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Understanding Canvas Size in Pixols

Greetings,

I’m hoping someone can help me correct my understanding of the relation between a ZB document, the ZB canvas, and the ZB screen or interface. I’m using ZB 3.5 rc3, and I’m trying the Underwater Laboratory illustration in Eric Keller’s Introduction to ZBrush /i.


  • As per Keller’s instructions, from the Document menu, I set the document size to w=3096 x h=1742 pixols. My understanding is that I am setting the size of the resulting file’s bitmap image.

  • The document is displayed as a canvas; so I’m thinking that document size = canvas size. However, the canvas no longer fits the ZB screen. So, I have to resize the canvas to fit the screen. This doesn’t change the document/canvas size in pixols (still 3096x1742); it just changes the size of each pixol relative to the ZB screen.

  • Now, as per Keller’s instructions, I draw a 3D plane and scale it to cover the canvas. If it did cover the canvas exactly, I would expect it to be—like the canvas—3096x1742 pixols. However, if I go to Transform>Scale>Info, I see x component = 865, y component = 1024, and z component = 527. Not even the same 16:9 aspect ratio as the canvas; yet the plane almost exactly covers the canvas.

Obviously, I don’t have an accurate understanding of the information I’m getting from ZB. Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

DocPit