Hi Guys,
I am having some major problems making custom alphas for use in Zbrush. I am using GIMP, I have downloaded a bunch of textures from CGTextures.com and I am using Mindtex to generate displacement maps of them to bring them into GIMP.
My process is as follows:
1: I open up a texture from CGTextures.com in GIMP and use the filter ‘Make Seamless’, I then use ‘Scale Image’ to make it 1024 x 1024. After doing that I export as a .PNG from GIMP and drag and drop it into Mindtex.
2: I choose ‘Import As Diffuse’ in Mindtex and then start to mess with the silders on the displacement map to get a sweet displacement map. I then export from Mindtex (I only export the displacement map and nothing else).
3: I open the displacement map in GIMP. I then make a new transparent layer and use a radial gradient. The gradient I use in GIMP is ‘FG to Transparent’. I then set my grid in GIMP to 512 x 512 to get my grid at the center of the canvas. I then hold down CTRL and drag out my radial gradient which results in a nice round circle in the dead center of my image, the edges of my image are now black and I can see that glorious displacement map.
4: I then use a ‘Gaussian Blur’ filter on the 2nd layer (which was the radial gradient) just to soften the fall off even more.
5: After all this I go to Image > Mode > Grayscale, I merge my 2nd layer down into the displacement map layer and choose ‘Export As’.
6: I export my alpha as a .PNG to the destination of my choice on my nearly full hard drive.
7: I open up Zbrush very excited I jump straight to ‘Lightbox’ and infiltrate my alpha folder looking for my exported alpha from GIMP (see step 5).
8: I double click on my alpha expecting to see it load into the alpha slot but to my disappointment it loads into the texture slot.
9: I cry in pain and all the excitement of sculpting some bad ass rocks and stone slowly drift away in despair.
I didn’t wanna bother you guys but I have been going from step 1 to 9 for the past 8 hours (I wish I was kidding). I cannot get my alpha to load into the alpha slot, everything I have tried doesn’t work.
I had some success when I brought my exported alpha from GIMP (doing steps 1 to 9 exactly the same) into Illustrator. Before exporting from Illustrator I changed the colour output from CKMY to Grayscale and I exported as a .PSD file and it worked in Zbrush, my alpha finally made it into the alpha slot but I don’t want to have to do steps 1 - 9 and then all that extra stuff in Illustrator, surely there is a way for it to work just fine exporting straight from GIMP as a .PNG.
Please help guys before I grab some crocodile clips and hang myself from my ceiling by my nipples.
Here is one of my tried alphas exported straight from GIMP following steps 1 - 9 exactly as described.
