ZBrushCentral

Polypainting still painfull (Mac)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have been struggling with polypainting.

Even if I split the object to subtools and increase each of their subdivision level independently, I can’t get enough resolution. If I go beyond 10 million, zBrush becomes very unstable and slow. I’m running Mac version of zBrush 4 with Quad Core Mac Pro and 8 gigs of ram.

Moreover I have still trouble with preparing evenly spaced mesh, thus the polypainting resolution not constant among the object. “Equalize mesh density” causes mesh to break in many cases.

I have been successful with human faces which have very dense and equally spaced mesh to begin with, but all other types of objects such as cars, planes have been problematic because of the problems I mentioned above.

And even if I was able to get nice looking polypaint in some areas, the resolution is still not what I’d like it to be. HD Geometry keeps causing frequent crashes for me and seems very sluggish on Mac. Do I need more memory?

Any ideas how to improve my workflow when using polypainting?

#2

Use UV maps and texture painting?

As a fully signed up member of the ‘texture paint’ camp (as opposed to the
‘polypaint’ camp). I’ve always had problems getting quality out of polypaint,
for exactly the reasons you state above (uneven polygon distribution).

The answer for me (and many others) is to use the more traditional texture
painting methods.

[Ducks and runs. Sure to be someone along in a moment to say why
polypaint is preferred…:D]

#3

I use mudbox because I have the same problem as you in zbrush :s

#4

I hear ya…
It would be great if you could paint directly on the texture with spotlight.
Maybe I’m just dreaming or is there a way to do this?

Oh and while making demands could I also have a wacom pen with built in scroll wheel where the button is?

Sasha Stanojevic
SashCo.ca

#5

Curious. I’d like to read more comments from you.

#6

Have any of you used HD Geometry for polypainting? You can get more than enough detail on even a lowish spec system and convert to a texture when you are done.