ZBrushCentral

Baking shadows and AUV/PUV/GUV etc. :s

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello.

I’m loving ZBrush, it’s really an impressive tool. And this forum seems to be super friendly which seems to be getting rare nowadays, so all in all it’s all good. :slight_smile:

Now, I’ve got an environment I’m working on, it’s consists of several chunks which are all sub tools in my document. When I do a best render, I get the lovely occlusion. Can I bake that occlusion into the polypaint textures after I’ve textured the pieces, then export those as maps?

Also, AUV/GUV and PUV, which would you say is the best for space saving, i.e. smaller final image?

Regards, E.

#2

There is a feature in ZBrush 3.2 called Ambient Occlusion Masking. It and its modifiers are in the Tool>Masking menu. After creating the mask you can convert it to an alpha. That can be exported for use in any number of ways.

Regarding mapping, PUV tiles is the most efficient method created yet.

#3

Ahh, very cool. :slight_smile: For some reason I can’t make a map from the alpha, it’s just pure white. That will be my next thing to research. Thanks for the tip. :slight_smile:

#4

Remember that after creating the mask you need to use Tool>Masking>Create Alpha to convert the mask to an alpha. Also, the Alpha palette is 16-bit. Depending on the intensity of the masking, that may be too faint to be visible to the naked eye when viewed at that bit depth. What happens if you convert the alpha to a texture? The Texture palette is 8-bit.

#5

Thank you, it’s working a charm now. :slight_smile: