Hello everyone, I have a issue with my alpha mask pixelating when I inflate the pattern. I was wondering why is it pixelating? is it because I made the alpha in photoshop and I should of made it in illustrator? or it has something to do with my UV’s? or not enough Geo? I divided the geo to 32 mil to see if it made any deference but it did not. So that’s the issue. So I am thinking its the alpha? Any suggestions on how you guys make clean alphas? I hope I hear from you guys soon. Thanks in advance.
Hi @MrSazo
The alpha should be a 16 bit grayscale image in .PSD (Photoshop Document) format. Do not use .JPEG images. 32 million should be enough mesh resolution, but make sure the alpha resolution is large also. At least 2048 x 2048. If you are going to have all those pieces on the same alpha, then also try 4096 x 4096 alpha resolution.
Also, questions of this nature should be posted in the ZBrush Help Forum . You should get quicker help in that forum.
Good luck!
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I see. Thank you for the fast reply brother I really appreciate it. OK thank you for the heads up on what section to post I always had a hard time navigating on this forums.
OK so it doesn’t matter were you create the design got that clear. The design file size is 8k but the resolution is 72 and its 8 bit. Going to convert the file to 16 bit and double the resolution size to 144 see if that makes a difference. Ill keep you posted brother. Cheers.
Hello once again. I changed the settings has you mentioned and it still pixelates. Damn I wonder what am I doing wrong? I am editing the pattern and making the lines thicker see is that makes a difference. I am looking on how to delete this post to post on the right forum but I cant find the button to do so.
Don’t worry about deleting this post now.
Just changing an 8 bit to 16 bit isn’t going to work. It should be created in 16 bit to begin with. When you create an alpha in ZBrush, it is exported as a 16 bit .PSD file. That is what works best in ZBrush. Was this alpha something that you downloaded from somewhere? You didn’t mention anything about that. The reason I ask is something you downloaded could have started out as anything. Maybe it was a JPEG that somebody converted to a PSD. Can you post the original alpha here so we can have a look at it?
Hi,
BTW, a ‘resolution’ of 72 or 144 has nothing to do with the real picture resolution. This 72 or 144 DPI (dots per inch) is only relevant for the size of the picture if you want to print it out
If you increase the resolution (number of pixels in x and y direction) to 8k and increase the depth from 8 bit to 16 bit then you could use e.g. a decent blur after the change of the depth and before you increase the resolution to smooth the hard edges.
CU.
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That is my first mistake creating the alpha 8bit. I created the file in PS with default file settings which is 8 bit. I didn’t realize that it should of been 16bit and now I know thanks to you. I used a pattern from online and manipulated in PS to fit my UV layout then filled it with black imported into Zbrush, flipped alpha then masked projected on to mesh and inflate. Thank you once again for the information now I know for next project. Cheers 
Oh ok see that makes sense i wasn’t aware that it worked like that. Thank you it was very informative!