This tutorial assumes you have not altered the defaultzBrush UI by customizing it.
The following is a detailed step by step (from start to end)loading Genesis 2 Female mesh (or obj) and her textures into zBrush in order touse polypaint on those textures to modify them:
EXPORTINGGENESIS 2 FEMALE
1) Open Daz Studio as usual
2) Clear scene ensuring it is blank with nothing inthe viewport
3) Find Genesis 2 Female (G2F) from G2F Starter Essentials(G2FSE) and load her into the empty viewport.
4) Click/select G2F node (which selects her)
5) Go the parameters. Find mesh resolution andchange the sub division level to 0.
6) Take note of where base G2F texture files arelocated on your computer. This is the default G2F model Bree.
a. Runtime/Textures/DazCharacters/Genesis2/BaseFemale/…filename
7) Click FILE>>EXPORT. A directory dialogloads requesting a location to export to. Pick a location you can easily get towithout navigating through multiple levels of folders. By default WavefrontObject should be selected which is good.
8) Name your Export G2F and click SAVE
9) OBJ Export Option dialog appears. Make thefollowing option selections:
a. Convert From Daz Studio To: Poser (1 unit = 8ft)
b. Ignore Invisible Node is checked
c. Write UV Coordinates is checked
d. Write Group is checked and Use Node Names isselected
e. Write surfaces is checked, Write Material Libraryis checked and Original maps is selected
10) Click Accept
IMPORT GENESIS 2 FEMALE INTO zBRUSH
Note: You do not use zBrush bridge forthis operation because it does not transfer UV map data to zBrush.
1) Close Daz Studio to free up system resources
2) Open zBrush and close LightBox should it autoopen
3) Click the Preferences menu at the top and selectImport/Export>>Import
a. Turn off Import Polygroups. (It is on bydefault)
b. Turn on Import Mat As Groups
4) Tool Palette (typically on the upper right on defaultzBrush UI) Click Import. Import 3D Mesh dialog box appears.
5) Navigate to the easy path where you exported yourG2F wavefront object file and select your G2F.obj file and click Open.
6) G2F is now a new subtool. Verify in Tool Palette>> SubTool.
7) Draw G2F on the zBrush canvas
8) Click Edit or Press the “T” button on yourkeyboard
9) If G2F is out of proportion too small or too bigon your canvas click the Frame Button in order to front and center her on yourcanvas so that you are viewing her from head to toe with visual ease.
PREPARING G2F FOR TEXTURES
1) At this point there two very important things Iwant to bring to your attention.
a. Click the PolyF button. Look at all thepolygroups which represents all the surface groups for G2F in Daz Studio thatthe Bree Textures cover. After viewing turn off PolyF but note that you willneed to use it again later.
b. On the Tool Menu, scroll down to the UV Map submenu and click on it. You will see a very important button called, “Delete UV”.If that button is enabled to mean you can click it then your G2F obj file importedsuccessfully with G2F UV that Daz Studio created for her. Do not click thatbutton! You just want to view if it is clickable to verify that the UV has indeedloaded successfully with G2F into zBrush.
2) Sub Divide G2F. Sub divide reasonably where yourcomputer won’t choke should you decided go over 1 million polygons. The more polygonsthe greater the detail the Bree Textures will appear over G2F mesh. Go theGeometry sub menu under Tools and click Divide button up to 6 (perhaps more) timesdepending upon what your computer can handle. Typically on my computer 5 levelsis pushing it, 4 levels is comfortable and anything beyond 5 zBrush on mycomputer chokes more often than not.
3) Changing G2F material
a. Turn off zAdd
b. Click M (which will turn off RGB)
c. On the left change your material to SkinShader4so that G2F is all nice white
d. Click the Color menu. Click Fill Object
e. Next click RGB (which will turn off M). LeavezAdd and zSub off.
LOADING THEBREE TEXTURES FOR G2F INTO zBRUSH
This part isvery tedious. Remember all those polygroups you viewed when you clicked the PolyFbutton? Well, for each poly group you will Polypaint from Texture eachpolygroup one at a time. This is why alot of texture work is done in Photoshop or Gimp. So let’s start at the headfirst and work our way down G2F’s body addressing each polygroup one at a time. It may not be necessary to worry abouteyes, lips, teeth and etc unless you are interested in those details. Howeverthis tutorial we’ll focus on her main anatomy, however the steps are the samefor eyes, lips teeth and etc.
1) Preparation
a. In ZBrush on left expand the left tray and getrid of menu palette there by default. Click and drag it off into zBrushnetherzone making it go away.
b. On top you want to bring in two menus into yourleft tray: Brush and Texture in that order so that Brush is on top and Textureis on the bottom.
2) Expand your Brush palette in your left tray.
a. Expand the sub menu Auto Masking
b. Adjust the slider Mask By Polygroups from 0 to100 moving it from left all the way right.
c. Double check to make your slide action persistedby collapsing and reexpanding the Auto Masking sub menu. See that the 100 ispersisted. Sometimes it won’t.
d. Collapse the Brush palette. You are done withit.
3) Expand your Texture palette in your left tray
a. Click the import button
b. Navigate to the Bree textures typically found …Runtime\Textures\Daz\Characters\Genesis2\BaseFemale\filename
i. The specific file you want to select isV5BreeHeadM.jpg This is the default file I believe.
ii. Click open
iii. Bree’s head texture appears in your texture palette
iv. Next… Click the large button where it saysTexture Off
v. Under Quick Pick select file name V5BreeHeadM
vi. Click the FlipV button which will turn her headtexture upside down. It looks funny but it’s necessary due to the way zBrushinterprets the import.
4) Focus back on G2F mesh on the canvas
a. Click PolyF button so you can see the G2Fpolygroups again
b. Press control + shift then click using yourmouse or tablet pen on G2F polygroup face (Her face on her head. Her face is anindividual polygroup.) This will isolate the polygroup to show by itself.
c. Turn off PolyF
d. On the right tray, the Tool Palette click thesub menu Masking to expand it.
e. Click Mask All
f. Go back to the canvas. Press control + shift andclick using your mouse or tablet pen over the canvas, (not on top of any partof G2F mesh). This will bring back the rest of G2F viewing her in whole. G2F shouldhave nice darkened masked face.
g. Go back to the Masking sub menu and clickInvserse
h. Now her body is darkened and masked leaving theface ready to receive the texture
i. On the right tray, the Tool palette, click toexpand the Polypaint sub menu
j. Click the button Polypaint From Texture. The texturedetail from the file V5BreeHeadM will now auto paint over G2F’s face polygroup.
k. Go back to Masking sub menu and click the Clearbutton to release the mask from G2F’s body
WASH, RINSEand REPEAT
For eachpolygroup you will repeat step 4 and sub steps a through k to Polypaint From Textureall G2F surface polygroups. The head texture you loaded will address the backof G2F’s head. So instead of clicking her face like you did before you willclick the back of head, mask it, bring her body back, inverse mask and so on.
The head isvery simple because it only has two polygroups: front and back. When you get tothe body or limbs you will need repeat process back to step 3 and load thosetextures and repeat step 4 as many times there are polygroups on the body orlimbs.
I would alsorecommend making a copy of all the textures and putting them in an easy tonavigate folder you make instead of folder diving through Runtime\Textures\Daz\Characters\Genesis2\BaseFemale\filename
You can dothis for any kind of texture you wish to load from other daz studio products,such as Victoria 6, Stephanie 6, Michael 6 and so on.
ALTERING THETEXTURE
Once you getthe polygroups surfaces loaded you can now polypaint using your standard brushto alter the textures. Using the color gradient you can use color picker tomatch the color of Bree texture and then slightly adjust it on the gradient tomake it differ. Paint over the existing texture to alter it. You can get realcrazy with this too by painting with Alphas to perhaps add freckles or otherbizarre skin features.
EXPORTINGTHE TEXTURE SO THAT YOU CAN USE IT IN DAZ STUDIO
One you aredone polypainting over the surfaces it’s time to export it into new jpg files,which you can use in Daz Studio.
1) On your left tray, revisit the Texture palette.
2) Click the Export Button
3) Navigate to the folder where you want thisexport to save at.
4) Give your new custom textures a meaningful name
5) Select a file type which typically is jpg butyou have other options if need be
6) And Click Save
That’s it!
I assume youwill know how to load the texture onto G2F once you get back into Daz Studiousing the surfaces tab to replace the original texture once you bring G2F intothe viewport.
OK, happy texturing!This may be will your first step to becoming a Premier Artist selling your ownDaz products you create using zBrush!
