For this tutorial you may find it useful to try out ZNotePad
The NoteMarker plugin mentioned below is available in the same thread.
If you’re a generous sort and want to share your hard-won knowledge of ZBrush with others, then recording a zscript of your astounding working methods is one of the best ways to do it.
Sometimes adding notes to the recorded zscript can considerably enhance the tutorial and win you everlasting praise and thanks from your fellow ZBrushers.
Here are two ways that you can add notes to your recorded zscipt:
- The re-record method.
First record a zscript of your modeling session and save it.
When you’re ready to add notes, load your recording (if you’ve just done the recording, it will still be loaded).
If your ZBrush setup has Record on by default, press the End Rec button and cancel the save. That way your re-recording won’t have anything in it you don’t want.
You might also want to set the ZScript>Replay Delay slider to something like 500 to slow down playback. This will make adding notes a little easier if your recording is short.
Now press the Record button to start a new recording. Click Yes to initialize ZBrush and then press the Play button of your zscript. ZBrush will now be re-recording your modeling session.
Whenever the playback reaches a point where you’d like to add a note press CTRL+SPACEBAR. A pop-up window will appear where you can add a bit of text. Enter something to identify the note such as “First Note” or “Here I increase the subdivision”. Press OK.
Continue to do this throughout your recording. When it’s finished press End Rec to end the re-recording and save with a new name.
If you now open the file in a text editor you will see that there is the code [Note,“First Note”] (or the text you entered) for every time you pressed Ctr+Spacebar.
You can now use ZNotePad to write full notes for your tutorial. The text file saved
from ZNotePad will have each Note indicated something like this:
[COLOR=Silver]//*** NOTE 1 ***//
[Note,"
Clicking the \CFF9923Background\CC3C3C3 button sets the background color to the Active Color.The \CFF9923R\CC3C3C3 butt",-1]
[Note,"on will Reset\CC3C3C3 the background to the default
color.
",-1]
[Note,12914,0,3947075,120,400, ,1.199997,1,0,0,]
Copy all of the code from below //*** NOTE 1 // until the next
note // NOTE 2 ***// and paste it into your re-recorded zscript TO REPLACE
the [Note,“First Note”] placeholder. Then continue with the next Note and so on. If your text editor has a search facility using this to find the note placeholders will greatly speed up the process.
When you have finished be sure to save your file. It will now be ready for publishing on ZBC.
- The record once method.
This method is basically the same as the re-record method except that the plugin NoteMarker is used to insert a short bit of code during the first recording session. Each instance of this code is then replaced with your ZNotePad note in the same way as above.
After installing NoteMarker, Ctrl+drag the button from the ZPlugin>More Plugs subpalette to the shelf so that it will be near at hand during your modeling session.
Start your recording. Every time you want to add a note placeholder, click the NoteMarker button. A pop-up window will appear. Simply press ENTER on the keyboard and continue modeling. DO NOT click OK or add text to the pop-up. Press CANCEL if you change your mind and don’t want a placeholder at that point.
When you’ve finished modeling, press Zscript>End Rec to stop and save your recording.
Then immediately press the NoteMarker button and save with a new file name.
If you forget to do this and try to play back your recording it will stall. If this happens, just press the NoteMarker button and save the file. The same method can be used for recordings made with the earlier version of NoteMaker: load the recording (with Record OFF), press NoteMaker button and save.
If you now open the file in a text editor you will see that there is a numbered Note for every time you pressed NoteMarker. Write your notes in ZNotePad and then cut and paste them into your recording, in the same way as above.
When you have finished, save your file. It will now be ready for publishing on ZBC.