ZBrushCentral

Polypainting and dark colours with materials.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I am currently attempting to do some polypainting for a game character and was hoping that I would be able to paint both colour and spec maps in zbrush so that it would allow me to see what the model was going to look like when rendered, as opposed to editing the spec map in and out of photoshop.
I realise that I could make colour and spec maps seperately, but is there a way to have them both visible at the same time whilst polypainting?
Basically the problem I am facing just now is, if I fill an object with a specular material then obviously I can see how shiny it is, but when I start painting darker colours on top the specularity is reduced. Is there a way to paint the dark colours whilst maintaining the current spec level?

many thanks.

#2

Zbrush doesn’t support specular maps, as far as I’m aware. There are tricks to generate them, and there are tricks to manipulate specularity in zbrush renders, but there’s no way to show a true spec map like you would in Maya.

If you need an actual specular map for another 3D program, you’ll have to create one in zbrush, and edit it elsewhere.