index numbers. Sorry. :confused:

Sven

[aminuts]

Oh crap so much for my anonymity!;)

Sven..
only to happy to play with my favorite and most used toy in any incarnation....even with bumps. Was glad I could be a fresh set of eyes.

Love the new find feature by the way....very cool.

For the rest of you...

names are cool...I would like names too...but....

it grows on you....and when you are experimenting with light setups and various attributes of materials and saving...it saves a ton of time just saving them in Zmats and being able to see the differences.....a trade off I gladly accept in lieu of having a folder with names that say....skinmatantroltspec001, skinmatantroltdiff002 blah blah blah....and not remembering what it was I did a month ago even with a specific name...i need to see it.
once ya find that magic combo you can save it with a name normally in zbrush in the material folder.

[upham]

Well done Svengali! Your've actually outdone Pixologic's Material List zscript!
First class!
Upham :)

[Frenchy Pilou]

...sorting filing arrangement ranking documents :D
Pilou

[marcus_civis]

Great work Sven. :tu: :tu: :tu: An excellent upgrade. The ability to save lights, both with the materials and now in a bank of their own in a terrific bonus. Thanks for all your hard work, it's much appreciated.

[Yainderidoo]

Many thanks, good to have people like you around! :tu: :tu: :tu:

Yainderidoo

[dogbone]

Well this is fantastic timing svengali because I've been pining for the old material pack materials for a long time now, but I always used them as a starting point only.

Now I can put all 100 into your script plus have plenty of room for the variations I use.

Brilliant.

[Digits]

Masterful update Sven, the find and light save functions make this a powerful tool.


Personally, I'd like to be able to name the materials, too. Have not been able to figure out an elegant way to display names along with material thumbnails.
I don't know the in's and out's of your program but perhaps an example of how I create textboxes in zscript might be of help in this regard. In this way you could save the Material Name when the user saves the material in your data structure and then display it again. Of course, like you say there is the issue of screen space etc.. And an advance pardon me if you already know how the following is done.

I use this method in my scripts to create textboxes which I can then update in realtime when user's select a setting, press a button etc...

//define Label param
[VarDef,Param,"Angle"]


//Create a TextBox
//this sets the background color
[PenSetColor, 64,64,64 ]
//this sets the foreground color
[FontSetColor, 255,102,51 ]
//writes whatever text the varible Param is set to
[PaintTextRect , 66 , 16 , Param ]
//restore zscript background and foreground colors
[PenSetColor,0,0,0]
[FontSetColor,255,153,35]


[Ibutton,save,"Save Material",
//save the material name
[varset,namearray[selected],[IGetTitle,MATERIAL:iteminfo]]
//update the textbox param
[VarSet,Param,namearray[selected]]
//redraw to display
[RoutineCall,Refresh]
]
[RoutineDef, Refresh ,
//redraw the zcript interface which will update the text in the text box
[Ifreeze,
[Ipress,Zscript:Hide Zscript]
[Ipress,Zscript:Hide Zscript]
]
]

It sure would be useful to see the original names of the materials for sure!
If there isn't enough screen space perhaps a pop-up menu would do.

[Anatom]

Hi and thanks for another addition, dear Master.
I have been enjoying ZMaterials.

Personally I found out the Zmats doesn't keep lighting (say, changed by Ctrl-P combination), but material.
Is there something wrong?

Anatom

[aminuts]

I think you need to save em the old fashioned way by pressing the save button within the script window to save the materials with the light settings.

[Buckie]

:D ... Thanks soooooooooooo much

[voolger]

very helpful plugin.

voolger

[Buckie]

I'm here to beg now, this is a much improved script & is fantastic, but please can we have one for alphas too, pretty please, pretty pretty please...

Keep the same format because it just works...:tu:

[Svengali]

I really do appreciate the kind words from everyone.

Specifically,

Floyd,
Thanks for the example, I always learn something new from your code! I'm debating a major facelift for the next, super-duper version of ZMATS which might better accomodate user-assigned names - we'll see, after ZB2.5 comes out.

Buckie,
I already use lots of B&W images from the collections of Polaris30 (the Alpha Meister) and was thinking that a ZALPS plugin might be good for managing Polaris30 alphas (and other great alpha collections to come). If and when I figure out how I want it to work, I'll post it... no promises for the moment though. :rolleyes:

Anatom,
Sorry, I couldn't quite figure out what your problem was... is ZMATS misbehaving? If so, more details please :qu:

Once again, thanks all,

Sven

[Buckie]

:D ... You the man!!! :tu:

[voolger]

i use zlist for storing alphas with z2. so maybe the evolution of the zlist to a plugin could be a better and maybe quicker solution. maybe with fancier screens - like zmats plus.

ciao voolger

[fordston]

Hi!
I tried installing ZMats Plus into ZBrush 3. It loads and shows up properly in the pull down menu, but when I try to select (activate) it, I get an "unable to open file" dialog box.

Is this just a question of getting my installation right, or does it not work with Version 3?

Thanks,

Ford

[Svengali]

Fordston,

I'm just finishing revisions on this for ZBrush3, and adding an interesting enhancement to it... so if you can wait a bit, the update will be posted... :D

The new version will work with previous material banks, will also save MatCap materials, no problem, and still store up to 2000 materials (I think we'll probably need it now!)

Sven

[fordston]

Thanks for getting back to me. I've grown quite attached to your plug-in, and have many materials I'm hot to get loaded into 3.
Thanks for your work! My thoughts are with you!

ford

[aminuts]

ohhhh gooody. I can't wait either! :D

[TrapDoor]

Me too :tu:

TD

[Tartan]

Count me in on that for reasons you already know :D :tu: Excellent :)

[markkens]

One more on his knees, hands stretched out. :D

[brent_m_2000]

I have Zmats+ installed in Zbrush 3. I have been saving materials, including matcaps, into it today. I saved about 100 mats without any problems, but now Zbrush crashes every time I try to save a material into Zmats. I've restarted Zbrush several times, restarted my computer, tried saving to different banks, etc, but it still crashes, regardless of the material I'm trying to save.

What on earth happened?

[aminuts]

the zmats you are using was written for zbrush2 not Z3. Svengali has told us his working on a z3 version...so a little patience and all should be good.

it's not advisable to be loading z2 zscripts in z3 as ...as Aurick has said....it can cause z3 stability problems.

[Svengali]

I'm working on this conversion (and a few others) and of course I'm uncovering unexpected problems specific to ZB3 - but also latent problems that were present but went unnoticed in the original version. :( (gives me a small inkling as to what Pixologic must be going through.)

One example. Clicking on the color square in the lower right hand corner of each material icon in ZMats invokes a simple FillOjbect operation after retrieving the color by sampling the little square on the screen. Well, that's all well and good, but because we now use PolyPainting (which imbeds color in each poly rather than painting to texture maps) one unintended click on that color square can wipe out hours of careful PolyPainting!?!?!?! I need to trap any accidental click of the color square.

So, as I say, I'm working on it. For the moment, please DON'T try to use the ZB2 version of ZMATS in ZB3. It could be dangerous.

Thanks all,
Sven

[tdrs]

Svengali,
This is a great plugin.:tu::tu: :tu:
I hope that it can be updated shortly!:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Svengali]

Hi tdrs,

Ya know, I've had a personal working version of ZMats Plus for 3.1 for a while now. Just never got around to making it bullet-proof enough to release. So, I'll try and clean it up and post it soon. :)

Sven

[tdrs]

Hi tdrs,

Ya know, I've had a personal working version of ZMats Plus for 3.1 for a while now. Just never got around to making it bullet-proof enough to release. So, I'll try and clean it up and post it soon. :)

Sven
Sven :tu:

Thanks!!!

[aminuts]

i 2nd tdrs request/plea/onkneesinchurchprayinghard :D

[froyd]

great news! can't wait, I really miss my favourite ;)



froyd