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import texture problem from Photoshop

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has encountered this problem with editing a texture in Photoshop CS2 back to Zbrush. I’m using a Mac.

I exported a texture from Zbrush (originally an alpha, turned texture via the “Make Tx” button), then resaved it in Photoshop CS2. But when I try to import, Zbrush says the file is “invalid”. I’ve tried this with TIF, BMP, and PSD. I’ve done no editing to the image, only resaved the file, and Zbrush won’t accept it, though it works pre-photoshop. Though, one time it did import, but the texture was all noise.

Does anyone know what’s going on?

thanks in advance,
betty

#2

I’ve never heard of this problem. It sounds like either Photoshop is changing the nature of the file (for example, changing it to 16 bits or some such), or your copy of Photoshop might have become corrupted. It’s possible that something could have corrupted the file itself, but that’s unlikely since Photoshop could open the file.

#3

It opens in Photoshop as an 8 bit image (sorry, I wrote 16bit before, I think I got confused with testing the different formats), in all three cases (TIF, BMP, PSD). I don’t think the file’s corrupted, since it works in other applications.

The exact message is:
FILE FORMAT ERROR
Unable to read the specified file

#4

OK, there’s some sort of a setting you’ve got going on in Photoshop that is causing your images to be resampled.

The ONLY thing that ZBrush exports as 16 bit is a TIFF exported from the Alpha palette. Everything else is 8 bit. Also, the recommended format for importing 16 bit images into ZBrush is PSD, and even then it can only be done through the Alpha palette. The Texture palette can only import 8 bits.

#5

I just realized, that the TIF file starts at 2.2MB, and after saving it in photoshop, it becomes a whopping 48MB. Is this a compression issue? Exporting it from Zbrush as a PSD file, it starts off at 48MB… but I don’t know how this would affect the imported file.

Also, as a BMP, you can only export it as a 24bit image with OS/2, but 16, 24, 32 in windows format.

betty

#6

thanks for the advice, but it seems to be working fine now. I think it was just some random glitch. The only different thing, that I did, was edit the PSD file in photoshop and save over it, while zbrush was still running and linking to the texture file. It updated automatically, and from there, I no longer had problems importing any additional edits.

strange enough, on this same day, I stopped having problems with the DExporter (on another thread). but thanks so much!

b

#7

Haha, well I’m having the same problem on two separate machines at work. Is anyone else getting this error? JPG seems to work ok, but BMP and TIF practically never work for me.

#8

only for psd files, at 8bit and 4k. Everything else is just noise.

But I will change it to TIF in photoshop before it goes to Maya or Renderman.

#9

but TIF and BMP are import options for the Alpha, so it looks like they should work… why wouldn’t Zbrush recognize them?

#10

not sure about the bmp problem but zbrush only reads a certain kind of tiff file…there are many versions of tiff files and i couldn’t really tell ya what flavor it is that zbrush prefers.

oh if the bmp files are greater than 16bit files they probably won’t load either.

#11

When importing into the alpha palette it is recommended that you use the PSD format. This ensures that the file is of the right type to bring into ZBrush.

As was mentioned, there are MANY variations on the TIFF format. It’s the perfect format to use when exporting displacement maps from ZBrush, but not for bringing files in.

#12

I’m getting this same problem with .psd files; imported alphas are just noise at 16 bit.

#13

Which version of Photoshop are you using?

#14

I’m on version 8 or cs…

#15

After a bit of experimenting, I`ve concluded that the only acceptable 16 bit PSD file is a greyscale one, not an RGB. Which I shuld have cottoned on to sooner, having looked at some of the sample alphas that ship with ZB!

Cheers,

R

#16

Ahhh, thanks so much for looking into that one, Rory :slight_smile:

#17

I’m using CS2 and I got problems with basicaly any decent image file.

  • PSD, every bit, size, color mode is being rejected by ZB
  • TIFF, the same
  • JPG and BMP are only one accepted but the suck in general.

It is funny cause I bought SIMs DVD with alphas and they are basically the same as mine as far as options are concerned.

As far as I have seen there are people having problems with this but no official statement had been issued on what might be causing it. Help will be appreciated, here.

#18

send me one of your image files that isnt working for you and ill let you know if it works for me,

the only time i have images that dont work it is because they are set to greyscale or some odd bit depth in ps.

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