ZBrushCentral

painting specularity + gloss in zbrush

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

hi,

there is one thing that is missing in zbrush: a simple, logical way to create, display (and of course then export) specular and gloss maps.
the shader mixing system is fun, but won´t fit into a basic production pipeline as the results only work inside zbrush.

i am shure that there would be simple ways to offer spec and gloss maps in a “normal” way, for example it would be great if we could use separate channels inside the shader mixer system which specifically adress only gloss and spec.

a simple way (in terms of workflow) would be to use a tri shader: 1st shader defines specualarity, 2nd shader defines gloss, 3rd shader picks up information from 1st and 2nd shader and only displays the specularity/gloss.

the problem with the current system is that it always displays whatever color/hue/saturation you use to define specularity; i.e. the red color that makes the lips shine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCL0BpSZx_8) - and there´s no simple way to just display spec/gloss.

i don´t understand why this common task is still not adressed in a useable way - it would make zbrush so much more interesting for rendering.

what do you think about this issue? have i missed something or am i right in suggesting this feature to be handled asap, hopefully with the next release?

thanks for your interest!

m

#2

I agree with you :slight_smile:

Diffuse is wonderfull in Zbrush but when you would like to have gloss and specular you have to export polygroups and give polugroup mask to every shader. You may also use Ddo or Substance Designer. There is also way with creating matcap for specularity and gloss but it is not best choice with editing that specularity and glossiness after that. Best way is create polygroup ID map to mask every shader.

All I want is generating, editing and export for specularity and glossines maps in Zbrush (in easy way).

#3

i just watched the dDo tutorial videos on uixels website - looks very interesting, thanks for the hint! will give it a try - i have to say that the video tutorials are a bit fast for my taste :slight_smile:

cheers m

#4

I agree - Sometimes I just want to keep the Same color on the Model, and then hit certain areas with 5 minute epoxy to make it look wet. Very similar to what you do when you make a maquette. A way I kind of got it working was painting everything in shades of grey… but giving the specular a certain light gray mask in the Mixer. Kind of Works - check out the pic.

Attachments

SpecularTest 01.jpg

#5

I am not sure I understood you well. Do you paint gray whole subtool (low specular) and then you mask all places (mask by cavity or AO) should be low specular and then you fill everything what isn`t mask by high specular color - white for example.

What with real polypaint color data. Do you have save it on other file or do you use layers? This is not thought right in Zbrush in my opinion. I love Zbrush but I think it should be change - I think about creating map by changing colors and materials to do faking specular, glossy or bump map (bump material) when you have to worry about your real color chanel (diffuse map). Creating that maps should be seperate from polypaint and materials. It should be possibility to bake glossines and specularity from material but without influence for diffuse map. It should be on different track in my opinion.

#6

another way would be to “paint” the specularity during the composition process by using a specular and a non-specular pass…
but the problem with those alternative ways is that you don´t get a specular/gloss/reflection map in the end - and that´s what I am missing: a logical way to create spec, gloss, refl maps - like in mudbox…

let´s hope that pixo updates the whole texturing thing in the next release… !

#7

Bartosh -

I used one sub tool, and then I marked the Color Box in the Mixer to a 15-20% gray value. Above that Color box, I set the
Mode to Luminosity.

To the right of the Color Box I set the Intensity to 100 and Int Exp. to 25.

When I paint the model… I used spray and just sprayed the whole model with different values of gray. On the areas where I needed it to looked wet I painted in spray mode that 20% gray. It seemed to work pretty good inside of ZBrush. But still, I would prefer to just paint in a specular pass. This way is kind of a cheat, and takes some thinking to figure out what colors will produce the specular.

#8

Thanks for info. How did you get those values? By accident or trying many different settings? I think its a bit complicated but maybe reason of that is Ive never done it before.

#9

Well, I originally wanted a darker area to be a wet area… but couldnt get that to work… so I guessed at a lighter value of 20… and then built around it with other values… I guess the cool thing is anything around 20 like 19 or 21 is considered not the specular value… So you can paint away. Still an experiment for now. but if you need to kick something out as a concept straight out of the box this might work…

John