ZBrushCentral

why did pixologic make zbrush so strange?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

this is a question to the developers? i have tired making displacement maps in maya, modo and cinema 4d. im curious, why on earth did zbrush make itself so strange?
in each app, you have to flip the map, is there a app where you dont have to flip the map?
in each app you have to adjust the gradients, because most apps use black and white, zbrush uses 50% gray and white.

and in each app displacement maps are so complicated. why have pluglins not been developed to make the process easy? i was just messing around with modo, and theres a displacement distance meter (a issue with luxology not you guys) and no matter what i did it didnt look right (although im guessing thats because of me being a mac user).
i just dont understand why the process of displacement maps is so complicated and why pixologic complicate that process?

also, could plugins be made for the some apps, so there would be some decent communication between zbrush and other applications? is that something you guys are working on?

#2

Something to bear in mind is that there aren’t many (if any) standards in the 3D world. Not only does this mean that what works for one application might not work for another, but it also means that ZBrush needs to have options to handle most anything that could be thrown at it. That inherently means a certain level of complexity.

As for the plugins for each app, well that would only last as long as the version. The moment the other app comes out with a new version, the plugin would have to be updated. You know the quick codes for Displacement Exporter? Or the presets for ZMapper? Every time a new version of an app comes out, those codes need to change. It’s not practical for us to try to have and remain current with licenses for every 3D app out there. Ultimately, it comes down to the users to adapt to these changes as their applications update and share their new presets, codes or settings.

#3

Making a displacment map from Zbrush to Modo requires very little to be done.
All that has to be done is from the displacment options in Zbrush sellect the size map your wishing to make.

If you need to get accurate details then activate Adaptive. Activate Smooth Uvs to avoid uv grids across your map, Make sure your at Level 1 of the Sub-D, then Press make displacment. After sellecting your displacment from the alphas, go to alpha menu click flip V then export.

Now, not somthink iv not usedin Zbrush, but you can record all the above steps into a macro. This means you can load that macro and it will automate the whole lot, even to the point of asking where you wish to save your deisplacment map. As to if this will work I cant say for sure, it does in Modo.

As far as Modo goes, all you have to do is drag n drop the displacment onto your model, set the texture layer, set the Low value to -100 and make shure the effect that of that texture is set to displacment. From here is just the case of bringing up or down the displacement distance tillyour happy with it.

Reading things in text for can seem like a long winded process, but in practice it all takes no more that 45 seconds.