Export sphere map?

[Norman3D]

Is there anyway to export the sphere map from a material through zscript? or through any other method? I'm currently taking a screenshot from zbrush window... but as you can imagine, I can't automatize that.
Ideas?

Edit: I'm now thinking on some sort of cheap workaround. What if I could simply draw a polysphere in the canvas, change the document size to 256x256, make the sphere fit the canvas, and export the document as psd?
The only problem I see, is that I would really like that after this is done, I could return to the document I had before, with the tool I had before drawed on the canvas. And with the same "camera" position and all. Would that be even possible?

[nicholasmarks]

Like u say is good idea. Drawing sphere and cropping canvas.

Zapplink Properties has something like returning to same camera postion. You could set a custom position...then come back to it. It is under document...then zapplink properties. If people have R3 then it comes installed standard.

I know why u are asking question. The gomax thing rocks...i am using it. Having the spherical mapping when we go back to max would be tops. I bet Zbrush didn't even think of that

Great and inspired work.

[Morph Division]

hello

Here is a technique I have been using ever since mat cap came onto the scene.

Select the flat shader, load the texture you want to capture onto your canvas, if it is a shader then draw a sphere with the shader and center it onto your canvas.

Enter the matcap tool and start capturing point on the surface of either the image or the shader sphere from your canvas.

Now you should notice that the texture for the flat shader is updating with the new material colour information.

The texture it will produce is a sphereical map, which you can export straight from the texture palette.

The added benefit here is that you will get two maps (highlights & shadows) which you can crop in photoshop for a square texture.

Connect these maps up to your shader in 3ds or in my case maya.

hope that helps

[Norman3D]

hey!
actually I ended up using the workaround I mentioned. Cropping the canvas to 512x512 drawing a sphere with the selected material applied, and exporting the document.

Together with the macros I'm using for GoMax, it revertes to the document you were using before, loads the ZTool you had, and restores the camera position

with the
[TransformGet,xPos, yPos, zPos, xSc, ySc, zSc, xRot, yRot, zRot]
[TransformSet,xPos, yPos, zPos, xSc, ySc, zSc, xRot, yRot, zRot]
commands! Expect matcaps from zbrush to 3dsMax in the next version of GoMax

[marcus_civis]

You don't need to crop the canvas. The MRGBZGrabber tool can be used to capture the Sphere at exactly the size you want. Additionally, if you hold 'Ctrl' and drag the MRGBZGrabber across a second time you will get two spheres side by side in a single texture.

Here's a script that shows the technique.

HTH,

[cgvinny]

Is there an other way to "really" extract a material texture ? cause in case of the red wax for example, you have a second sphere for the recessed area which doesn't necessary be viewable on a sphere you draw.

I don't know if I explain it well

thx

ps : gomax is really cool 3dNorman

[Norman3D]

You don't need to crop the canvas. The MRGBZGrabber tool can be used to capture the Sphere at exactly the size you want. Additionally, if you hold 'Ctrl' and drag the MRGBZGrabber across a second time you will get two spheres side by side in a single texture.

Here's a script that shows the technique.

HTH,

oh! cool! Thanks for the script! I'll have a closer look tonight!

Is there an other way to "really" extract a material texture ? cause in case of the red wax for example, you have a second sphere for the recessed area which doesn't necessary be viewable on a sphere you draw.

I don't know if I explain it well

thx

ps : gomax is really cool 3dNorman

I see what you mean... Does not seem to be possible at the moment. But atleast for GoMax it's good enough. Since what I really want is that the end result is exported. You could always make a screenshot of the spheremap :/

[marcus_civis]

You can extract the two spheres. It's simply a question of setting some of the Material Modifiers. Here's a revision of my earlier script. It tests to see if the material texture is square; if it isn't a second sphere is grabbed.

It might not work in all situations but perhaps it will give you some ideas.

EDIT: I switch off Shadows in this version, as they would otherwise change the effect.

HTH,

[Norman3D]

holly crap! This is awesome!

Thanks a lot!!

[Morph Division]

Is there an other way to "really" extract a material texture ?

edit: ok it was only this funny

The method I described allows you to store the matcap A and matcap B of the texture applied to the canvas as two seperate maps, which can be exported from the texture palette.

note: after drawing the shaded sphere on the canvas use grab document to extract a texture.
Then with the flat shader selected begin the matcap process.

These textures are diffuse and dark areas, which could be used to enhance your shader network in external app. (colour and diffuse for example).

Using grab document to capture the shader ball from the canvas won't allow you to seperate the diffuse, the dark areas or the specular...it is more like baking, where as my method allows more control in the render.

of course if you know rendering (mental ray, renderman etc...) re-creating these materials is possible without the need of these maps.
The idea or concept behind this is image based lighting, therefore the map you need has to represent the colours of the material from many angles, which is why a sphereical map is used.

To take it one step further you could then bake these maps to the uvs and pump out several textures to aid in the texturing, similar to adding and occulsion map to a colour map. This can be done within zbrush and gives you control over adding more detail.

The script looks interesting and will take a look but my method has worked great for me, wondering why no one else uses it?btw yes there are several methods on similar techniques to mine.

good luck

[cgvinny]

Wow it was that funny ?

I was surprised that it is not simply possible to simply clone this texture for exporting it in a psd and tweak in photoshop for example.

Thx for all the tips