i’ve created a custom alpha in photoshop. White for the alpha, and black for the background (to be masked out auutomatically by zbrush). i set it to 16bit and saved a photoshop file. in Zbrush when i try masking with the alpha it doesnt do a 100% opacity mask. its probably about 90% so not a complete mask.
am i doing something wrong?
Is the RGB slider for the brush you are using to apply the mask set to 100%?
Is the intensity slider in the masking palette set to 100%?
yes… both are set to 100%
is there something i need to be sure to do in photoshop when prepping the file for zbrush?
Well, obviously the image has to be 100% black and 100% white unless you want half tones. If this is in doubt, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to open it back up in photoshop and apply a level or contrast adjustment to make sure you have 100% B/W.
Just out of curiosity, and I apologize for mentioning it, I dont know how new you are to the program…but you know the masking is represented in Zbrush as a sort of light grey tone? What is happening that makes you think you are getting about 90% masking?
Perhaps a screenshot would be helpful.
no worries. i have been using for years. its not 100% masking b/c when i paint over the custom mask it raises on the mask. of course there is still some masking but it def isnt 100%. also when i redraw another mask on top of the previous one but at a different position i can see it getting slightly darker where the masks overlap… also when painting over the double mask like i did before it does not raise (or indent) where the masks are doubled on top of eachother.
Huh.
Well, 3.5 (I’m assuming that is what youre using) has a strong “radial fade” effect applied to the alphas. It is possible a significant part of the alpha 's intensity is getting clipped by this. You might try moving your brush’s focal shift all the way to the left.
Other than that, a slider at less than 100% somewhere, or an alpha with grey tones, I have no idea 
man… im an idiot.
had to do this logged in remotely to my home comp, but i believe the issue was the Focal Shift. dropping it to -100 seems to have given my a complete mask!
the focal shift adjustment dose not work well in all cases. Often it makes the mask more rounded. bleh, I’m ready for Zbrush 3.6 :rolleyes: