ZBrushCentral

Importing color 3d scan

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Under the “scientific illustration” section of the info on Zbrush it specifically says
: Color information, acquired through advanced scanning techniques, will be retained and can be edited using ZBrushs Polypainting techniques.

However I cannot figure out how to import color 3d scanned data. I am using skanect. I can export a color file as a .vrml with color per vertex or an .obj with a texture map, and open both of these in Meshlab perfectly. But any way I try, I can’t get the color info to load into zbrush. I understand it is theoretically possible to save and load color info per vertex in an .stl file but that doesn’t seem to work at all.

Is there a way for zbrush to read an .mtl file along with a .png texture file ? Meshlab reads it just fine, automatically so I know it is exporting correctly. Any way this is possible, to load the color data into zbrush, please tell me.

#2

i don’t know about importing scan data.
but as for the texture, import the object whichever way. import the png texture. then apply the texture to the object via texture palette, or load the texture in the texture window and fill the object same as if you were filling with color. that will apply the texture as paint.
if you apply it as paint, depending on how detailed the texture is, you may want to subdivide the poly count up to about the same resolution as the texture. like a million pixels calls for a million polys. it doesn’t have to be exact, just in the neighborhood.

#3

zbrush doesn’t read vertex color information…just writes it. Kinda dumb, but it is what it is for the time.

Anyway.

texture.import
texture.flipV

tool.texture.select texture.
Tada.

If you want to edit the texture directly you have a few options, you can edit the actual texture using projection master or Zapplink.
If you want to edit the texture after converting it back into polypaint data

tool.polypaint.new from texture…or convert from…or something along those lines.