ZBrushCentral

Can't export more than 1024X1024 color maps

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

This one is driving me nuts. I had it working a week or two ago but I could swear I’m doing the exact same steps but the texture keeps defaulting to 1024X1024 destroying my color maps so I have to go to the saved file and start all over again. I must have restarted Zbrush 20X in the last hour alone just to make sure it’s clear every time. I’m sorry but man I hate the interface!!! Even being away from it for a week you can forget a single step and be reduced to endless hours of trial and error and endless hours of searching the forums. I wish there was a straight forward way to export maps like every other software on the planet. Personally I hate Poly painting because it causes me endless grief when I try to export the maps. I never used to have this much trouble. Honestly if I could easily reinstall 2.0 I would. I need to build a number of models and paint them over the next two weeks and I can’t keep loosing days to the interface’s bizarre conventions.

I already made a post about this other issue but I never got any follow ups after the first response. The imported models lack detail in LW. After hours of digging and reading I tried what Aurick seemed to be recommending for a workflow but I’m still getting exactly the same results. The steps are very confusing and counter intuitive so it’s possible there’s something still going wrong. There seemed to be some variation in the recommendations which made it more confusing. The whole restoring the mesh is just odd and the terminalogy is hard to get used to. Once again is an “export mesh” too much to ask for? Every time I export a displacement map or texture map there’s a lot of steps and a lot of options and it’s extremely confusing. I’m sure if you work mostly in Zbrush you get used to the bizarre conventions but to the casual user it’s exasperating. I know of several others that I recommended Zbrush to that go through exactly the same thing, if they don’t use it for a few months they end up having to relearn most of the interface. Now there’s all the added features of 3.0 confusing things all the more. I had a system for exporting textures in 2.0 but pixel painting completely screwed up that workflow so I’m back to square one trying to figure out a reliable way to export textures. and in two years of off and on using Zbrush I’ve never gotten better than a soft mushy result in LW for displacements. Just intensely frustriating!

[Sea-Serpent-Comp.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘69852’,‘Sea-Serpent-Comp.jpg’,1,0))

Once again to the right is a Zbrush render which looks fine but the LW render to the left is mushy and now I have the added issue of the low res color maps so even the painting is mush. Having it down res the color maps everytime I try to export it is driving me insane. I learned the last time to set the resolution in the texture window before exporting them but now that isn’t working it drops it to 1024x1024 no matter what I set it at everytime I hit the clr>txr.

#2

Haha wow looks like we were going insane at the same time - I posted the same problem. I import a 2048 texture and can only get out a 1024 map when I go col > txr. Anyone know a fix?

#3

I learned the last time to set the resolution in the texture window before exporting them but now that isn’t working it drops it to 1024x1024 no matter what I set it at everytime I hit the clr>txr.
Just typing the numbers in the texture window does nothing. You have to actually press ‘new’ to tell ZB to create a blank texture that will accept the col->txr info. Or you could just select the original texture you imported into ZB and it will be overwritten at the same rez as it originally was.

As for displacements, blame LW for that. It’s render has never been very good at doing them though i’v heard it’s changing for the better in the latest versions. There’s plenty of threads at CGTalk and Newtek’s site about this so maybe you could try searching there for tips on using it effectively.

#4

Here’s why you need to restore the base mesh before you create a displacement map:


  1. Multi-resolution subdivision editing means that any changes made at one level of the mesh will affect all other levels.
  2. When you subdivide a model with Smt (smoothing) active, the model contracts.
  3. 1 and 2 together mean that when you return to level 1 of your model, it will be smaller than what you started with.

Now let’s look at what a displacement map is. It’s literally a map of the differences between your low resolution mesh and your high resolution mesh. If you want that map to be accurate for the model that it’s going to be rendered to (your imported model), then it needs to be calculated with that version of the model active at level 1. If you just drop to level 1 and don’t restore your base mesh, then your level 1 mesh is going to be smaller and the displacements will be calculated with that in mind. When you export that map and apply it to your original model in your other app, you’re going to get a puffy render for this reason.

It’s also not enough to drop to level 1, create the displacement map, and export both. The reason for this is how other applications render the map. They assume that the map is being rendered onto a cage mesh, which they then divide using the same smoothing routines that ZBrush does. If you just export level 1 out of ZBrush, it’s not a cage mesh. When the rendering engine divides and smooths it, the contraction results in a high level that is different from what the displacement map was calculated for. And again, the render won’t be accurate.

ZBrush provides three methods to restore your base mesh (or create a cage if you don’t have one already):


  • Store a morph target before you ever divide the mesh. When you later return to level one, you simply switch to the stored morph target. This does represent a change to the model, so be sure to switch morph targets again before returning to any higher levels.
  • If you didn’t store a morph target and your mesh was imported from another app, you can go to level 1 and import your original mesh again. This will restore the base mesh the same way that switching back to a stored morph target would have. Because this act will affect all higher levels, it’s recommended that you store a morph target before importing the model again. That way, you can switch to the morph target if you decide that you want to go back up in levels again.
  • If you didn’t store a morph target and don’t have an original version of the mesh to import, you’re still ok. Before creating the displacement map you can turn on Tool>Geometry>Cage. You will then need to export both the displacement map and the model (export the model while Cage is still turned on). Depending on your model, you may get better results with the cage method at level 2 instead of 1.
So if you understand what multi-resolution editing and displacement mapping really are doing, it’s quite easy to avoid problems. Not only that, but ZBrush provides backup methods in case you do forget a step along the way.

The problem is that most people don’t bother to understand what’s happening under the hood. They just want to get in the car and drive, so to speak. But even driving a car you have to know what the various controls do. (It’s not the car maker’s fault that turning on the headlights doesn’t automatically turn off the high-beams in case you forgot to turn them off yourself.) And you still have to understand your route. If you run into a traffic jam and don’t dare try to take an alternate route because you don’t know the streets, who’s fault is it that you take longer to get to your destination?

#5

I still say it’s the most nonintuitive interface ever.

Just for the record I spent several days of last week reading threads about these subjects and often came off more confused than I was going in. The manual also glazes over some major points. It seems most learn the software by hints from threads and endless trial and error.

Aurick, I did follow the steps you laid out for storing the morph and restoring it and this was the result. I’ll try the cage method later today. Just at wits end with Zbrush. I can get a nice result in Zbrush but it doesn’t translate out. I really wish since there a set process for exporting displacement maps that there was a batch command for simply exporting the maps. Zbrush depends on memory more than any intuitive workflow which makes it extremely hard to pick up again after being away for months. What I did remember largely doesn’t apply to 3.0 so I’m nearly back to square one. It took me hours to figure out they renamed my beloved Move tool Tweak. I really do understand what a displacement map is doing the problem is even in this post you didn’t lay out steps. I had to read through a lot of posts trying to figure out what those steps are and they often got grabbled because there were references mixed in with the other options. Even the manuals tend to give fragmentary information and you are left to fill in the gaps.

Every time I hit New the texture went blank. I’ll try to figure out what’s going on. I just wish Zbrush worked like a normal software. Pixel paint just really made it confusing to export and you effectively wipe out the pixel map when you do export but then you go back to it once the export is done. Personally I prefered working on a UV map since what you see is what you get. I wish there was just an export button that would take you to a window with export options for sizing and how to flip the map and file type. I know it seems obvious when you use it every day but hitting the New button only to see your texture map disappear tends to throw one into a panic. You can create a map without it you’re just locked into a 1024X1024 which just adds to the confusion.

I hate Lightwave mostly because it sucks as a character animator. Maya is far better but it’s slow to use and set up characters. It’s also expensive to set up rendering machines since you need full copies. Yes there’s mental ray but the standalone has issues. As bad as Lightwave is as an animator it’s fast to use. I can do in minutes what would take hours in Maya. I also tried Messiah but I could never get the plug in to work in Lightwave so it was a bust. For the type of characters we have the lack of weight painting also made it a lousy option. I spent a lot of hours trying to figure out how to anchor each character to avoid weird distortions. It was a lot better to animate in than Lightwave, somewhere between Lightwave and Maya but not being able to get the plug in to work killed it as an option. There was a lot of boasting that 9.0 Lightwave would handle displacement better but I don’t see the improvement. I’m still having to use a 3D party plug in and the results are still poor. The major improvement was in render times. High poly displacement meshes tend to render nearly as fast as lower poly ones.

#6

Well after much digging and reading I found that the fact hitting the “New” button turning the model white doesn’t mean the texture was wiped out. Well that was a lot of hours of my life I’d love to have back. The problem is setting it to a larger map size isn’t changing the fact the output is blurred like you ran it through a heavy blur in Photoshop. I ran it all the way up to 8000 with no effect so there’s obviously something seriously wrong. Man do I hate Polypainting. It was bad enough that all my displacement maps were mush but now I can’t even paint in Zbrush. I doubt anyone will respond but what’s up and why do I get a low res output no matter the setting? Also each time I hit CLR>TXR it drops the resolution on the model painting so I wind up reloading. Just to make sure everything is clean and limit the options I restart Zbrush each time. I’ve averaged restarting Zbrush 20X an hour through this process. I’m probably going to call tech support tomorrow and see if I can down grade to 2.0 because at least 2.0 was useful. Sorry I’ve just wasted half of the last two weeks on these problems and I’m no closer to solving it. IT SHOULDN’T BE THIS HARD!

#7

Can you post a model that is giving you problems? Or mail to marcus at benbus.co.uk (not too huge a file!). I’ll take a quick look to see if I can help.

#8

hi, was banging my head for long time over same problem. go to this link:

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Baking_PolyPainting_into_a_Texture_Map

follow it to a t and you shouldn’t have a problem. do all your painting first and when everything is ready to export, follow these steps. i was able to create high res maps this way. step 2 is crucial, and you need to make a leap of faith that it will work (because your map does seem to disappear. i recommend saving your painted tool before you go through these steps in case something goes wrong. good luck.

ps-agree with all your non-intuitive comments, i stopped using z for a month or so and i felt as if i was back at square one. it does come back though.

#9

Those instructions don’t do anything useful and seem geared towards ZB2.