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True 3d images from Zbrush

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Greetings,

I will try to keep this as short as possible.

I have owned Zbrush since it first hit the scene, but have only started working with it in the last few months. I come from more of a 3D Studio Max world, and frankly, I found Zbrush alien and difficult to use…until now. I have seen the amazing work many of you have done, and so this week I finally dug into the tutorials and zscripts to see what this program can do. Needless to say, my first impression has taken a 180. I now see the incredible value of this tool.

So to give back to all of you who have been so kind to post your tips and techniques (which has flattened my learning curve substantially), I thought you might enjoy this rather novel use for Zbrush - creating true stereoscopic images from your Zbrush renderings. So whip out your 3D glasses, enjoy the image(s), and here is the process:

True 3D images in Zbrush and Photoshop.

  1. Render your Zbrush canvas at whatever settings you prefer (best, shadows on etc.).

  2. Select the “MRGBZGrabber” tool.

  3. In the modifier rollout of the tool, leave “Shaded RGB” on , but turn “Auto Crop” off.

  4. Select the entire canvas with the tool. The depth information of the canvas will automatically be saved in the Alpha palette, and the color rendered image will be saved in the Texture palette.

  5. In the Alpha palette, export the alpha (or depth information) as a .psd. Zbrush is will auto name it, or you call it whatever you like. For this example, we will call it scene_depth.psd

  6. In the Texture palette, export the texture as a .psd (your color image). We will call it scene_color.psd

Now that you have the color rendering and the depth information as separate files, you are ready to open Photoshop and go to work:

  1. Open scene_depth.psd in Photoshop.

  2. Click on Image/Mode and convert it from Multichannel to Grayscale.

  3. Click on Image/Mode again and convert it to RGB.

  4. Open the Layers palette and create a new transparent layer.

  5. Fill the new layer with 50% gray.

  6. With the gray layer still selected, click on the blending mode rollout (just under the word “Layers” in the Layers palette) and change it from “normal” to “screen”.

  7. Your image should now appear gray with brighter gray areas.

  8. Save the file (Photoshop will warn you that you are saving over a file that already exists, and that is fine).

  9. Open scene_color.psd in Photoshop, and choose Filters/Distort/Displace. Set Vertical scale percentage to 0, and set Horizontal scale percentage to 15. Make sure that “Stretch to Fit” and “Repeat Edge Pixels” are checked. Click apply, and you will be prompted to select a .psd file to use in the displace operation. Choose your scene_depth.psd. Immediately, you should notice a slight shift occur in the image. Save this as scene_right.psd (this will be the right view in your stereo pair). Close the file.

  10. Again open scene_color.psd in Photoshop, and choose Filters/Distort/Displace. Set Vertical scale percentage to 0, and this time, set Horizontal scale percentage to -15. Again, make sure that “Stretch to Fit” and “Repeat Edge Pixels” are checked. Click apply, and you will be prompted to select a .psd file to use in the displace operation. Choose your scene_depth.psd again. And again, you should notice a slight shift occur in the image. Save this as scene_left.psd (this will be the left view in your stereo pair).

  11. With this file still open, Select it all (Ctrl A on Windows), and copy it to your clipboard (Ctrl C). Now close the file.

  12. Open scene_right.psd.

  13. Click on Image/Mode and convert it to grayscale.

  14. Click on Image/Mode again, and convert it back to RGB.

  15. Open the Channels palette.

  16. Select the red channel only and paste (Cntrl V)

  17. Reselect the RGB channel.

  18. Put on your 3D glasses (red lens over left eye), and enjoy seeing your Zbrush scene in true 3D depth.

  19. “Save as” the image in whatever format you prefer (.psd, ,bmp., .jpg etc.).

#2

Whoa, this is just too cool!. Im gonna have to go buy some 3D glasses and try this out.

#3

I have 3 types of 3D glasses and the regular comic book red/blue works great with these images–very good work and tech idea–the pictures look great… you’re a regular-- Ray Zone !! :smiley: :+1: :+1: :+1: :smiley:

#4

this was way kewl…I have acouple of 3d comics around but misplaced my glasses…grrrr…so you made me get creative…I have an army flashflight that has different colored lenses stored in the bottom with a spare bulb…2 red and 1 blue and a white lense…so I put the lenses in my eye sockets like Col. Klink monocles (however it is spelled) and they worked fine…I will be trying my hand at this type work…very kewl stuff…did you do a print out of it and get the same affect? very innovative use of Z…thnx :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

I took the abstract I did last night and had a go at your technique…very kewl…I see some definite possibilities with this…thnx again…and here is my result…

#5

Man, oh man. This really works perfectly! I am printing your instructions so I can try it myself. I don’t have Photoshop,but I do have a program that might do the same things.

Ron…printing the image does get the same cool results!

#6

I’m glad you guys got this to work for you. Sorry it is so many steps in Photoshop. Once you do it a couple of times, it becomes pretty second nature. I still don’t know of a way to do this directly in Zbrush, but I would be interested if anyone has any ideas. This is a Zbrush forum after all… :wink:

BTW, I forgot to credit the alien head to Ken Brilliant. I think everyone in this forum probably knows that this is the very cool alien head from his Zscript demo, but it is worth mentioning anyway.

The “nest” image was just a quickie I did to see if the 3D thing actually worked.

Thanks for all the positive feedback.

-Charles

#7

cb3d, you have me on a roll…I am using photoshop 4.0 to do this…somethings are a bit different in that program that probably the version you are using…but it seems to be working…I am posting my catepillar’s fighting on my other thread…thnx again…and I have my copy of the thread printed out…I will have to try it with a photograph soon… :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

#8

Can this be done with Paintshop Pro? And where to you get the glasses?

#9

Cool! Don’t know about the photoshop part, but you could automate the zbrush part with a zscript.

#10

This is cool , i’m gonna try it out too.
I think Paint Shop Pro will do the trick too , you just have to figure out what options to use.
As for the glasses , like everyone said in this thread , look for a comic book. (I got one with dinosaurs and it had those glasses)

#11

For those of you having a difficult time finding 3D glasses, you can order a pair for FREE (okay, the cost of a SASE):

Rainbow Symphony

Be sure to ask for the “3D Glasses” (for comics)and you should be good to go.

-Charles

#12

OK, I tried it with Corel Photo-Paint. There is no way to use the alpha grab because displace only works in the positive direction and the bitmap you choose for a filter ends up as tiny tiles all over the place. I used offset, which allows you to offset at cb3d instructed (with edge repeat and -15, +15, and stretch). I had to monkey with the instructions some. Once I did the +15 offset, I split the image into rgb channels and saved the red channel only as “redright” then converted it to rgb. Still appeared as grayscale (normal). Then I used Image/Adjust/Replace Colors and replaced all black with pure red. Save again. Then displace -15, split channels, save the Blue channel, convert to RGB, replace color with pure blue. Save again. Now I have original picture, centered in full color. Left image, shifted -15, colored blue with only the blue channel. Right image, shifted +15, colored red with only the red channel. I then combined all 3 images. Do this by opening all 3 images, then look only at the full color original. Open the Object Rollup. Switch to the blue image, select all, copy, then paste it into color image as “new object”. Do the same with the red image. You now have the full color picture with 2 additional “objects”. Use the merge option in the objects rollup, with “Red” selected. it works!

#13

Slosh, It’s cool that you found a way to do this in Photo-Paint. It appears that you have more of the red channel present than the blue and green (hence the reddish tint). It was hard to tell from your description, and I am not a Photo-Paint user, but it is important to make sure that both left and right images used are basically grayscale - with the same gray values. Convert both images back to RGB so that your red, green and blue channels appear, but the images still appear grayscale. Then you just need to copy and paste the red channel from the left view into the red channel of the right. That should do it.

-Charles

#14

Thanks, cb3d. Actually, after posting the last one, I fiddled some more and had just figured out a better way when I read your response. How is this one? I used a slightly smaller displacement (10).

#15

Added Congratulations to Ron Harris and Slosh your work in this technique is looking great !!

#16

Slosh, you nailed it! Looks great!

I must say, I am really pleased at how fast you guys put this technique to the test.

I am not as confident with Zbrush yet to do work of the quality that some of you are producing, so it is great to see others good work turned into 3D - and so quickly! :slight_smile:

-Charles

#17

Charles…snicker…you screwed up most of my day…lol…I played with this technique all afternoon…my kids enjoyed viewing it all too… and great job Slosh…here is one more of mine I redid with the method…I may end up posting a little gallery area of these type 3d images…

#18

Great idea with the Army flashlight. It works, if only I could mount these somehow. Cool stuff! Seems that the offset has quite an effect on the amount of depth. Just a little goes a long way. :cool: :cool: :cool:

#19

Cool image, Ron. I assume the background being visible in only the right eye is intentional(?)

“Retinal rivalry”, in this case when an element is visible to one eye and not the other, is popular for creating surreal effects. It seemed to work very well for this image.

-Charles

#20

super :sunglasses: technique, cb3d :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: and great experiments everyone! i just have robos chromateks at hand so i wont get the full effect until i finally get myself some 3d glasses, but they look awesome anyway!

  • juandel