Loking at the layers pallatte it seems these tools are designed for 2.5D painting and not for applying color to a ztool you want to maintain as a 3D mesh. Is there a way in zbrush to apply color to a ztool in layers which can be adjusted independently of one another?
Thanks,
Scott
…“Fill object” in the Color Menu when you are in “Edit Mode” ?
Or in normal mode Just change tool and come back to the same tool for choose an another color ? 
(sphere --> cone tempo --> sphere for example to have a Sphere red and another blue)
Pilou
The only ways to apply colors directly to a model are vertex shading (as per Frenchy’s suggestion) or Projection Master. Neither of these options supports multiple layers.
You could, however, unwrap your texture to the canvas and paint with multiple layers that way.
Scott, whenever the zbrush SDK is released, i’ll begin work on this. I’ve been tossing around the idea of texturing in zbrush on seperate layers for quite some time now.
Imagine texturing in layers just as you would in photoshop, except the canvas upon which you would paint and the layers themselves are confined to the the surface of the model itself. Some additional features would be things like adjusting layer opacity, blend modes, creating layer masks, layer reordering, etc.
the whole purpose of the plug-in is to allow you to be more versitle in texturing. And since materials are stored in a channel in the texture maps in zbrush, you could also paint multiple channel maps (diffuse, bump, specular) simultaneously and see the combined result by adjusting layer settings.
Thanks for the replies all.
abxy: Thats the functionality I was looking for exactly. Best of luck on that plugin as it would vastly expand the usefulness of zbrush’s painting tools.
Scott
Scott,
you can use PS without flattening layers and have zbrush open at the same time…work on the layers in PS and save as psd and see the changes automatically in zbrush…very cool option. I have alot of fun playing with this when I have the time.
Keep in mind it won’t do ya much good if ya used auv or guv tiles tho.
being able to paint on layers directly in ZBrush would rock. <clamps onto thread>
Actually you can paint in layers. However it’s so not as easy as it is in photoshop.
It requires a bit of forethought.
But you can fill the screen with your texture then use grab doc in the alpha palette or use mrgbzgrabber to grab both texture and alpha.
fill a layer with the alpha, use a base material you can alter for all your needs…Zmats plugin (link in signature) would be good utility for this. decide which layer is gonna do what…ie layer one…flat base color, layer two --shading, layer 3 specular highlights you can bake and blend away.
see this threadfor some ideas for trying this.
No promises but if I get a second in the next couple days, I will post up some examples.
Aminuts: Thanks for the great reply. As always your answers are dead on and very useful!
thanks everyone.
Scott
hey, aminuts, thanks for your response. i looked at the thread, and maybe i’m misunderstanding (newbie), but it seems like it applies to 2d images. what i’m hoping for at some point would be to be able paint on a 3d model in layers, eg. to have a base skin tone layer, and a freckles layer, and a scars layer, etc, that would stay live and when you export the obj and texture to use in another prog would export as a layered file. benefits are primarily the editability of the textures when things change down the road (eg. art director hates freckles–right now they have to be painted out manually, rather than getting rid of a layer). i know right now you can work back and forth btwn pshop in layers and ZB, but it’s pretty impossible with either of the better tiling systems, and much more intuitive to paint right on the object, anyway.
asking a lot i know :D, and i have no idea whether this is something that’s even scriptable, or if it would need to be in the program.
I cant agree more that a simple layer system is needed in Zbrush. There is no way I can paint maps on just one layer. Its just impossible to rework at a later date. I had a job recently which just would not have been possible without layers, they are an integeral part of the texturing process.
I agree Artemesia!!!
But for now…being able to use photoshop psd’s and photoshop and zbrush at the same time is the best option.
you can still use zbrush to bake layers or whatever you need zbrush to do…just make that layer current in PS, do your thing, save the texture again, go back to ps and check that layer.
Lot’s and lot’s of options…it’s probably one of the least used. I like to paint my textures in layers in PM but as you have pointed out it ain’t possible in zbrush to do that in a live model and have all layers editable elsewhere…although I just gave myself an idea to try while typing this…if it works out, I’ll post a tutorial.