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How to render correctly

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello Everyone,

I’m hoping to get some help in rendering an image. This is the situation. I created a model in ZB4, which I would like to save as a .psd file and transport to Photoshop. It is intended as an illustration. I created the model as a ZB project (.zpr) so that I could save the texturing and lighting. (My experience is that I can’t do that with a Ztool.)

I opened the .zpr file, went to the document palette, and resized the document to 8192x7274, the largest size I could specify given the proportions. (I want to be able to make a high quality 23x35 inch print.) Apparently, resizing the document drops the image to the canvas, because the Edit button is no longer available. Also, BPR is unavailable in the Render palette. So, I can’t render the model. (I also notice there are fine white lines in the image, almost as if I were intentionally trying to create a canvas texture.) Can anyone explain the right way to do this? Thanks.
#2
  1. Load your ztool but do not draw it on the canvas yet.
  2. In the Document menu, turn Pro off, enter your image dimensions, click Resize button.
  3. On right shelf, click and drag on Zoom document button and zoom out so you see the edges of your document.
  4. Draw your ztool on the canvas so it fits in the document the way you want then render it.
  5. Go to Document menu and export.

If you have .ZPR instead of .ZTL then

  1. Open your .ZPR
  2. Resize your document as in step 2 above.
  3. Use Ctrl+N to clear the canvas.
  4. Do steps 3 and 4 and 5 as above.
#3

Zyber, thanks. That worked. I hope you don’t mind a follow-up question. I have a model with some polypainting and Spotlight texturing. If I save the model as a .ztl, I can bring it back intact (i.e., with texturing) but only so long as I keep ZB open. If I close the program, reopen it, and load the tool, the painting/texturing is gone. The only way I know to save the model intact is to save it as a .zpr. Then my polypainted, Spotlight-textured model can be further refined. However, project files I believe are new to ZB4. Surely, people have been working on and saving painted & textured models since long before that. Is there as way to progressively refine (paint,texture) a model and save/reload it as a tool? What did people do before project files?

#4

Polypainting is saved with the ZTool. I think that maybe you are not filling the tool with a base material and color (Color > FillObject) before you start polypainting, and that is why it isn’t saving.

Edit: Do you mean if you don’t do any polypainting and don’t save the ZTool and close ZBrush, you lose all the polypainting when you reload the Ztool? I can’t see that happening. Something is definately wrong if that is the case.