For some reason I have to RE-load my alphas everytime I restart Z-Brush. I would like to load the alphas and have them stay there. Could someone tell me how to do this?
Unfortunately that is not possible in a fresh ZBrush 2 installation. You can however make use of a zplugin by Marcus_Civis called Alpha & Textures Loader, which gives you quick access to an alpha/texture library of your design.
Here is a link to instructions on how to modify your DefaultZbrush.txt file to setup an autoload list of favorite alphas each time you start ZBrush.
Note: the list itself is in a secondary file called alphaload.txt to make it easier to maintain and update without editing the DefaultZbrush.txt file.
Keep in mind that each custom alpha you add will use some memory.
Sven
[tip… In the first line of the loop to load the alphas, I’ve modified the IF test like this:
[If, [IExists,ALPHA:Clip] = 0,
[FileNameSetNext,“ZBRUSH_ZAlphas\Alphas\Clip.jpg”]
What this does is look to see if my first custom alpha (called Clip.jpg) was already loaded. If Clip.jpg is present then it (and the rest of the alphas) WON’T be loaded a second time. Instead of Clip.jpg you would use the name of the first alpha image in your own custom list.]
great info thanks… I will try this… is there a feature like this in 3.5 yet?
hopefully light box will include alphas in the next patch. but yes in theory, 3.5 will do this. currently I have to direct light box to my alpha directory, then select the alpha i want. The current issue I have is that the alpha then loads into the texture brush… not the alpha. so then i have to import the dang alpha. At least light box lets me view the alpha before i select it. I have all of the alphas downloaded from the library. there are too many to remember them all by name alone.
If anyone knows a way around this please chime in. I am currently at a loss.
Hey Gridlost – did you ever find a solution for this? I’m running into the same problem of Alphas selected in Light Box loading into the Texture palette. 
I’m using 3.5 R3 on Win 7.
The solution is very simple … color images will load into the Texture menu and Grayscale images will load into the Alpha menu.
Ares free alphas are all greyscale and they are loading into the texture box if you use lightbox
In order for ZBrush to recognize a file as an Alpha it must be a 16-bit Grayscale PSD. Anything else will be seen as a texture.
(You can force loading of other formats as an alpha by using the Alpha>Import button. But for it to be loaded correctly through LightBox or by placing it in the ZStartup\Alphas folder it must be the format above.)
what’s the best way to convert a normal jpg to 16bit psd? Any free software that does this? I can’t find the option with gimp.