ZBrushCentral

Reusing ZSphere Rig issue

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I set up a rig a while ago using ZSpheres for a character and have saved it via Transpose Master (Save TM Prj). I now want to reuse this rig with another mesh, which is essentially the same mesh with a few minor sculptural changes and no topological changes. But when I paste (PasteTM Rig) the stored rig it pastes in is all squashed instead of to its original stored proportions.

I know I could just re-rig the character, but that defies the point of being able to re-use stored rigs. I remember doing this months back and it worked. Is there anything I’m perhaps doing wrong or missing? As a side note the new mesh has a few small extra subtools added that the original mesh never had. I’m not sure if this could be an issue or not?

Any help would be great. Thanks

#2

Which version of ZBrush are you using, and on what OS? Also, is your model very large or very small?

#3

Hi,

Zbrush 4R3, Windows 7 (64bit). As far as scale goes the character is around 158cm high in 3DSMax - so I’d say real world.

#4

Thanks. On the scale, I was meaning the scale in ZBrush, which isn’t the same as in Max - apologies, I should have explained better. Can you look at the Tool>Preview window? For ZBrush’s ideal size the model would fit in this window. If the model is very large, so the preview is zoomed in, or very small, then that may be causing the problem.

#5

Aah okay, thanks Marcus. Yeah it’s really zoomed in. All I can see is a couple of polys in the preview window.

#6

What you might try is to reduce the size of the ZSphere rig before copying, copy and paste to the new rig, then increase the size again. The Tool>Deformation>Size slider will scale the rig without affecting your mesh.

#7

Thanks Marcus. I’ll give that a go a bit later tonight or tomorrow and let you know how it goes :slight_smile:

#8

Thanks. That seemed to work. Is there any reason that the scale should be out, as they are essentially the same models that I’m copying and pasting from with the exception of some minor sculptural changes?

#9

That’s good to hear, thanks.

I don’t think it is a problem with your models but rather a limitation of the zscript code that is used to copy and paste the rigs. I will take a look at the plugin code to see if it is possible to narrow down at what point the issues occur and so perhaps provide a solution in the next update to Transpose Master.

#10

Fantastic. Thanks Marcus.

#11

Hi,

Whilst on the subject of ZSphere rigging: I’m busy posing a character and have realised that I might need to add a couple of extra bones around the upper rib area to help support deformation whilst posing. Is it possible to save the pose, unbind the mesh, adjust the rig adding in the new bones as needed and then load my pose back in? It would be great if this was somehow possible as I am quite happy with the pose and don’t really want to have to repose her again.

I’m not sure if there is perhaps a better way of approaching what I need done?

Thanks…

#12

You can do that, with a little care:

  1. With your zsphere rig still bound to your mesh, go to the Adaptive Skin menu and set Density to 1
  2. Turn on Preview, or press ‘A’ on the keyboard.
  3. Export the result through the Tool>Export button, selecting GoZ Complete Binary as the file format. Change the name so it starts with ‘Pose’. This will make identification easier later.
  4. Turn off Preview, then store the zsphere rig by pressing the Transpose Master>Store TM Rig button.
  5. In the Tool palette, select the combined mesh that is linked to the rig. It will be called something like ‘Mesh#2_myModel’.
  6. Press Tool>Import and import the GoZ file you exported at (3).
  7. Switch back to the ZSphere rig. It will be named something like ‘ZRig#2_myModel’.
  8. In the Tool>Rigging menu, turn off ‘Bind Mesh’ and then press ‘Select Mesh’. Choose the ‘Pose’ mesh you imported at (6).
  9. Press the Transpose Master>PasteTM Rig button to paste the zsphere rig.
  10. Continuing adjusting the rig if you want before binding and posing.

Note: If you want to save the ZSphere rig configuration to disk, you can save the ZTL of the rig and then use the StoreTM Rig and PasteTM Rig buttons to copy the rig to any Transpose Master rig in a later session.

HTH,

#13

Brilliant! Thanks for that Marcus. I’m already re-posing the character, but I think I’ll still give it a go. It’ll be very handy to know for any future work as well.