ZBrushCentral

Timeline - Snapping Between Layer Keyframes

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I’m right now playing around with a model’s layers (for things like face shapes), and it occurred to me that it would be a lot easier to test how the shapes mix and combine by using the timeline. Right now, for me to see how to shapes compare to each other, I have to turn one off, then the other on, and I try to ignore the part where I see the base layer in between. Theoretically, I could instead have one keyframe with only one layer on, another keyframe with another layer on, and then compare the two by just jumping between the two keyframes. Perfect!

Unfortunately, I’ve found 2 problems with the timeline that are making this near impossible.

  1. ZBrush’s timeline stores the keyframes as fractions of a second instead of as frames. So, when I place a keyframe for one layer and then try to place the keyframe for the next layer in exactly the same spot, I usually miss. In a program built for animation like Blender, it’s easy to place a keyframe on the exact right frame, but in ZBrush, it’s easy to try to place a keyframe at 1.23 and instead place it at 1.24. Is there any way to get ZBrush to place keyframes while snapping those keyframes to frames instead of fractions?

  2. ZBRUSH DOESN’T SEEM TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO JUMP BETWEEN / SNAP TO LAYER KEYFRAMES!!! ZBrush can jump between camera keyframes using the left and right arrow keys. But ZBrush doesn’t seem to be able to jump any other keyframes. This creates problems, because when I want to jump to a keyframe to see how a particular layer looks at a value of 1, I have to click on the exact right part of the timeline, I miss, and I get to see my layer at 0.95 instead of 1. This is mind-blowingly frustrating. Is there any way to jump precisely to layer keyframes?

Are there solutions to these problems? Or is this just the way ZBrush is? Like, I know ZBrush is sculpting software, not animation software, but… I’d think being able to animate keyframes to test how they compare to each other / work together would be pretty useful. Any help would be appreciated, even a “No, ZBrush can’t do that.” lol Thanks!

P.S. I still have the pre-Maxoned version of ZBrush, in case that helps things.