ZBrushCentral

Fill different subtools with different materials?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m trying to give different subtools different materials, but I have trouble making this “stick.” Following Michael Pavlovich’s tutorial (Intro to ZBrush 018 - Polypainting and Material Painting, apply mats and color to your model! - YouTube), I click M for the materials channel, turn off ZAdd, choose a material, choose a subtool, go to Color, click fill object with material. Pav says this should prevent me from switching to another Mat with the material-picker. But it doesn’t. If I choose another material with the picker, I instantly get the new material applied to the subtool I supposedly just filled. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I have Colorize on or not for the given subtool.

What am I doing wrong?

#3

Hello @Grotius ,

If neither of the M or MRGB channels are active, then the material information will not “stick” when filled. Please be sure to double check that.

Please also make certain you are working with a Polymesh 3D object, and not one of the default primitives. Polypaint will break if you fill one of these and then attempt to convert it to a working mesh.

By default, a mesh with no polypaint will display whatever the active color or material is. If the mesh has polypaint and polypaint display is active, it will instead display the polypaint (including material if it was applied). If the meshes were not actually filled with polypaint due to neither of those channels being active, or if the polypaint display was deactivated, then this is why the mesh is previewing whatever you change the active material to.

Polypaint can be deactivated both in the polypaint menu, and via the paintbrush icon for an individual subtool entry in the subtool list. Double check that both of those are enabled.

Please also make sure than no texture is active, as this will override the polypaint display.

I always recommend enabling Solo mode as well, to make certain you are actually viewing the subtool you think you are viewing, and that no other overlapping subtool is causing confusion.

Good luck!

1 Like
#4

Thanks, Spyndel. Your reply reassures me that I’m indeed looking at all the right factors, heh. I will try again tomorrow. I certainly was working with a Polymesh 3D – the two subtools were pretty detailed sculpts. But I do get careless about checking whether the brush (“colorize”) icon is enabled. And it’s possible I did have a texture active. Yes, I use Solo mode all the time – love it.

Thanks again for your thorough response. I’ll let you know if I figure things out.

#5

@Spyndel FYI, your advice worked perfectly. I was just losing track of whether I had the colorize (paintbrush icon) enabled. Thanks for your help!