ZBrushCentral

Image Format Question

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Over the years i have built and collected a huge library of Alphas/Textures
which are many different file types, .jpg,.bmp,.gif,.psd,.tif,etc…
I tried to load these into Zbrush3 and all the images that were 8-bit failed to
load.So i simply converted all of these images to 16-Bit and all of them loaded
just fine.I do realize that Photoshop has less Tools to work with if the
image is 16-Bit and i may have screwed up but the main point of me having
these images are for use with Zbrush and Maya.I just want a clean library
with every image able to be directly imported and used quickly.
I’m not concerned with file-size so it seems i should just convert all of my images to either .psd or .tif.

Should i just convert all of my Alphas/Textures to psd/tif 16-Bit images?

#2

After doing alot of research and testing, i am way more confused than ever.
All the images that are failing to import to zbrush as Alphas or Textures all
contain 256 in the details box in ACDsee.
As hi-lighted in this image.
Capture.JPG

So i opened all of these images up in Photoshop and all are 8bit grayscale
or indexed images.So i figured ZBrush did not like them for some reason.
So i created a new doc in Photoshop and made it a 8-bit grayscale image
and it imported correctly into Zbrush.So that leaves me clueless.
Why are all the textures and alphas that i have not importing into ZBrush?
Only thing in common that i can find is the 256.
Thanks in advance.

#3

I just use the PSD format for everything. If it’s going into the Texture palette, it should be 8 bit. If it’s going into the Alpha palette, it should be 16 bit grayscale.