ZBrushCentral

Exported OBJ froms Poser: Body parts names lost [resolved]

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi guys,

Sorry, but this is really getting on my nerves. I double checked each an every possible option/internet article and found no solution. When you export a full body mesh from Poser in order to use it in Zbrush for some morphing you really want each body part name to be saved along with the OBJ file. If you check INCLUDE BODY PART NAMES IN POLYGON GROUPS when exporting from Poser this is what happens exactly. I checked it in Maya. All parts exported are saved properly in the OBJ along with their names. Well, now you load the OBJ in Zbrush and of course it is just one single mesh that (if ZBRUSH option USE POLYGROUPS is ON) will retain each group information. That is perfect! After doing your modeling (without changing vertex count-order) you can export the entire body morph from Zbrush into Poser, however this option does not work very well when posing your chars in Poser. The best option is to save each body part separately from Zbrush and then load each part separately in Poser as, again, a separate morph. The first thing you think of is that since Zbrush has loaded up the original OBJ with body parts names, when you click GROUP SPLIT in the subtool palette each subtool is going to be named as their corresponding body part, but unfortunately this does not happen. Instead, Zbrush names each subtool as FILENAME+SERIALNUMBER (i.e. mycharacter01, mycharacter02, etc…) disregarding the original body part name. Now, when you want to save each part separately into different OBJ files you have to find out what is the name for each part as you export them, which is a pain in the butt, or rename each part before exporting, which again is another big pain at the same spot.

Is there any way to make Zbrush use the body part name imported in the tool OBJ as the name for their corresponding subtool? Any other way to circumvent this issue would be appreciated?

Thanks
Thomas
:mad:

#2

Attached is a small plugin to help with your problem. (Note this is only for ZBrush 3.5 R3 for Windows.) There are instructions in the zip. Basically it will export the selected mesh from ZBrush as a set of OBJ files based on the groups. So long as you haven’t changed the polygroups inside ZBrush the names should be preserved and will become the OBJ file names.

Let me know if it’s useful. I’d like to put together a ‘Poser Utilities’ plugin in due course to help Poser users, so if you have any comments I’d appreciate them.

#3

It looks as though group names are only preserved during the current ZBrush session. So if you save your work as a ZTL and then load up again next session you will have to import your original mesh into your sculpted mesh to get the group names back. Before exporting the groups you’d need to do this:

  1. Store a Morph Target by pressing Tool:Morph Target:Store MT.
  2. Import your original OBJ (that you exported from Poser).
  3. Press Tool:Morph Target:Switch. This will restore your sculpting.
  4. Export group OBJs using the plugin.

HTH,

#4

I will definitly check this out as it would be wonderful to have a viable solution to this finally! Thanks for doing it! :slight_smile:

#5

I have no excuse. I was on vacation and did not see your wonderful and helpful reply. Thanks a lot dude.

Tomas:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:small_orange_diamond:+1:

#6

Thank you so very much! :slight_smile: