Useful small ZScripts and Macros for ZBrush 4 & 4R3

[lins.monte]

Hi Marcus,

I am a new ZBrush user and I have a simple question about the sequence I should use to save the info into the macro.
Sorry, it is a basic question but I hope you can help me.

After I select my first brush, I click on BrushToggle button and the message says: Primary Brush stored. Should I click the button again when I select the second brush? If u don't mind I would like to ask the correct sequence for that. Thanks for your time and for the script.

This macro allows you to set two brushes so that a single hotkey will toggle between them.

Save the file to the ZStartup/Macros/Misc folder and either restart ZBrush or press Macro>Reload all Macros. There will be a new 'BrushToggle' button in the Macro>Misc menu.

You need to assign a hotkey to the button in order for it to work. It's best to choose a single key rather than using a modifier like 'Alt' as in that case both keys would need to be released each time.

Click the button any time to store a brush. The macro stores a 'primary' brush and a 'secondary' brush. All this means is that if you select a different brush and then press the hotkey the primary brush will be selected. Brushes are stored between ZBrush sessions.

[marcus_civis]

Seavannah,

Thanks for your kind words and I'm sorry for the delay in replying to your question. I'm afraid that there's no way to automatically export single frames from the Timeline. (You can't actually advance the Timeline a single frame at a time; if you could, zscripting this would be easy.)

On your other question, I don't think that there's an efficient way to do this. There are ZScript Notes, and it might be possible to write a plugin to allow you to type these directly from within ZBrush (I actually wrote a zscript that did this a very long time ago!), but they have limitations now, would get in the way of whatever was being demonstrated and I don't think they would be easy to read in a movie.



lins.monte,

Yes, just select your second brush and press the button. After you see the 'Secondary brush stored' message, the next time you press the button a new primary brush will be stored. So if you change your mind just select a different brush and press the button.

[lins.monte]

Thanks! Great work.

Hi Marcus,

I am a new ZBrush user and I have a simple question about the sequence I should use to save the info into the macro.
Sorry, it is a basic question but I hope you can help me.

After I select my first brush, I click on BrushToggle button and the message says: Primary Brush stored. Should I click the button again when I select the second brush? If u don't mind I would like to ask the correct sequence for that. Thanks for your time and for the script.

[boozy floozie]

It's a veritable Aladdin's cave in here hosted by a true Genie.

Best wishes Marcus and thank you.

[marcus_civis]

lins.monte and boozy floozie,

Many thanks for your kind words.

I've updated the Materials to Texture plugin to make it a little more useful. It will now embed all polypainted materials in an existing texture map. To embed a single material you can use the Tool>Texture Map>Fill Mat button (new to 4R3).

[cgmystic]

I had actually done that already (which is why I thought it would be good to start this repository!):

The little plugin in the zip will give you the old Lasso button behaviour. Unzip and put the file in you ZStartup/ZPlugs. Restart ZBrush and you will have a Marcus Tools menu in the ZPlugin palette. In that will be a switch named Lasso.

The switch will toggle the Lasso and Paint mask/selection brushes. With the Paint mask selected you will be able to drag a rectangle from outside the model, just as in 3.5. You can assign a hotkey to the switch if you wish.

The first time you use the switch in a session you may have to press it twice, depending on your setup. You may also get the message about selecting the mask option, which you can get rid of for the rest of the session.

MARCUS:
Thanks for the the old Lasso button behaviour ....

[pabgo]

lins.monte and boozy floozie,

Many thanks for your kind words.

I've updated the Materials to Texture plugin to make it a little more useful. It will now embed all polypainted materials in an existing texture map. To embed a single material you can use the Tool>Texture Map>Fill Mat button (new to 4R3).

im having trouble embeding a material to my model's texture map. when you say embed do you mean 'bake to texture'? i cant seem to find any info on the fill mat button.

EDIT: nvm, i figured it out, thanks a lot marcus, very useful

[marcus_civis]

im having trouble embeding a material to my model's texture map. when you say embed do you mean 'bake to texture'? i cant seem to find any info on the fill mat button.

No, it's not baking to texture. It simply means that when your model has a texture map applied to it it will display the material your have embedded using 'Fill Mat'. (Normally a model with a texture map will show the selected material.) This is only good within ZBrush, and will not do anything in other programs.

[marcus_civis]

This little plugin will rotate a model in Edit mode, like a turntable (but no movie is recorded). It's fairly basic and won't work so well on heavy or scaled-up meshes.

Unzip the file and put the spin.zsc in the ZStartup/ZPlugs folder. Restart ZBrush and in the Transform palette there will be a new button 'Spin' and a new slider 'Speed'.

You need to assign a hotkey to the button for the spinner to work. Don't use a modifier key (such as Ctrl, Shift or Alt) as this won't work.

Set the speed using the slider then press and hold the hotkey; the model will turn around the Y axis.


Spin.zip

[marcus_civis]

This macro will reload a texture onto a model. This is useful if you are working on a texture in a program like Photoshop and want to see the progress in ZBrush. Loading directly onto the model the texture map does not appear in the main Texture palette, saving resources.

Save the file to your ZStartup/Macros/Misc folder. Press Macro>Reload All Macros or restart ZBrush and there will be a new macro button called Load Txtr in the Macro palette.

* Press the button to load a new texture onto the current subtool.
* To refresh the texture, assign a hotkey to the macro button. Pressing the hotkey will then reload the texture on to the model.
* To load a different texture just press the macro button and choose a different file.

Load Txtr.TXT

[--E--]

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!

Thank you so much for the refresh texture marco Marcus! I have been wanting something like this forever! This will save sooooooooooooo much time!!!

[Nyx702]

Really cool Marcus! Very useful plugins.

[supermanu]

Hello marcus, has always your script are life saver in production. Thanks you very much for your time and hard work!
I have updated the script Turntable Plus for ZBrush 4R3, maybe i'm not doing something correctly, but it look like is not taking in account the AA parameter of the BPR?
I'm not sure what to do? The only solution I find is to double the canvas size... but is not as good as the BPR settings for antialiasing.

Am i missing something?

[marcus_civis]

Hello marcus, has always your script are life saver in production. Thanks you very much for your time and hard work!
I have updated the script Turntable Plus for ZBrush 4R3, maybe i'm not doing something correctly, but it look like is not taking in account the AA parameter of the BPR?
I'm not sure what to do? The only solution I find is to double the canvas size... but is not as good as the BPR settings for antialiasing.

Am i missing something?

Hi supermanu,

Thanks for your kind words and I'm glad you find the scripts useful. For Turntable Plus, I'm afraid that it can't use the AAHalf setting, though if you are using BPR rendering the SPix setting of 3 should give you better results than using AAHalf.

EDIT: Oh, I think maybe you are referring to the edge of the model in the 'Image' file exported. This is the same as the Image exported under the BPR render passes and it doesn't have anti-aliasing at the edge so that you don't get any of the background color. You need to use the mask image to composite with a background of your choice (in After Effects or wherever). I can see that there should be an option to export a standard BPR render without the passes - I'll do that when I can get to it.

[supermanu]

Thank you for the super quick answer marcus! I understand think much better now.