ZBrushCentral

Save light positions...?

ZBrush Artworks
#1

And their properties? Am I missing something? I’ve never been able to save my lights. Lighting is the most important aspect for my final renders and I can waste the entire day just playing with the lights. Please tell me I can save my hard work!

Also, I’ve never been able to get the Spot lights to illuminate properly. They’re either too dull or too intense and they’re never big enough (even with the radius set to “4)”. More like a flashlight than a spotlight.

Suggestions, tips, instructions, brow furrowing…deeply appreciated.

Adman

#2

Adman,I believe that every time you save a Zdoc, all the lighting is saved with it. Are you saying that when you make some light changes, render it, think to yourself,“yeah, that looks pretty cool”, save the document, and then re-open it later the lighting has reverted back to the standard default settings? That shouldn’t happen.

I agree with you about the lighting. I can’t remember how many HOURS I spent lighting and re-lighting my Sinesssa pic. But when I load it up in Zbrush, all the lighting is intact.
I haven’t really gotten the handle on the use of the spots yet, either.

#3

Nikko,

Yes, after saving the document with multiple lights, positions, types, intensity, etc., re-open it later…the lights have gone back to the default. I figured the lights should be saved. Anyone have any thoughts on why they are not? I’m using version 1.13 on a Mac. System 9.0.4.

In the meantime, I’ll do some troubleshooting.

thanks,
Adman

#4

Okay, me again.

Sometimes I’m not the sharpest tack in the box. If I’ve saved a file after modeling or painting, then do some lighting, it seems ZBrush doesn’t recognize the change and the “save” button is greyed out. I haven’t really noticed this before since I’m using the keyboard shortcut for saving. So, if I “resave” the file, all is well and the light positions are saved.

Still playing with the spotlights, though. :confused:

Adman

#5

Hi Adman
I was playing around with spot-lights the otherday and wasn’t having the best of luck either. When I turned a light into a spotlight everything went grey looking. I discovered the default setting for the spotlight seems to be pretty close to the canvas layer, so you have to move the light forward so it is in front of the model by changing the Z-postion in the lighting palette’s modifiers. You can also play around with the radius.
I still ended up with some weird effects though.
Sorry, I’m not much help here.
Upham

#6

I too would like to understand the lights better. The only light I seem to be able to use with any success is the sun. A number of things bother me about the lights, perhaps someone here can help me better understand.

The objects on the canvas use one unit of distance measure and the lights use a different measure - how do they relate particularly on the Z.

The point and spot seem extremely narrow in their capabilities. The point will only light a small area/distance. Imagine a campfire ringed by stones - I can’t seem to be able to place a point light in the center - anyone?

When using points what I see under preview render vs best render is often completely different both in area lit and the placement of the highlights.

What would be helpful would be an indicator for Z (not the picker) on the canvas for spots and points. The points to have a much greater intensity range and the sun to exceed 90 degrees in elevation, plus numerical input.

In reality, multiple suns are adequate for most everything but since this topic appeared . . . . . :smiley:

jd

#7

Heres what little I know of the spotlight. I had to rely on the popups that Zbrush provide as there isn’t any written documentation, yet about lights. (besides Southern’s tut)

Here’s a model with the default 2 sun lights.
:red_circle: Edit! :red_circle: Model by Kurisu!!! Doh, Sorry!

  :small_orange_diamond: To figure out how spotlights work I turned off everything (global ambient, and the second sun-light and changed the first light to a spot. I turned up the intensity and radius to full.

  [img]http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads0/user_image-990614001tno.gif[/img]        

  :small_orange_diamond: Everything goes blah. So I fiddle around with the placement sliders and figure out the Z_Pos needs to be brought forward, (Z_Pos slider moved to the left). To my knowledge, a spot light usually consists of two points: a spot-lights emination point, and the spot's target. I figer that the wee-square box in the light placement is an X-Y representation of the actual spotlight and that you move the square around to position the light and then use the XYZ_Pos sliders to move the spot's-target around, left-right & up and down and in & out. I guess the Z_position of the actual spotlight is the same Z-distance away as the "camera" (our view) and you can't move it closer.

  [img]http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads0/user_image-990614115xzr.gif[/img]

:warning: In the pic above I put the spot above the model to create a moody look but I get strange light patches where I wasn’t expecting the light to hit - light under the nose and nostrils, light on top of the eyeballs and light inside the ears.

   [img]http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-990614568suu.gif[/img]       

  :small_orange_diamond: It's then that I find the placement click and drag button.     :)      :)      :)  Its the long vertical button with a P on it beside the XYZ sliders. I click-&-hold and drag the cursor onto the model to place the spots XYZ-target. Suddenly the lights went on in my head! Ping! (trust Pix to make it so damn easy!)  After that,I found if you move the wee-square in the light-placement closer to the spots target it gets brighter, (naturally). Once the hot-spots are found and the light is bouncing into the "camera" (our view), it's then that I reduce the intensity and radius to how I like. This is the main reason I use spots, is to create "Hotspots" on the object.

    [img]http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-990614169iiy.gif[/img]        

  :small_orange_diamond: I have a wee play around with the point light type and get more strange results, with light seemingly coming from inside the ear. Weird.

:question: Could someone please explain the difference between a spot and a point light? Or whats the difference between a point and a sun? :confused:

Upham. :slight_smile:

#8

Very good Upham. Your statement that the spot light is sitting at the camera’s plane lit a bulb in my head :wink: this plane may be rotated but the light would always sit outside of view. Using your description I was able to manipulate the spot with much more predictable results. Part of my original frustration was I was playing around in Preview mode. For me the preview mode is completely different than best render mode - is this true for you.

I was able to do my “campfire” request with a point light but it’s not very satisfactory. I think my real problem lies in the fact that ZBrush provides an orthogonal view, not a true perspective window. Sure would be nice to have a perspective view option :wink: :smiley: :wink:

As far as what the differences are between the lights - The best way to describe the sun is to think of it the same as the true sun. The light rays are parallel, the best example of this is the shadows in your image will all be cast in the same direction. The light rays only come from one direction and they have no falloff - regardless of the distance from an object to the sun, the light remains the same brightness.

The point light is a sun in many regards but the important consideration is that it is portable - you may place it anywhere in your scene and it will cast light in all directions (same as a light bulb). The two big issues are that the light will falloff (objects will receive less light the further away from the light they are) and the shadows may be cast in any direction - based on the point-object angle.

The spot is same as a point except you’ve shrouded it so the light can not shine in all directions - same as a real world spot light. The important issue is falloff. You’ll also notice in ZBrush that you can control the size of the hotspot - this is controlling the falloff from the center (most bright) to the edge of the light (most dim) - try playing with the intensity curve.

Hope I wasn’t too confusing :wink: Thanks for your explanation.

jd

#9

Hi JD.
What an interesting post. Your comments about the perspective is cause to pause and think. I have experimented with trying to fake perspective in ZBrush. Most of them involve setting up planes with grids on them in a seperate layer, and I’ve tried to import 3-sided box-shapes made in other programs. (with not much luck). I think the best way to fake perspective is to do it the “Disney” 2d way of a slighty foggy background with your figure in the mid-ground and maybe somthing in foreground. The best example of this the Tarzan pic by Le Discot. I think it would be really cool to have a perspective view-mode! (where’s that ZB Wish-list)
Thanks for your definitions of the types of lights. I always concidered a point light similar to a spot light, but the ZB-popup told me different, causing confusion. Thanks for your time explaning it.
I made an old ZMovie on making fire, (in ZBrush) sometime last year. I should dig it up again if you are interested in seeing it. Its basically a lot of “combed” red & orange glow-material.

Catch ya.
Upham. :slight_smile: