ZBrushCentral

Can Zbrush 4 define regions? (answered)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I use Vue 9 to Render meshes.

Vue does not have any basic masking tools to allow accurate painting of a material on a specific part of an imported 3d mesh. It seems that any material must coat the whole mesh. I can’t just paint part of it one color and part another by using a mask and then filling that masked area with a material or color like in photoshop.

I want to paint or apply more than one material to an imported mesh that is just a single item.

Can Zbrush 4 define regions on a single mesh so that when I import the item into Vue, Vue would treat it like a model made of parts allowing each part(region)to to be selected or deselected and thus have a different mat applied in Vue?

Right now I have to separately make each mesh that I want to have a different material on and group all those into one model then import into vue then ungroup then paint each part.Then regroup to a single looking thing with many mats applied.

Hope this question makes sense.

Any help would be appreciated.

#2

In ZBrush you can define different polygroups through the Tool>Polygroups menu. If you export the mesh from ZBrush as an OBJ then these polygroups are exported too. If Vue imports OBJ groups then you should be able to use those to apply different materials.

#3

Hi thanks for the help. I would like to try your suggestion by making a simple sphere in ZB4 with those polygroups then export to vue to use more than one mat there.

Trying to use that feature, I found these steps on how to possibly do that from a post in june , I’m using ZB4
I put my questions in parentheses

  1. Use the default Polysphere (should I activate edit mode)
  2. Set the material to MatCap White (that I can do)
  3. Open the Polypaint Rollout > Turn on Colorize (that I can do)
  4. Color the Polysphere using different stripes of color
    (right click and drag cursor adds to geometry instead of making a line of color)
  5. Turn on Polyframe , Poly F button (where’s that button)

I have not got to 6,7,8,9 please look and see if any terms are changed or missing in ZB4 so I don’t get lost.

  1. Open the Geometry Rollout > Delete subdivision levels
  2. From the Geometry Rollout > Group Loops
  3. Choose the Move Brush and dock the brush
  4. Menu > Automasking > Mask by polygroups

If there’s a video tut out there that would help please send me a link.
In the mean time I’m checking YOUTUBE

#4

Watch the Concept Car video tutorial in ZClassroom first. I believe that it might answer a lot of your questions.

The two main ways to create Polygoups is Polypaint and Masking. If your going to have a lot of polygroups then Polypainting might be the easier and faster way. That will be explained in the above video tutorial starting at minute 4:55.

#5

The tutorial you quote is quite complicated and uses methods and features that you don’t need just now. I suggest you keep it simple until you fully understand the options:

  1. From Lightbox, load the DefaultSphere.zpr project file by double-clicking the icon. When the project has loaded the sphere will be already in Edit mode.
  2. Set the Tool>Geometry>SDiv slider to 1. Polygroups should always be created at the lowest subdivision level. Also, for simplicity turn off symmetry - press X on the keyboard.
  3. Turn on Polyframes by pressing Shift+F on the keyboard (or the PolyF button in the Transform palette). The sphere will be shown in wireframe.
  4. Hold down Ctrl+Shift drag out a rectangle so that some of the sphere is selected. The selected area will be green. Release the mouse button and the rest of the sphere will be hidden.
  5. Press Tool>Polygroups>Group Visible. The selected area will change color.
  6. Click on the canvas background - this will unhide the rest of the sphere.

You have now created two polygroups. You can repeat the process to define more polygroups if you wish. You can select an existing polygroup by Ctrl+Shift+clicking on it. Ctrl+Shift+clicking on it again will reverse the visibility, hiding it and showing the other polygroups.

Finally export the mesh as an OBJ through the Tool>Export button. (The Grp button in the Tool>Export menu must be on for polygroups to be exported but this is on by default.) Import the OBJ into Vue to apply materials.

HTH,

#6

Yes! What Marcus said. :+1: Sorry Marcus, I think i’ll stop helping people now:cry:

#7

zber2, don’t stop, your help is very much appreciated! (Masking/Polypaint are both useful methods but I think in this instance ‘Group Visible’ is the best place to start.) Happy Holidays to you and all the best for 2011! :slight_smile:

#8

Thanks Marcus, and all the best to you also! :slight_smile:

#9

A low poly sphere divided into 5 Polygroups using the method that Marcus oulined above then exported to and rendered in Vue 6 Infinite.

zbrush-vue.jpg
zbrush-vue.jpg1280×991 206 KB

#10

Thanks for posting that vue render. How did you get the edges clean (non jaggie)?

I used a similar method last night to what Marcus posted. Thanks Marcus, I’m putting that in my how to folder for sure.

I had to divide my sphere Geometry several times to almost lose the jaggies. Resulting in a 50MB OBJ file and probably need one more division to make a Little better.

I was wondering if there’s a way to up the polys only at mask edges where the jaggies reside, leave the rest low poly. I would like a tack sharp mask line without needing a 50mb or more sphere?

Now i’m going to watch that custom car video.

#11

Originally posted by Digital Daydreams:

I was wondering if there’s a way to up the polys only at mask edges where the jaggies reside, leave the rest low poly. I would like a tack sharp mask line without needing a 50mb or more sphere?

No, because in order to get nice sharp mask edges, you will have to up the subdivision levels. I think you would be better off making maps with UV’s in Zbrush and using those for material distribution in Vue. Judging by some of the statements you made in post #1, you must be a new Vue user. Particularly, the following statement you made,

“Vue does not have any basic masking tools to allow accurate painting of a material on a specific part of an imported 3d mesh. It seems that any material must coat the whole mesh.”

This is not true. Vue has an extremely powerful material editor. The following is a picture of a 379 polygon sphere with 8 different materials applied to it, and believe me, it can go much higher than that, and, this was done entirely using Vue’s mixed material and material distribution.

If you are going to be using Vue for rendering, I would suggest that you familiarize yourself first with Vue’s Material Editor. Geekatplay Studio is one of the most extensive Vue tutorial sites there is. If you are a new Vue user, I would highly recommend that you go and watch their tutorials.

vue materials.jpg

#12

First off. thanks very much for the help. Very nice of you.

Started with VUE 5 and most versions since, But never really dug super Deep.

What I meant by “Vue does not have any basic masking tools”
Let’s say you have sphere in vue maybe a vue primitive sphere that has no previous work on it involving UVs.
There’s no Lasso mask. no circle or oval mask no square or rectangle mask like in photoshop that I can use within Vue to mask an area on that sphere.
Even the tiny default windows paint has a square and freeform basic masking selection tool. So those are the basic masking tools I was referring to. If I’m wrong please show me the menu or flyout or panel that has those tools. I’ve search the internet the manual and some vue forums and ask people that know Vue pretty well.

Vue does have some masking tools in the terrain editor. But none outside of that.

I use the geek at play tuts often these days. Thanks for mentioning that.
A great resource.

They have over 200 tuts, can you point me towards one that could zero me in on how to do what you did in your picture.

I like what you did in your example picture.
Are you saying that you did that in Vue using basic masks within Vue with no other app involved?

Thanks For any Help

#13

I now can define regions in zbrush thanks for that.

But I had posted a question about the red sphere with gold cracked circles in this thread a month ago. I private messaged Zbur2 about that time also.
I still need help but the PM went unanswered and the thread drifted into oblivion

Can someone help me.
Here the question I sent to Zbur2
Similar to the question in the post.

"You have a low poly Sphere with many random shapes each with a different material including cracked goldish circles. It’s near the bottom of the thread.

You said it’s a 379 polygon sphere with 8 different materials and that it’s done entirely using Vue’s mixed material and material distribution.

Would you be able to send me a step by step on how you did that in Vue? my email is [email protected]

Or if you could send a geek at play tut link that shows something similar being done on a vue primitive shape or an imported mesh. Being done on anything other than a terrain.
That would be great.

Thanks for any help.
Frank"