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Simple material question

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

So, dear Zbrush community, I’m resorting to you in the time of my biggest distress.
I’m progressing well in the matter of sculpting but my cryptonite is Zbrushes material system.

Actually my concern is simple:
I have three subtools, as an example. I want to have each subtool filled with the basicmaterial1 but each with different settings. Let’s say:
subtool_1 - basicmaterial1 specular=20
subtool_2 - basicmaterial1 specular=50
subtool_3 - basicmaterial1 specular=80

When fill subtool_1 with the bm1 specular=20 and I now want to change the specular to 50 for subtool_2, while keeping the specular=20 for subtool_1. Not possible. The changes are applied to every subtool that are already filled.
So I tried to duplicate bm1 which doesn’t work either. I click copy mat, paste mat 100 times, nothing happens at all.

I was searching for tutorials covering that topic but I found nothing.
Please help.

#2

You should look harder. http://docs.pixologic.com/getting-started/basic-concepts/ Changing material updates entire scene unless you paint each one, one by one. http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/painting-your-model/

#3

I’m not sure if I understand that right. Does that mean it is not possible to to alter the settings of a material and apply them to a different subtool?
I’m really confused now.
I’ve been looking at the online documentation before and as I said, I don’t see my topic covered there.

#4

Paint the first one, select the second one and alter the settings then paint it, repeat for the rest of the sub tools.

#5

I already tried that, doesn’t work. I paint Mrgb on the first, want to change the settings for the second subtool but as soon as I change the settings they change on the first subtool as well. That is what confuses me.

#6

http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/materials-lights-rendering/materials/
And here. http://docs.pixologic.com/?s=Painting+subtools

#7

@ kornyclown

You will have to save the material as a new material with every change you make to it. For example, make your desired change to the material then save that material with a unique name to the ‘ZStartup > Materials’ folder. These will now be in your Standard Materials palette and you can fill your subtools with those. The reason you have to save it to this folder is that it has to be in the Material palette if you want the same material on the subtool after you save the ZTool and then re-open it at a later time. However, you should not put more than 25 materials in the ‘ZStartup > Materials’ folder at one time as this may cause ZBrush to become unstable. If you want to save more materials than that, you can save them in the ‘ZBrush 4R6 > ZMaterials’ folder and copy them to the ‘ZStartup > Materials’ folder as needed. You can also add as many sub-folders and materials as you want in the ‘ZBrush 4R6 > ZMaterials’ folder and these now can also be accessed through Lightbox.

#8

ok thanks for this instruction. good to know that it’s not my fault.
thanks for the help but i think that this is a little to inconvenient, i thought i was doing something wrong. i think i just let it be.