ZBrushCentral

Zbrush make feel like a stupid girl... material assigment issue and continuos crash..

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi
I’m new to Zbrush and in general the world of CG.
I approached zbrush because in life I make the sculptress ( modeller would be more correct) and I wanted to create the illustrations, a friend recommended me this program so that at least the sculpture has a feel very close to the real one (just abbituarsi the tablet).
But I have several problems, and are in doubt whether this is my error or true bugs of the program.
Going in order:

  • ZBrush crashes constantly. Not sure why, I think I have a machine powerful enough (16 gb of ram (even though, being 32-bit Zbrush sees 4), Phenon x6 1090T, GTX460 1 GB and HD system Intel SSD), certainly not a power monster, but I think can handle Zbrush correctly.
    In a work session / study (6 hours), Zbrush crashes at least 4 / 5 times, especially if I try to import geometry from other software (blender and mode (but this is currently completing the trial). I did, as recommended by Pixologic, multithreaded optimization etc, but anything on, crashes often and every time I go to reload the saved interface, in addition to the tools I was working on (or I have miserably lost) … and the light box does not help me, since I keep my work files in a separate HD, he insists on always go and look in the folder defoult of zbrush.
  • Sometimes Zbrush behaves strange. The last thing that cannot solve is material allocation. Proceed as described in WIKI: chosen subtool, select MRGB or M , and then fill object. In my case, having previously prepared a texture in photoshop, and being equipped with UV subtool, load texture and when I Fill Object, zbrush also charged texture on the object properly (as polypaint). The problem is when I try to assign a material to another subtool,Zbrush going crazy and also change other subtool material previously assigned (I doing so: material choice, active RGB or MRGB or M button, then click Fillobject Palete colors).
    With other tools (i.e. head in zbrush defoult present), assignment of these materials work properly and do not go away as soon as I select another material, like happend with my project… is it possible Zbrush don’t like the geometry? Sometime happened so, But why? Is there a reason? is already difficult to deal with customers, having also issue with piece of software mood just do not feel like it …
    Thanks in advance to all those who want to help me out:)

PS: I found a solution about reload everytime my saved UI, is a bug, found solution here: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?160733-ZBrush-4R2-Troubleshooting-FAQ , but other issue remains.

#2

Hi Atena
Is your anti virus interfering with zbrush?
Does zbrush have web access via your firewall?
Have you updated your video drivers?
Are you using dual monitors? (I am with no problems but you never know).

Zbrush will run on just about any machine so if you send a support ticket to pixologic they are always very helpful and quite fast. I am not sure if that is for the demo though.
Your meshes might be corrupt. In max and maya it is usually a good idea to delete history/ reset xform. Modo must have a history you can wipe before export. Some other things that will upset any 3d application are:

Meshes with
flipped polys
stray verts
double edges
inverted uvs
overlapping uvs
overlapping verts
double polys

Triangle polys are pretty much no problem for zbrush these days but if you are using symmetry and dont have a center line things can get strange :slight_smile:

To help with your crashes try something out.
Start off with a simple zsphere and play/sculpt with it for about an hour and see if zbrush is stable with native models. If so then you know your imported models are crap.

Filling subtools you have to be in ‘M’ mode and every subtool has to be filled, also you can turn texture visibility on and off with the little brush widget beside the subtool in the subtool list.

You can only save a project on your hard drive, but you can make a shortcut to the folder (alias) and put that in your zproject folder that is inside your zbrush application folder, so you can navagate to your external drive. You can save out subtools by clicking the save as button in the tool palet and putting them anywhere you want and load them by clicking load tool.

Hope this helps.

#3

Thanks a lot Kanga!

No, I don’t think have any virus, or other issue as you described, my only concern is when importing mesh from other software. I using Modo and blender. Blender mesh are usually very clean but sometime, for my error or for software issue, modo create some strange geometry (doubled vertex/face/polygons, or open mesh in point you want see open). With internal mesh, without any import/export work, zbrush work correctly, without crash, but with heavy mesh sometime in rendering (especially whit best render) he crash a lot.

thanks for the tips about folder shourtcut, this is a really time saver :slight_smile:

About M mode I doing so, but material where substitute when assign a new material to other subtool. This happened only on my imported heavy mesh/many subtools.

I will be more accurate in my next project, but I think the best is doing all inside zbrush without others software to avoid import/export issues.

Thanks again

#4

No it is not possible to be 100% correct all the time. I have been modeling for years and have never made a 100% correct mesh first time off. Knowing this I always check my meshes before export and only usually have problems in zbrush when I missed something which is rare ha ha
Pixologic have made a gigantic effort to make zbrush compatible with all major software packages. The only time it usually stuffs up is with the human element,… thus us :slight_smile:

Keep using zbrush and you will see I am right!

#5

I will doing, thanks again :slight_smile: