ZBrushCentral

Why might an insert meshes assigned material change on its own

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Can any one possibly give me an idea of whats going on here:

So I made some insert meshes a while ago, each insert mesh was composed of two parts (two separate sub meshes) and I assigned a material to one of the parts and saved the brushes. They worked fine, when they were used; one of the parts of the insert mesh had the material I chose and the other part of the insert mesh had what ever default material I was using.

Now when I use them on a new project they all have the same different material attached to part with the original assigned material but its not one I chose?

How ever if I go back to the project where I originally assigned the material to them and use them there, they have the correct material that I assigned to them?

How is it possible for an assigned material on an insert mesh to change based on what project it is used in?

Thanks

#2

When you assign a material ZBrush records it as a ‘slot’ based on the order of materials in the Material palette. If the list of materials changes, as it can do with a different project, then sometimes a material can get changed. It may be that for that project the material is in a different slot, or it may be missing from the project altogether.

All you have to do is copy the material you want to the correct slot. You can do this either by

  1. Find the material you want in the Material palette. Press the Copy Mat button towards the top of the Material palette to copy it.
  2. Click+drag from the large material thumbnail to your model to select the material you want to replace.
  3. Press the Paste Mat button.

Or if the material isn’t in the Material palette.

  1. Click+drag from the large material thumbnail to your model to select the material you want to replace.
  2. Press the Material>Load button and select the material from disk. (Or load it through the Lightbox Material tab.)

HTH,

#3

Hmm. I’ve also noticed material changes when loading 4R7 projects into 4R8. In fact it happens all the time.

If the material slots are defined by the loaded project, how does that happen?

I had assumed that the material positions had somehow changed or been reordered in R8 as I’ve
never (to my knowledge anyway) reassigned material slots. (It was either that or assume that R8
was messing up when loading old project material assigments?)

Of course it’s a lot easier to reassign materials to a project than to a MeshInsert brush.

G.

#4

If you have custom materials that load at startup then they might be different between 4R7 and 4R8. I’ve not checked to see if the default materials are different between versions but that is also a possibility.

#5

Thank you Marcus, I was able to fix the problem with your directions.
Yes I had made some changes to my materials that load in to Zbrush since I last used that project.
I did notice that after doing the fix you prescribed there was a change in my start up materials where the one that was erroneously attaching it self to the insert mesh was now gone at start up.

Is there any way to keep materials in their slots as you add and remove materials from the start up list?
Or as you add and remove do all the materials sort of just shift over so in effect all their slots change?

Many Thanks
Susan

#6

I’ve not looked at how ZBrush loads materials but it is probably alphabetically, with the default materials being loaded first. I should think the only way of being sure the slots don’t change is by not changing the startup materials!