can i do a turntable animation of my models withing zbrush? i really really like the cavity shader and i would like to show my models in my reel with that shader assigned, i also like the speed but i would need to have the models working as a turntable animation. is this at all possible?
There is a ZSpinner plugin found at the bottom of the Transforms plugin. You can use a screen/frame capture utility to capture the spinning model to create your movie file.
where do i find this i cannot find it, thanks
ok i found it but how do i make it output as an avi or sequnce?
are you reffering to the movie export multiple frames? because this make the movie as a small thumbnail i need it at least 720x480
anybody?? help!
Hi,
Adding to the info written by Menat7 (thanks :)) …
elfufu: It is possible to spin a 3D mesh and export multiple frames at a customized frame-size, but this will require the use of an undocumented feature. I’ll post a step-by-step sometime tonight or tomorrow (hope its not too late :)).
-Pixolator
P.S. Note: At this time, you’ll need to combine the exported frames into a movie outside of ZBrush. In the future, We do plan to publish a ZPlugin which will compose these images into a movie format without having to leave the ZBrush environment. More information about ZPlugin will be available after the release of the Mac version (in order to allow the same functionality to be accessible on both platforms)
Pixolator, this is GREAT NEWS! THANK YOU! 
elfufu, as Mentat7 said, you can use a screen/frame capture utility to grab whatever is onscreen at the time and make a movie of it. Try using TechSmith’s Camtasia. It’s commercial, but you can download a free trial that works fine but leaves a small watermark in the lower right corner. http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp?lid=CamtasiaStudioHome
OR you can try out CapturePad, a FREE utility! http://www.capturepad.com/ Pretty cool stuff!
jaaaaahrr! 
Information about ZPlugs - i´m jumping! Can´t wait to get to know, how it works!
faints (again)
greetings
Pixolator this is a great new and very useful tool to make animation all in the ZB enviroment, sound very good¡¡¡
Andreseloy
hey pixolator i would really appreciate i am running all my old models through z2 in preperation of sending my reel out this week. thanks a million
Pixolator:
I sure hope you release that little zscript you have up your sleeve. I’ve been waiting a long time for this one. Your description sounds like the script is a more “hands on” version of the full-fledged animation script specifically designed for animating characters created with zspheres and utilising the morph target functionality -true? I don’t mind having to compile the movies externally.
Thank you very much,
Greg Smith
???
Elfufu see that TVEyes vr animation
and that
hope that will help you.
and I hope one of the Zscript master ( or Pixo himself) can improve this pretty tool.
Hi 
Here is a test that I have done for this mini-tutorial…
<object classid=“clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B” height=“200” width=“200” name=“Dino Movie”> <param name=“cache” value=“true”> <param name=“loop” value=“true”> <param name=“src” value=“http://www.pixolator.com/images01/headspin.mov”> <param name=“autoplay” value=“true”> <param name=“controller” value=“true”> <param name=“playeveryframe” value=“true”> <param name=“scale” value=“tofit”> <embed height=“200” name=“Dino Movie” pluginspage=“http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/” src=“http://www.pixolator.com/images01/headspin.mov” type=“video/quicktime” width=“200” controller=“true” autoplay=“true” loop=“true” cache=“true” scale=“tofit” playeveryframe=“true”> </object></p>
The following are the steps that I have executed in order to produce the above test…
Step 1: For this test, I wanted to create a spin-animation at size of 200x200 pixels (You may choose larger size, for this post I opted to keep the movie file size smaller). We start by resizing ZBrush canvas to the desired size (I have resized the canvas to 400x400 which allowed me to reduce the size of the final movie by 50% and get better antialiasing).
Step 2: Load the 3D mesh , draw mesh in canvas and adjust its position, size and orientation to have the mesh fit nicely within the boundary of the canvas.
Step 3: While in edit mode, press the Transform 
ZSpinner SpinIt button. This allows you to view a test-spin of the mesh. if the mesh spins around the wrong axis, you can adjust the mesh orientation by using the Tool Preview icon to modify and store a new base orientation.
Step 4: Adjust spin-speed as needed. By default, the SpinIt will rotate the mesh in 10 degrees increments which will produce 36 frames for a full 360 degrees spin, if you need smoother rotation you may reduce this value, example: for the above movie, the value was set to 5 resulting in 5 degrees increments between frames totaling at 72 frames for a full cycle.
Step 5: Adjust rendering properties. Modify the material, lights and rendering properties as needed.
Step 6: By default, the SpinIt function will spin the mesh in the canvas without recording any frames, but if you have one (or more) frames already recorded in the movie controller then SpinIt will switch to recordable-spin.
Note: the default (non-recording) spin will continue to spin until you press the Esc button but when the spin-recording mode is activated, the Spin zscript will automatically stop at the end of the 360 degrees cycle.
When recording a movie, the movie recorded will record frames in its default size. In order to customize the size of the recorded frames we need to import an image with the required width and height into the movie recorder. To do so, I simply exported an image of the current canvas by pressing the Doc Export button and then imported this image into the movie recorded by pressing the Movie Inventroy Iimport. If done correctly, you’ll be presented with a dialog box asking you to confirm the new size.
This step accomplishes two things, first it customizes the size of the recorded frames and – because the movie recorded now contains a frame – activates the spin-recording mode.
[i]Note: Customizing the size of the movie recorded can only be done when the movie recorder does not contain any frames. If you do have recorded frames then delete all frames before executing this step.
Note: The movie controller will continue to display the recorded frames in the default size but the frames will be exported in the correct customized size.[/i]
Step 7: Pressing the Tansform:ZSpinner SpinIt button will initiate the recording sequence. The script will automatically stop when full cycle is recorded.
Step 8: Export the recorded frames as sequentially numbered images by pressing the Movie:Inventriy:Mexport.
Step 9: Launch the external moviemaking program, import the exported images and compose your movie.
Here are the quicksteps…
- Resize the ZBrush canvas to the required size (or double the required size).
- Load the 3D mesh, draw in canvas and enter edit mode.
- Press Transform
ZSpinner SpinIt to execute a test Spin. Press Esc to abort - Adjust the Transform ZSpinner Speed
- Adjust any required rendering , lights and materials settings.
- Import initial frame with a customized width and height into the movie recorder.
- Press Transform ZSpinner SpinIt to record the spin frames
- Export the recorded frames by pressing the Movie Inventroty MExport button
- Launch external moviemaking program, import frames and compose the movie.
Tips:
1: In order to use perspective-distortion while the object is spinning you need to activate the perspective mode (in the draw palette) while in transform-mode (not edit mode). The SpinIt function will automatically hide the Gyro while recording.
2: You may utilize a 2nd layer in order to place background image or any 3D objects which will remain static throughout the recording process (such as a floor or a display stand)
- In order to record in BestRender mode you need to activate the best render mode and then press the SpinIt button, when you do so, each frame will be best-rendered before it is recorded.
Hope this helps
-Pixolator
Note: The above tutorial describes a procedure which relies on the existence of an undocumented feature (in Step 6). Please be aware that functionality offered undocumented features may be modified in future versions of ZBrush.
Hey! nice I will try that.
ok I tried that method and that is very cool and easy.
just one question Pixolator, is it so difficult to export directly in a video format ? as Qt or Avi ?
actually we must to use external tool to compil images.
or to made the external process more easy can we export all frame in one psd (each frame on a new layer).
is it possible to place the text where I want? by default it placed in center…
May be a converter Zmv > Avi ?
is the animation on the Zbrush start made with that Movie tool ?
is it possible to add animation like that into an Zscript tuto ?
neato. took me a few tries to get it down but it worked 
makes for the fastest demoreel software rendering system there is :D. good stuff.
I can’t believe I never saw this post before. I always wondered if you could use the zspin feature to render a turntable. Thank you Pixolator. Hmmm… I wonder what else can be done…heehee!
SirQ, thanx for finding this also…like you I missed this thread…outstanding Pix!
ron