ZBrushCentral

text in zbrush

Im just getting into zbrush and learning what it can do. I do a lot of graphic design and webpage design so i work a lot with text, usually illustrator takes care of all my textual needs. Recently however i was wondering what about text in zbrush, the stuff zbrush could do to text would just be awsome. I did find a great plug in that creates some wicked looking text but only in one font. The following is a method i came up with to get text in any font you like, it requires a photoshop package as well.

text.jpg

the blue line is to show that the 3 pieces of text have transparent backgrounds, so they could be used on the web as gifs or pngs and overlay other items.
the font used is comic sans and there is a japanese kanji thrown in to show that any font or text can be done.

  1. in PS create a file with a black background type your text in white, flatten and save as a jpg. This will be your alpha.

2.In zbrush select the plane 3D tool. In tool-initialize set the hdivide and vdivide to 512.

  1. hit make polymesh 3D, then draw the new tool on the canvas.

  2. hit edit, load your text as an alpha.

  3. go to tool-masking and hit alp. then inverse the mask and click hidept.

  4. go to tool-geometry and click delete hidden.

  5. go to tool-morph target and click store morph target.

  6. go to deformations and do offset Z -25

  7. now click on creatDiff in the morph target area and your new tool is created.

  8. clear the canvas, check out the text and decorate it.

  9. save it then load it up in PS. go to select-select color and click on the grey background, inverse the selection and drag the text to a new open window where it will now be background free and can be used on the web or for whatever.

Some fonts work better than other for this, also the text created is kind of jaggardy on the top and sides, but this can be covered up pretty easy. If anybody can improve on this or has a better technique post it up here as i would love to see it, this is the best i can come up with for now.

I just like the idea that zbrush can be used for little things too. Imagine some kick arse zbrush text at the top of your webpage! sweet.

D

thanks! but I need other solution to avoid the linear deformation in the sides of the text, I use ultra high res images with my text and that lines continue, anyone know about better way to have 3d text in z brush?

In 3.1 you could follow the steps in the previous post up to #4 load Alpha. Apply the Alpha as a mask on the plane, then in the Tool > Subtool menu, click extract. Hide or delete the plane and you have nice clean 3D text as a new subtool.

[MakeText.jpg]

XYZ Fonts

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=49689

You might get with Roland Kaiser. If I recall (I don’t have it loaded now) the fonts come from alpha’s and you may be able to add fonts yourself?

Woops. I just realized how old this is.

Cool! but need a litle more help, I need to edit the sides of the text, and the z-interpolation give a poor subdivition level in that area, even if I divide several times the model. any ideas?

why dont you guys just download elefont and import obj?

A fix to add higher subdivision to the z-interpolation sides of the text would be to hide the front and back faces of the text object. Then in Tool > Deformation > Size select only z and then enter -50. Next in Tool > Geometry click Edge Loop. Repeat the Deformation and Edge Loops steps a couple more times. (Play around with how many time you do this to get the best results.) Then, when you unhide the front and back faces and subdivide the entire tool you can start modeling the sides.

[![ZBrushTextMesh.jpg|480x360](upload://AqTKgdU4iBq5GwAObjFfEfK9fr8.jpeg)]

how do i hide the front and back faces only of the text?

I think best is you use polygroups. Polygroup back and front faces and hide what you want

do like you say there is not so difficult

How do existing lines are not as beautiful as you do, please give me further instructions