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Questions & Troubleshooting for Image Plane 4

ZBrush Usage Questions
#101

Hi Marcus,
Can you confirm that ImagePlane 4.17 doesn’t support the ability to store unique rotation/scale/translation values for each view?

If I scale, rotate and move a model to match a reference image in, for example, the front view, all the other views scale and move as well. This has the effect of making the model ‘slip’ off of the reference in all views, and makes working an exercise in frustration.

Is this the correct behavior, and I’m just missing something? I seem to remember being able to save unique views in earlier versions of ImagePlane.

#102

Hi Woody,

You should be able to save separate views. Make sure you don’t SHIFT+click the Store View button - SHIFT+clicking will update all the views.

#103

Hey Marcus!
Thanks for the quick response - I’m definitely not shift+clicking the store views button, but I guess that the plugin is acting like I have invoked that global scaling behavior.

Happens at home on my laptop too, also is happening to another person on the character tech team here. Maybe it’s just something wrong with my approach, but I’ve been fussing with it for over a week now with no real long-term success.

I may get the views lined up, but they will eventually fall apart again within a few hours.

In the meantime, I have figured a workaround to the issue by using the views within the zapplink properties. The ZAppLink views are rock-solid. Strange stuff indeed - thanks again Marcus.

#104

Thanks Woody,

I’ll take a look and see if I can make an alternative method for the next update.

In the meantime, holding ALT while clicking the Store View button may stop the plugin thinking you are holding Shift.

#105

OH MY GOD! That was it!
Marcus, I could kiss ya.
Thank you so much - you just totally made my day man. :cool:

#106

Good stuff. But I will change in the next update as the current method is obviously unreliable.

#107

Hi, I have ZBrush 4r5 and the ImagePlane plugin is not there. I’m trying to follow a tutorial that requires it and am stuck. Supposedly it is installed by default but it just isn’t there. Someone please help! :slight_smile:

#108

Look under Texture.

#109

Oh! Thank you Doug!

#110

Hey Marcus,
I have a quick question - ZBrush crashes on me when I try to replace an image backdrop, gives me a locked main mem in list out error. Any idea what’s causing this?

#111

Hi,
Which version of ZBrush are you using?

#112

Hi,

I bought zbrush 4r6 yesterday and i’m having problems with the following:

1- my stored view for the image plane keeps changing or switching by itself without me clicking store view or all so that i would be working on my mesh over my image plane trying to match my character to the stored view of my design and suddenly the view changes and my mesh or character doesn’t match the view anymore.

in addition i noticed this happens as well when i try to delete a subtool in my mesh(tool)

2- couldn’t load an OBJ file using load tool in zbrush after i placed the OBJ file in the projects folder

i know this second question had nothing to do with image planes but i thought maybe i should mention it too

i really appreciate your help. Thank you

#113

  1. Load your backdrop, align the mesh, then click Store View. To return to the stored view, hit the desired camera.

  2. You load tools, but must import OBJ’s
    Hope that helps!

#114

thank you for your answers i just realized that i tried to load the obj instead of import it ( silly of me lol)
about the image plane i supposedly did that i have tried to open a brand new file and import everything as an obj and setting the image plane again hopefully that could solve it

thanks for your help : )

#115

Hey Marcus,
I’m still experiencing this hard crash in ZBrush upon trying to replace a backdrop image. I’m using 4R6, and it’s repeatable on different installations for me.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Import images (front, back, sides, etc.) via the texture palette
  2. Import an OBJ that you will be matching
  3. Align and store your views
  4. Save ZPR project file
  5. Restore Front view
  6. Import a new front image via the texture palette
  7. Select your new image and choose ‘Load Image’ in Image Plane plugin

INTERNAL ERROR .\List.cpp Line:559
Locked main mem in list-out
Object:

Please email us at [email protected] etc, etc.

Gets me every single time.

The other thing that I have noticed is massive degradation in backdrop image quality over successive project saves.
Is there some compression scheme somewhere that is crushing these images into useless pixels? What can be done to maintain image quality over the life of a project if the backdrop images can’t be refreshed without crashing ZBrush?

ImagePlane4_CompressionIssue.JPG

Thanks for your insights Marcus, I hope there’s something I can do!

#116

Hi WoodyLWG,

I’m puzzled by this. I followed your steps but I do not get a crash. What OS are you using? Also, it would be useful if you could let me have a project file to test. I’ll send you a PM.

I think I know why the image is degrading. I will look into correcting that.

#117

I am also having this issue of low quality for a while. Last place I worked, everybody had this issue at some point or another. The solution they came with was to replace the degraded images with fine ones in the image plane plugin folder from time to time. But with newer zbrush version which does not allow allow loading/saving image plane setting separately but rather saves it with the project, that solution is no longer valid.

This topic hasn’t been updated for a while. But, if there is a solution to this quality issue, it would be nice to hear that. I find this plugin very useful in its own way despite new reference features available.

#118

I will provide an improvement to this for the next update. In the meantime, the degradation happens because the plugin saves a shot of the background image in JPEG format. This is fine if you only store a view once but if you repeatedly store a view then the image stored is already of a JPEG and so gradually deteriorates.

Thanks,

#119

Hello Marcus,

Thank you for the quick response. Really appreciate it.

Storing once is somewhat unavoidable when trying to match a model to multiple views as sculpt progresses over time. As I mentioned before, previous versions allowed replacing stored images named back0.jpg, back1.jpg and so forth in \ZStartup\ZPlugs\ImagePlaneData4. Newer versions somehow revert the original copied images back to degraded ones as soon as view is changed in Zb. Looks as if image plane uses a different repository for storing views other that this folder. One more thing I did was making images read-only after replacing. It helped in retaining the quality back in zbrush but brings inability to store any new view changes.

I hope this explanation made some sense and I am sure you will make whatever improvements possible. If I may add, please bring back the ability to save/load zrf option independent of zproject as well.

Thanks

#120

Hello, I am having a lot of trouble loading an image with 2 views of a skull onto the imagPlaneX.ztl tool.

In the 2008 book I have (my more recent version is still in the mail) it says to load the imagPlane tool and draw it on the canvas and switch to Edit mode. Then I hit Double to see all the sides of it when I drag it around. Then I set it to Fast Shader, and white. Then it says open the Texture Palette and clcik Load to get the skullReference texture the book comes with on DVD. I don’t see a Load button in the Texture Palette, but I can Import the SkullReference.psd image and it shows up in the Texture box.

The books says the 2 intersecting planes of the imagePlane Tool will be replaced with the simple skull drawings, one view on each plane. However it does not work. And I can’t figure out how to wrap the image around the intersecting planes either.

I’ll proceed skullpting as I can probably wing it, but this would certainly be a handy thing to know. Any help is greatly appreciated!

SkullReferenceViewProblem.jpg
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