ZBrushCentral

ZBrush forgets what materials r on what

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I’m having a very frustrating time trying to get materials on my model. this is what I do.

  1. Fill model with desired material by selecting the material-draw mode “M”-color and fill object.

  2. I then paint a other materials on different parts of my object.

  3. Save tool

  4. I also save my materials

5.save the document- (I noticed that the document only loads the materials on the subtools that are showing when the document is saved, so the next time you open the document if only have 1 of 4 subtools showing then it will only load 1 material, this is dumb. You have to manually load each material, or put them in the startup folder. Why? I dont know)

  1. I then close Zbrush and reopen it. I load my document and there fore all my materials.
  2. I load my object and paint it on the canvas and switch it to edit mode.

Usually none of my materials will be assigned unless they are matcaps. Where my custom materials are supposed to be will be subbed with some seemingly random material.

So my question is this. How do I continuously open my object and have all my custom materials assigned?

#2

come on guys. 8 views and no replies. please, I could really use some help.

#3

ALSO- On another subtool I have a texture on in texture map. I then try to fill the material. It wont fill. No matter what I do the material continually changes on the subtool when I switch in the materials menu. I then turn-off the texture. I then fill the desired material again. It stays. I turn th texture back on, and the material isn’t assigned again.

Can someone tell me why this is happening?

EDIT* well im talking to myself here. Would really enjoy some help.

Anyways-- I found that if you are having this problem you can use projection master with the texture turned on, and paint the material in projection master which will add the material info to the texture. Neat. However this raises 2 pertinent questions.

1 why when I fill my materials and then under texture hit “new from polypaint” all the material info. doesnt come through even though with the texture off it looks fine? Why doesnt the material completely fill overwriting the all previous materials. On my object the material was completely even and correct with the texture off. I turn texture on, I can then see areas where the texture isnt assigned. I turn the texture off. I fill object with desired material. I makie new from polypaint texture. The new texture looks the same. WHAT? So I edit the texture with projection master and it is fine. But why wouldnt it generate an accurate texture in the first place after I refilled the object?

  1. Ok so now I have my texture that I edited in Projection master and all my mats are in place. Now I clone my texture and export it from the texture menu. It asks “would you like a separate channel for materials” I hit YES, and save as PSD. I close zbrush. I reopen zbrush. I apply saved PSD file to my untextured object. It looks crazy. It looks like the material info was layered wierd and totally doesnt look right. SO! My question is, Why do I have the option to save my textures with the material channel if when I reopen and apply it in the program that output it, it is wrong!!!

So in the end I still dont have a way to save my tools the way I painted the materials on them. Although they have the projection master texture built-in to the tool, Zbrush seems to randomly decide to sub materials. SO will my edited texture be a permanent change? Or will Zbrush decide to forget what material was in it again since I cant out put a usable map that I can reapply? What is the point of polypaint and use of materials and textures outside of Porjection Master if they cant be saved and/or dont work?

#4

Could use some clarification from someone. Dont like talking to myslef here.

Anywho- Found this thread http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=70054

I knew basically all this but I thought maybe Pixo had found a way to put that info in a pSD so Zbrush would read it maybe? So why do I get prompted asking me to write my material to a channel if it doesn’t do it? Also, if projection master writes to a 2-d file then why can’t that file be saved for future use? So if I have a bunch of star-shaped materials painted on an object in projection master, why can I not load the materials, load the uv placement map, and then place that map on an object and have the stars appear on that object? If the material is built into the texture, then why cant I output some sort of file zbrush can read so I can reuse the placement coordinates of that texture?

#5

Custom materials will be saved with the document provided they are visible on the canvas. So you need to make sure that you have views of your model snapshot so that all materials show. Materials will then be reloaded when you load the document.

As you found, texture maps do not take up materials when using New From Polypaint - you need to use Projection Master to embed the materials. Texture maps without materials embedded will override materials embedded in the object, so that the current material will be displayed.

In order to reload texture maps with embedded materials you need to save them within the ZTL. ZBrush cannot read the alpha (material) data from a texture map that is exported separately.

HTH,

#6

Thanx for the reply.

Things till dont make sense here in practice.

  1. I paint all my materials and rgb in poly paint.

  2. I press get texture from poly paint.

  3. Where my materials are painted changes with the new texture turned on. When off everything looks fine. If the polypaint texture doesn’t grab material info for the new texture than why does it change it and make me fix everything in Projection master?

Is there a way to move what I have painted in polypaint into projection master directly so it doesnt get messed up when I press get from polypaint?

Adding materials, texture, and lights in this program makes me lose hair. If I assign a color and a material to a point why doesnt this program remember that I did that? Why does it change itself ever? Once I assign something it should never move. What am I doing wrong? It just makes no sense.

#7

HEre is an example

Now you might ask "why dont you just leave the texture off? Well What if I want to use a texture now? I can’t? The other issue is still in the first post. Sometimes Zbrush will sub materials. And I’m scarred that if I save everything (document, materials, tool) that the next time I load it tomorrow the materials will be reassigned with something random, because thats what Zbrush seems to do if the materials are not painted in with projection master.

#8

help?

#9

I don’t really have a lot to add.

I was under the impression that materials didn’t transfer but obviously they do (I’m now at a loss to know how I had come to that conclusion but I did test it - I was probably doing something stupid).

As for the issues you show, the size of the texture map and the type of UV mapping could account for the slight problems you show but as for the larger issues - I really don’t know.

#10

Thanx Marcus. I think I made a mistake some where while I was working and thought it was a software issue. On the first part of this thread.

As far as the second issue with textures and materials. I’ve kinda just used projection master on objects with textures to paint the materials in. Its a pain, but whatever gets the job done.