ZBrushCentral

Arghh: Keyshot Bridge discards Material settings with each new ZBrush Session

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, I can’t find the answer and Keyshot forums say it’s a ZBrush issue :slight_smile: and they don’t offer any help that I can find.

When using Keyshot bridge, all of the material assignments are lost if I restart a session of Zbrush (and then render to an open key shot .bip file).

One keyshot post says that it has to do with zBrush renaming subtools/parts with each new sessions.: Within Keyshot, the Part name is changed with each new session so Keyshot just ignores the previous material settings contained in their .BIP file.

Example:
The subtool name in Brush:
VenusSunglasses4_1
The “Part” name in Keyshot before closing Zbrush session: ZBrush_0_1_0_VenusSunglasses4_1_9F1C4BEA
(all key shot materials are in tact)
The new “Part” name in Keyshot after restarting Zbrush session: ZBrush_0_1_0_VenusSunglasses4_1_C3E547EA
(all keyshot material is lost)

I tried inside ZBrush: RENDER>EXTERNAL RENDERER>GROUP BY MATERIALS (off)
But that made no difference.

Any ideas on how to solve this???
This is awful.

Thank You!

Zbrush 2019
Mac 10.12.6 Sierra
Keyshot HD 8.2.80

#2

There was a discussion about this in the old ZBrush forum. I can’t seem to find it anymore, but I’ve made a screenshot of @Thor’s solution back then. Here it is, hope it helps:

unnamed
unnamed.jpg1541×2250 654 KB

1 Like
#3

@MetinSeven – Thanks! This works.

It seems like this should be a seamless part of the “bridge” don’t you think? Maybe its a one-way bridge :slight_smile:
Requiring subtool name conventions and creating / applying scene templates by subtool – just because zbrush or key shot crashed or was closed – seems like a bug Pixologic could address to make this automatic.

Thanks again. And thanks @Thor for the original post!

1 Like
#4

Agreed, ideally the bridge should be more dynamic, and even better: work in two directions, so if you’ve manipulated objects in Keyshot, it’d be great if you could reversely update your ZBrush scene as well.

In my humble opinion I’d rather see the ZBrush renderer being updated to an industry-compliant renderer with PBR textures, real reflections and refractions, raytracing, etcetera. ZBrush should be careful not to stay behind the competition. For example, Blender is currently implementing lots of ZBrush-like sculpting features in a separate branch that will eventually be merged with the main Blender version. ZBrush should strike back.

#5

Yes, I agree. Not working in both directions seems like an oversight / bug.
Why should it reassign subtool names – and messing your key shot work – only after restarting Zbrush?
It’s a hassle to create workarounds like the wildcarded materials templates. I imagine most don’t know about this.

Regarding the bigger picture rendering competitiveness you mentioned, that would be wonderful to do this all inside of zbrush. Of course I do want Zbrush to continue to be successful. It is such a great tool.