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Polypainting question!! zb 3.5 --- blurry polypaint texture.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi there!

well first of all I want to say that I’ve been following this forum for quite a while and always finding lots of useful ressources to learn zbrush but haven’t post until now, I will start to post some work pretty soon as I’ve been quite busy trying to put althogher stuff for my portfolio (environment artist).

Ok, my question as I am kind of new to zbrush texturing is the following, I am trying to build a semi-rocky floor surface using a mix of noise and polypainting.

and so far I am kind of happy with the result, but I am having trouble when exporting the file, as when I preview it in photoshop at a 100% it does look blurry so then I have to add some unsharp mask, but then if I end up adding too much, the texture just turns out too noisy.

I am sure I am doing something wrong, that’s the reason I seek your advice;)

So First I start in zbrush by importing the “plane” unwrapped (the plane represents the floor surface in my 3ds max scene)

and start playing with some noise curves, masking and polypaing with alphas.

then I click on top, in texture and create a new 4096*4096 texture, and finally going to the right side texture menu and do: new texture from polypaing, and then cloning the texture. to be able to export it. (and here is when I get a “blurry” image at 100% in ps.

So I am probably doing something wrong since I start texturing (polypainting), how does zb know the size of the texture I want to output before I start polypainting, if there is something else I need to look at? if so, what will be the correct workflow.

and my second question will be, I remember when I used zb 3.1 (now using zb 3.5 R3 at school) if you loaded a texture in the leftmenu, it automatically displayed onto your object, and then I could do mask by intensity, inflate, etc.
But now I am importing a texture (my object is already unwraped) and also flipping the texture as I know zb displays it inversed by default, but is not showing in my object, shall I click something to apply it, is it a bug? or there is something I am completely passing over!!

Well if you took the time to read this and actually can help me a bit I will be enormously thankfull, have a good one guys!

#2

You need to use the Tool>UV Map menu to set the desired texture size. This is a change from 3.1.

Also, how many polygons is the model itself? The number of polys should be about equal to the number of texture pixels. Too few pixels and you’ll lose detail. Too many and you’ll get loss of quality because ZBrush must interpolate to create data and fill in the extra pixels. So a 1024 texture size should be used for a 1 million poly model. A 2048 texture for a 3-4 million poly model. A 4096 texture is appropriate for a 10-12 million poly model. (Depending on the actual UV mapping and how much texture space is wasted.)

#3

wow that was fast!! thank you very much Aurick, the plane is
9.7 million polygons, and I am needing a 4k texture as the camera is almost facing the floor. so I guess at if I follow the rule you just tell me, I should probably try one more subdivision. to pass 10 million.

Also I didn’t know that you could get some data loss for having a too big model is good to know though. It makes sense.

So when you say utilize the Tool>UV Map menu, you mean to set the texture size before polypainting right?.

Also about not having my texture displayed onto my object when I import it, as it use to be in 3.1 straightly, is there is anything I am missing?

I thank you for your time in advance.

#4

Hi aurick, thanks a lot for your time answering, I actually understand what you say about setting the map size, it does make sense. and also about the equivalence for the polypaint polygons and texture maps.

What I am not able to do now, and I may sound “dumb” a bit, is the
fact that I am not able to visualize my texture in my object. I’ll explain myself.

when using version 3.1, I remember I used to import my texture in the leftbar texture menu, and I had it automatically display over my object, then I was going to texture menu, flipping it vertically and I had my texture in my object the way it is supposed to look regarding my uv coordinates, then I was doing some masking by intensity and inflate to accentuate some details.

Is this process that I am not quite getting with ZB 3.5 R3. Because I am not able to see my texture when I import it (I mean over my object) and by consecuence I can’t do mask by intensity.

The reason I also want to load my texture, (I already done, and make it fit with objet’s uvs) is so that I can sculp over it.

thanks for your time again, I really appeciate it.

#5

Hi, I finally figured out how, thanks for your help

#6

hey,dude m facing same problem…could u please help me out with…what solution u figured out… :cry: