Sorry for bringing this back up again but I just can’t get it to work.
I simply want to use PM to paint a texture on my model.
I need the texture to be applied to a 3d plane so I can use the move brush to stretch the texture as needed.
I would be extremely grateful if someone could explain it step by step cause I must be missing something.
I have this thread posted before:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=76655
Husse
it’s rather simple actually. When I start rendering tonight I will do up a video showing you how to use PM for textures as well as the Zproject brush (the way I do it…now that Zapplink is gone 
If anyone else gets to it before me, more power to them.
I’m still having to babysit these renders. I’ll do one up tomorrow sometime.
goast, you will be my new hero!!! Can’t wait!
Husse
Still haven’t had time. This project is haunting me. Once that is done…hopefully this is the last day that the client makes changes I will do it up. I hope to have some time tomorrow in the morning. But we will see.
I hope you get your project is going to work out for you and your
client is happy!
So looking forward to a tutorial on this.
Husse
Well…I just made up your video. The problem is Camtasia crashes everytime I go to save the damn thing. AHH!!!
Oh no!
I’m soooo looking forward to it!
Hope you manage to make it work!
Husse
Hey goast!
Did you get the Camtasia to work eventually?
Husse
Hi guys,
Yeah I’m also looking for this one, I couldn’t paint on a sculpt unless I made it a polymesh3d.
My question is that I want to put this texture on a low polygon head model in Maya, do I have to UV map my head first before I sculpt? can I make a UV within Zbrush for it?
I guess it works the same way as making a displacement map, I can get that workflow to work but texturing it seems abit more of a pain.
cheers
There are myriad ways to apply textures in Zbrush. Its just a matter of knowing what the individual functions do, and figuring out the best way to do what you want to do.
If all you want to do is move, stretch, to position along a surface in PM, you dont even need to mess with image planes. Just:
Drop a tool with PM, with color on, either via an apllied texture, or polypaint.
Select a 2.5D brush that supports the necessary charcteristics you want. (They all have slightly different behavior, you’ll have to experiement). Some dont support textures, some only support moving and scaling of the stroke. The Depth brush supports all of these, as does the directional brush, with the added benefit of a normalized stroke that will adjust to the angle of the underlying object.
Set the stroke type to “drag rect”. Assign the image you want to transfer as a texture to the brush, in the brush’s texture slot. Set the alpha to “Off”, unless you do want to apply the image with a specific shape.
4)Drag out the texture anywhere you want over top the model.
Without doing anything else after making the stroke, on the top shelf next to the “draw mode” button, select either Move, Scale, or Rotate (if the brush supports it), and a manipulator will pop up allowing you to modify the stroke you just made (which in this case, is the image). You can scale it globally, or you can “stretch” the image horizontally or vertically if you drag on the specific parts of the manipulator. You can edit it indefinitely, until you make some action that would commit the stroke (like going back to draw mode and making another stroke).
Position as desired. Pickup the model in PM, which will drop the texture onto the model (remember to turn off fade if this effect is undesired.
Viola.
OR
If you want an even fancier , interactive experience when the texture plane is treated like areal object, and you can position it in real time with you model, make use of the Image Plane plug in, and follow the steps in this older (but still relevant) image plane texturing tutorial with the Zproject brush:
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Tutorial:ZProject_and_Adjusting_Photo_Reference
ADDITIONALLY
you want to be even fancier, and be able to “smudge” the texture around to fit for fine detail adjustments, or move the plane around with the transpose tools, before going through the above process:
Select the image plane that was just created.
Convert it to a PM3d Object. (Tool>Make Polymesh 3d)
3)Select the newly created PM3D plane from the tool menu and apply the image to it as a texture by clicking on the preview window in the “Texture Map” menu. (It should already have logical UVs for this purpose, and the image should apply to the plane without fuss).
You will then be able to append it to the main model as in the tut above, but use the transpose tools (move scale rotate) to move it around and scale it, but you can also use the “move” brush when forward facing to “smudge” the details of the image around in 2 dimensions (subdivide the grid more for finer control).
Use the same process as the tut, and use the Zproject brush to transfer the color detail to the other subtool when it has been perfectly positioned.
Thank’s for that indepth info Scott!!
I will surely try some of those techniques.
I guess using the now working Zapplink would do the same as image plane.
Husse
Or Zapp link, yes, which has the benefit of giving you access to all of Photoshop’s tools as well. I keep forgetting we have that back now, thank goodness. Although, it should be pointed out that once youre set up to work, working with Zproject in Zbrush can be much faster and more interactive than having to go through the whole Zapp link rigamorole for multiple angles. It just depends on what youre doing.
Point is, there are at least a half a dozen ways to do anything in Zbrush.
That’s kind of the tricky bit. 
I still think the image plane in PM seems so be the easiest way to do the kind of texturing I need If I only could get it to work… I tried a bit yesterday evening but no luck so far. I’m going to try ZAppling too tonight and see if that works better. I guess it’s like doing things in PM but roundtripping in PS instead.
Husse