ZBrushCentral

Stuck with Spotlight and UVs - Answered

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,
sorry to come with what looks to be a frequent question, but I didn’t find any solution.

I want to paint using Spotlight a mesh created with a 3D scan. So, only triangles, heavy mesh, etc.
I managed to decimate it down to 600k faces, without losing details.

I made my texture using spotlight and reference photos, but I don’t see how to save the texture I created. All the buttons in the texture menu (Tools) are gray.
I read in the online docs that “You don’t need to have UVs and a Diffuse texture to use SpotLight”, but I guess it’s not simple like that.

I first tried to use simple UVs map (uvc, uvs, etc.) but the resulting texture is noisy or stretched.
I then tried to create UVs through UV Master, but it freezes on the first step “File exported, …”
And I tried to unwrap the mesh in 3dsmax but you know how max s*cks at unwrapping (I can’t even move the whole faces selection, it takes 10 mn to change its position… )

So… any clue ?

Projecting textures through Spotlight doesn’t mean that some UVs are stored somewhere ?
If not, is there a way to force UV Master to finish (or at least begin ^^) the unwrap job ?
Or maybe I’m missing the way to export the texture after its creation with spotlight (without going through a difficult process of unwrap) ?

I don’t think it’s an hardware limitation, I’m working with a 2600k / 16Go ram.
Oh, and I can’t go through a low-poly process, the mesh will be used for scientific purposes (archeology), I have to keep it as it.

I’m surprised to see that a not-so-big mesh is difficult to be handled by UV Master, as Zbrush is able to handle huge meshes. I might be wrong somewhere, but I don’t see why.

Thanks for reading. :wink:

#2

You don’t need UV’s to use SpotLight but you DO need UV’s to export what you’ve painted from ZBrush.

Simply drop to level 1 and use the UV creation method of your choice. (UV Master, one of the options in the UV Map menu, or exporting and creating the UV’s in another program.) After the UV’s are created you can then return to the highest level to use Tool>Texture Map>New from Polypaint.

By the way, if your model has a lot of polygons still, you’ll need to decimate it further or create a new base mesh to use as a cage, divide that and then project the details across. It sounds like the problem you’re having with creating UV’s is due to a mesh that’s simply too dense.

You will need to export both the texture and level 1 of the model.

#3

That’s the point I finally understood, thanks for underlining it.

That’s exactly the problem. There’s only a huuuuuge level 1…

I finally “solved” this (even if I’m not really satisfied with the UV map) with Geomagic. So it gave me my UV map and I made a first projection on the mesh using it. I’m know able to complete it in Zbrush.

Thanks for your explanation, it’s now more clear in my mind. :wink: