ZBrushCentral

Preserve materials from import to export through cleaning

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello everyone!
I’m here because I’ve been confronted with a tricky problem and I can’t seem to find a solution. So here it is.
I’m working with large models coming from photogrammetry. My current model has got several materials to which are attached several textures, which themselves correspond to specific uvs. But when I import my model inside Zbrush, then work on it (clean etc), and then export it back, I realize that in blender, all the materials have disappeared and I have one single material for the entire mesh.

The question is: is there a way to make sure that the materials and the way they are assigned to the faces of the model are preserved after going through Zbrush?

I have tested a few things, one of them is to activated the option “Import mat as groups” in the preferences tab. But then when I work on the model, new polygroups replace the former ones, and the problem remains the same. So maybe there is a way to “copy” the polygroups delimitations to the final mesh?

Thank you very much for your answers.
Maelia

#2

ZBrush doesn’t export materials in OBJ files. Can you use FBX format? The FBX plugin has an “Export polygroups as Mats” option which may solve your problem. There are also other options for import/export which may give you a better solution.

#3

Thank you very much for your answer!
I’ll try that FBX export plugin. Yet there will still be a problem, when cleaning the polygroups get changed while I fill holes for examples. So is there a way to copy and paste the original polygroups onto the final cleaned model, as they were when the model was first imported?

Thank you!