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Help! I'm Having trouble with the Materials menu

ZBrushCore Usage Questions
#1

Greetings everyone! I’m a totally green noob to ZbrushCore, and I’m having some trouble with the Materials feature.

I’ve been following the character modelling tutorial by Steve James, but I’m not able to get the Materials Window that shows up
on his screen for filling in a material to a subtool during the video, despite pressing the “M” button at the top of the screen:

material window 2.jpg

I’ve tried hovering my cursor over the material palette box above the colour picker, right-clicking but still no window. I can get this window from clicking the material palette box…

materials 2b.jpg

…But still not the one from the tutorial.
Now…to make things more confusing, while I’ve found that I can still insert a material to a Subtool through this window…it fills my entire model with the selected texture, instead of the one Subtool level that I’ve selected. (Even despite using Solo).

I’m still able to get a material fill for the subtool I want, but only after going back and refilling the subtools I don’t want modified with a material.

I hope this makes sense, friends. Any and all help is will be immensely appreciated!

Thanks!material window.jpgmaterials 2.jpg

#2

The image you show from the tutorial is not showing the ZBrushCore materials palette. It looks as though it is a special image to show the materials used. You can access the materials shown by doing as you say - clicking on the large Material icon on the left, which pops up the material palette. Those three materials are in the “Standard Materials” section towards the bottom of the pop-up window.

Materials in ZBrushCore are a little confusing at first. Each subtool in its initial state will take on the selected material. So changing the material will change the material for all subtools.

The way you stop this happening is to “Fill” the subtool with a material. That material will then stick to that subtool. You do it like this:

  1. Make sure the subtool you want to fill is selected.
  2. Turn on the M button at the top of the UI. This means you are just working with Materials. (The Rgb button means you are just working with Color, and the Mrgb button means you are working with Color AND Material.)
  3. Select the material you want to use.
  4. In the Color palette press FillObject.

Now switch to a different material. The subtool you have just filled will stay the same but the others will change to the selected material.

Once you have filled a subtool with material you can paint on it with material. From the Brush menu select the Paint brush. Normally this will paint color on your model but if you turn on the M button (as described above) you can just paint with material. Turning on the Mrgb button allows you to paint with color and material at the same time.

HTH,

#3

Hi Marcus, thanks for your response, I really appreciate it!

I followed your instructions, but I’m still getting the same result as before. I select the sub-tool that I want, but as soon as I select the material that I want to use from the materials window, it automatically fills all my subtools, without me having to use the FillObject button. What’s more, it’s now looking like I cannot undo the action (unless that part is normal?)

#4

That’s expected behaviour. All the subtools will show the selected material until you switch materials again, at which point the one you filled will remain as before.

#5

Ahhh, ok…I’m beginning to see what you mean now. Thanks Marcus!