Great tutorial, you helped me find the specific pipeline i’ve been looking for, after much zbrush frustration (though the program is phenomenal, I’m sure you agree :)

i do have one tip, the touching up of the white spots in photoshop, can be done much smoother (for bigger errors or perfectionists) by using Flaming Pears free Solidify B tool, it’ll fill up transparent sections with a smooth texture. Again, great job!

Hi Harke,

Glad that you found the video useful. I’m sure there a better and/or different ways to do most of this stuff, but these methods are producing good results for me. I’m still trying to get my head around the ZBrush tools, very interesting how they have melded 2D and 3D work.

The Flaming Pear Solidify plugin is a great tip. I’ll give that a try next time I have a big gap in one of my textures.

I just wanted to say -thank you- so much for this tutorial vid. I’ve been playing around with a bunch of 3D modeling programs and had the most fun with Zbrush, unfortunately, as with all the programs, I was struggling on how to figure it out. This video was so amazing and you were very informative on your instructions. I would love to see more videos.

Once again, great job, and the Mushroom turned out wonderful.

Kis.

Thanks, Kismet. :)

ZBrush is a blast, and the more I use it, the more I understand where it’s ‘coming from’. hehe Sure is different than most 3D apps. Can you imagine if we had a similar sculpting capability inside of SL? Seems like a prefect fit…

I’m curious as to how you setup your workspace for it. You did a couple of things in video two where I wasn’t quite sure how you pull them off because I went to go to the various areas where that tool was but my zbrush 3 looks different than yours.

Hmm.. I pretty much use the default ZBrush interface. I actually haven’t changed anything since I am still learning and want to make sure my setup is as close to possible as the default. Figured it would help for tutorials.

Any spot in particular where I threw you off? Maybe I can describe what I was doing…Next time I will try to make my button presses and such more obvious.

BTW, I am using ZBrush 3.1, which looks a bit different than v3.0

oh..It’s also possible that you have the limited interface active, although not quite sure what it is called. Maybe Rapid UI? It’s a simpler version of the interface that is the default when you first start using ZBrush 3.

Thanks you so much for spending the time to make this video. I just got zbrush today and am hoping to use it for second life. I was wondering how to get sculpties onto second life though. I haven’t had any success at finding a converter from .obj files to sculpties. I tried to find the 2k suisei program but couldn’t find it. Can you point me to it if it’s still around? I’m loving the potential of zbrush as much as you seemed to when you made the video. Can’t wait to do some sculpting, lol. Thanks again!!! It’s really awesome when people like you take the time to teach others.

I did a bunch of searches on the SL forums with 2k Suisei and sculpty converter and I found. I can’t remember the exact link anymore though. Just keep searching the forums i’m sure you’ll find.

Vlad as for as the lay, I’m pretty much using the default 3.0; I’m starting to think that, thats what was confusing me. I think there are just enough fundamental differences from 3.0 to 3.1 that it was throwing me off and making it harder for me to texture my object. Like for example when I wanted to move me object offset a little so I could see, instead of it being half way behind the background texture. It would actually change, or edit the object itself instead of moving it.

I updated to 3.1 and everything looks fine. However when I was texturing I ran into an issue. When I went to go to color>texture it was all grayed out so I hit enable Uv. then hit color>texture and all I got was a blank texture and it made my object black.

I had a weird little issue too. After I put the mask on the sphere, ctrl+ clicked to smooth out the mask, and started to minimize the size from the deformation options.. i didn’t turn out like that whatsoever.. i saw you had X Y Z selected.. but to get somethin even remotely to look the way you did.. I had to deselect Z. Any idea on what i’m doin wrong? (btw i have 3.1)

You know, Have any of you ever used ventrilo; this is kind of a strange side note. But I think it would be cool to have a little pow-wow on ventrilo and discuss some of the interesting features of zbrush. I’m really digging this program so far. Its a little hard to get at first but slowly its coming to me.

2k’s sculpty converter is in this Forum thread on post #26:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=225856&page=2&pp=15

Direct link to the attachment:
http://forums.secondlife.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=41384

For folks who can’t access the forums, I will ask 2k if I can host the files here on this site…

“when I wanted to move me object offset a little so I could see, instead of it being half way behind the background texture.”

Make sure there is no mask applied to the object when you are trying to move it up above the canvas. You want this to effect the entire object.

“When I went to go to color>texture it was all grayed out so I hit enable Uv.”

I had this problem while learning to work with the ZBrush objects as well. I even went back and tried to dupliacte it but could not. Try initializing or restarting zBrush before starting with a fresh object. The default UV map that comes along with the SPhere primitive will work, so no need to add one or mess with that. Wish I knew what I had done wrong there so I knew what to avoid.

“i didn’t turn out like that whatsoever.. i saw you had X Y Z selected.. ”

It takes some experimentation to get the right set of axis selected when using those deformation tools. I usually just guess, try, then undo and try again. For instance when I wanted to make the stem of the mushroom skinnier, I was changing in the X and Y only. To crush down the cap of the mushroom I was changing Z only.

“But I think it would be cool to have a little pow-wow ”

Yeah, it might be fun, and informative, to have a get together in-world for ZBrush users. If I can find some time to schedule and event I will post about here on Shiny Life.

I found an work around for the color>texture issue. The only problem is, the texture then ends up comes out all pixelated and stuff.

here is an example of what I end up getting for a texture when I found a work around for it. http://www.thefinalstand.com/uo/mushroom-tex.jpg

Basically I found this thing that told me I had to make a new texture, turn divide back down to 1, and then autoUVtiles it again.

But it looks so strange.

Thanks Vlad for the great videos, I have to agree with you when you say ZBrush 3.1 is a magnificent tool, it is very very versatile and grows on you fast, I’ve been importing wings3D made primitives for sculpting and then exporting back to Wings3d for sculpt map creation, but I like the idea of 2K Susei converter, especially if it retains more integrity than the traditional “lossless” upload.

The way to model with more than 1 object in the same workspace is to utilize the subtool function, I find this especially useful when making multi primmed objects like shoes and such, where the prims need to form together in world.

I’d like to pass on a top tip that has saved me the hassle of constantly breaking off from the canvas to modify the brush size, intensity, draw mode etc.. and that is to hit the spacebar, it brings up all the salient info right there under your pen or mouse cursor, ready to be altered.

Keep up the good work and thanks again.

Damen Gorilla

Anyone else with the texture issue?

Atrus, I’ve seen that problem before.

What I think is happening is that you aren’t subdividing your model enough prior to texturing, AND/OR don’t have a big enough texture size.

Process is :

Create Sphere3D
Initialize it to 32H 33V (if using a the wings converter this can be 64H 63V)
Go to the tools palette and make sure disable uvs is UNselected.
Make polymesh 3D
Model with the tools
Export as OBJ

Go to Texture menu at top, set the default tex size to at least 1024 by 1024, bigger the better, but be careful of computer resources.(this tells ZBrush what size you want the texture to be when you hit the color>texture button)

Go to Geometry and divide your model 4 to 6 times, depending on computer resources and level of detail required.

Load in your reference picture as per the video, and clone to the model.

When happy, hit the color>texture button, remembering to leave the AUVtiles or any of those UV buttons well alone.

I hope this is of some help, it took me a long time to figure out that ZBrush will clear UV information if you hit any of the UV types in the tools palette sub menu, useful for some cases, especially in house modeling, but not useful in SL where it expects specific UV co ordinates.

Damen Gorilla

THanks for that clarification, Damen. As I mentioned earlier I also had some issues with the UV maps while figuring out my process. Keep trying Artus – and especially make sure that the Disable UVs is UNselected as Damen mentions.

“The way to model with more than 1 object in the same workspace is to utilize the subtool function, ”

Yes, I def. want to experiment with the subtools for multiple sculpty objects. I got them confused with layers at first but I am seeing the difference now.

NP Vlad, good to see you’ve hit upon the subtools.

I have to say that in the process of buying ZBrush to getting anything usable in SL I have created quite a few swearwords and personal curses that have , I suspect never been rent forth upon the world, but, and this is a huge but ( all joking aside ) ZBrush is the most delicious, versatile and wonderful tool I have ever used in over 7 years of 3D modeling.
You have said it feels like a huge lump of clay on your desktop, and even though I am in no way to be considered artistic, I know exactly what you mean, without ever having a huge lump of clay on my desktop…..

More of these videos means less of my contribution to the sweary side of the English language, keep it up, and if theres a ZBrush group to be formed, shout me up.

Damen Gorilla

Very interesting tutorials. I use ZBrush to modify my objects, and to texture them, but had never thought it was suitable for the creation process itself. I will certainly have to try this!

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Just want to say GREAT tutorial! Keep it up!

Yeah I ended up making the same object in maya with nurbs for my second sculpty. The first one I did which was actually a mushroom didn’t come out so bad itself. The texturing was the issue I was having so I’ll have see what I can produce now with the new info.

I’m psyched that so many people are finding this video tutorial useful. I’ll do my best to create more similar videos as time allows.

I’m also considering starting up a Sculpty and/or ZBrush users group in SL. Maybe a weekly or every other week meeting to share techniques, toss around a few ideas, and a bit of show and tell. Thinking maybe of a Saturday time slot, early in the SL day. I will announce some details soon.

thanks much vlad

OMG, you rock. I already really knew what I was doing in Zbrush, but your tutorials taught me some new ways of doing things that I think will really help me! I’m really excited to get back home from going to the airport ina few minutes so I can try working the way you work into the way I work in Zbrush. I think with your help, I’m going to have awesome results, so thank you so much!
Please, please figure subtools out for us lol. I’m still having issues in using subtools. Sculpting them and such seems to work right, but texturing the subtools never quite works ;((. Anyway, if you make a tutorial about subtools, I’m going to worship you forever lol.

When i come to make my sculptmap one version just makes everything green and the other says there are too many vertices. What’s that all about??

[...] The Shiny Life Tutorial is excellent – I spent time working with it today and had great success. Shiny Life Video: Creating Sculpted Prims with ZBrush 3 | Shiny Life There is a link in the article to a free program that converts the obj file from zbrush to a [...]

Ok so does this mean we have to stick to 32×33 faces? I tried 63×64 but it wont work, i just want to add more detail is all but i’m not sure how it’s calculated =-/

Well, this is an extremely powerful tool, and I really appreciate these tutorials! Right now, I still have Zbrush crashing on me a fair amount, but hopefully I’ll be able to fix that (seemed to happen when I subdivide past about 4).

I had a couple of questions if you had time for them–

*When I went to load a texture from colour, all the buttons save “enable uv” were greyed out. I selected enable, but then my texture turned all black :( Did I miss a step somewhere?

*What would be tremendous to do would be to be able to modify the object with the texture on it. Does the divide polygon step change the number of vertices? In other words, after I create the texture as you describe, can I go wild with the deformation tools and brushes, then resave the new object and still be able to import this modified object to SL successfully?

Thank you again! And if you take requests, love to see a tutorial on how to use the painting tools in Zbrush.

Okies, just tried saving after dividing and ended up with a nasty mess when I created a sculpt map from the object.

Sooo…I’m thinking a better workflow would be to import the texture onto the original (undivided) object, then fiddle with it there. Is that right?

HI Virrginia,

Yes, your second post is is a good idea. I sometimes save the low-poly, 32×33 mesh then do several subdivides to continue to working on the shape. Then you can texture and model at a higher resolution, saving the texture from the high-poly version to put on the low-poly version in SL. This works especially well when you are baking the lighting/shadows.

As far as your problem with the save texture as color.. I had that problem a few times and for the life of me I cannot repeat it on purpose. ? It is certainly some sort of problem with the UV map being missing. It has not happened to me recently. Try starting from a re-initialized zbrush setup – you’ll find that option under Preferences.

If you want to sculpt the object with the texture on it, you can load the texture that you create back onto the object, even the low poly version. I sometimes do this when I am making multiple versions of the a sculpty that will use the same texture – like the individual shapes of an animated sculpty.

It is also possible to paint onto the texture of an object in zbrush, without subdividing the object to paint on the polys. This is actually probably a more common technique. I use the poly-painting because I prefer that way you can use zProject to paint with a photo reference, rather than using the drop to ‘canvas, paint, pick up from canvas steps’ that are involved with painting on the textures.

I do plan on making more zbrush/sculpty tutorials and will do my best to cover the painting tools, even though I am still learning them myself. :)

Oh well I’d love to be able to work at higher than 32×33 but i guess i can’t if i intend to convert it using that tool. It’s a shame really but i guess for standard things such as costume attachments then it’s not so bad. I was trying to make s standard assault vest but i’m starting to realize that it’s pointless because assault vests are pretty close to the body any way so i guess i’ll just make a bump mapped skin using your other tutorial i saw on Veoh, even though that one doesn’t appear to be complete or even on this website =-/

Tactical: You could subdivide the mesh and work at higher rez then save out the lower level subdivision of the mesh. You will loose detail, though, sometimes in places that you don’t suspect. In SL sculpted prims always have exactly the same number of faces, so actaully working at the 32×33 resolution will let you see pretty much exactly what you’ll get in-world.

I don’t have any video on Veoh. :) you must be thinking of someone else’s stuff. Maybe a guy called Canned Mushrooms that I mention somewhere.

http://www.veoh.com/channels/houseofZbrush&

For the longer videos there Veoh will show a 5 min preview. Look for the Download Options link to grab the whole video.

Thank you so much for this tutorial – I’ve had zbrush for over a year and been piddling around on my own trying to figure it out – this workflow really helped me understand some things! /me sits on her sculpted mushroom… TY TY TY! :D

Well, this is tremendously frustrating. I have been completely unable to load any texture at all for export to Photoshop. I’ve been starting with the 32/33 sphere, making a shape, saving it as an object, then subdividing to 5 and painting using the move tool and zproject brush. Every time I click on Col>Txr, I get that black shape:

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x85/vtombola/TexturizingBug.jpg

It doesn’t seem to matter if UV is enabled or not.

I did find one comment on the ZBrush forums about this issue:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=56399&highlight=color+texture

But when I tried using the plug in, for one I found no folder marked “Zplugs” (I have the trial version, not sure if this is the issue). I created a Zplugs folder in the ZBrush folder and dropped the plug in there, but when it didn’t seem to create the button the fellow was talking about.

Soooooo….I tried clicking on GUVTiles. It required me to lower the divisions back to 1 before I could do that. I did so, and managed to actually click successfully on Col>Txr, but the resulting texture was a complete mess of fragmented images (forgot to grab a screen shot, too busy gnashing my teeth).

*sigh* ANY idea what I’m doing wrong? I really really really want to use Zbrush.

I feel your pain, Virrginia. I experienced this exact same problem in my early zBrush experiments. But as I mentioned a few comments ups, I can’t reproduce the problem to tell you how to fix it. :( I really don’t know why it was happening because I don’t think I do anything different during my process now.

One thing that might help is to load in some zTools that are already set-up correctly for use with 2k’s SculptyMakers converter. Another resident contacted me the other day and this fixed here problem. Let me take a few minutes to save out the properly formatted objects and upload them. I will post a link here soon.

OK. Here are the Sphere, Cylinder, and Plane all set up for use with 2k Suisie’s SculptyMaker convert. I tested these and all 3 work to texture using the zProject PolyPaint method. They will also convert properly when exported as .obj files – at least on my system :)

http://www.shiny-life.com/zBrushTools4SculptyMaker.zip

Give em a try and they might help you get around that mysterious texturing problem.

BTW – for anyone having trouble finding 2k’s converters, you can download them here:

http://www.shiny-life.com/SculptyMakers.zip

Hi Fianna. So glad that you found this tutorial and found it useful as well. :) Have fun sculpting!

Thanks much for the help, Vlad. It still didn’t seem to work, though–although I got a different result this time:

[IMG]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x85/vtombola/TexturizingBug2.jpg[/IMG]

I’ve started a post about this on the SL Building Forum–perhaps someone there might have an idea.
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?p=1950265#post1950265

Okies! It’s working now. Basically, I was losing my UV map. When reloading the tool, don’t enable polymesh–it’s already set for the tool (oh fine, you wouldn’t do that. Well away, *I* did, thinking “if one click on the polymesh button is good, four or five must be even better”).

If you do re-enable the polymesh, it seems to disable the UV. Also, as 2K Susei told me, if you should “disable” your UV, you actually DESTROY it–bye bye UV, must start again.

And that is what happened. All fixed now, onward to more playing about with Zbrush!

This is an Awesome set of tuts for both Sculpties and ZBrush. Unfortunately when i got to the part about utilising the material Baker something rather odd and discouraging happened.

In short I get this really weird error when I start the baker Script from the console.

Unable to open /Create a fileC:\Program Files\Pixelogic\ZBrush3\temp\colormap.PSD

I guess it’s trying to make the shadowmaps but some kind of permissions situation is preventing it from doing so.

That’s The exact format of the Error which I have to admit seems kinda wrong in itself, especially that first part. If anyone has has this (most likely with Vista) would you please be able to shed some light on my situation. A reply here or an Email would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. Rift

Great tutorial, but where can we find the 2K Susei converter.
THANKS

You can find it on the SL forums:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1783021&postcount=26

Or download it here:
http://www.shiny-life.com/SculptyMakers.zip

Thank you for the tutorials. I really like the idea of Material Baker.. but I’m having a heck of a time with it. I’m running ZBrush 3.0, and the script starts, flips the prim around a few times, and then unceremoniously crashes Zbrush (deleting my work).

Am I missing something fundamental with the plugin? is there a “special version” for 3.0?

Hi Winter. AS far as I know there is only one version of that Material Baker script. It has never caused my system to crash, although on occasion I end up with a totally black texture instead of the results i expected.

I would try starting with a freshly Initialized zbrush – you can find that option in Preferences. Then load in your object that you want to bake. Might help avoid any odd settings that may effect the script. You might also try re-setting the center of the object before baking, I believe you can press CTRL-P to do that.

Might try doing the rotating and baking with the Manual options instead of the AutoBake buttons, too. Good luck :)

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Hi all,

I’m new to zbrush and working with sculpties and I have a question that I hope will make sense to some of you but I’m not sure of the terminology. I would like to start some models with a different base shape then the sphere(currently trying to make a buckle, so the ring shape looked like a good starting point for the frame component). I made sure the SDivide and LDivide in the initialize tool gave me a 1024 polly count but that was with a setting of 32 and 32, not the 33, 32 as in the tutorial. After modelling I tried using the obj to sculptie converter and got the following error [Lacking the required number of vertices].

Is the 33 and 32 divide count the most important part of the initialize process for the converter to work even though it gives a poly count of 1056? I think I’m missing a fundamental point somewhere along the line, like maybe I can’t use the ring tool as a base shape in the first place.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Oscar.

P.S. Is there a good zbrush book I could buy to help me learn to use the functions better. But not be too in depth as I don’t intend to use zbrush for high polly modelling(I’m no artist).

HI Oscar,

To use 2k Suisie’s SculptMaker conveter you’ll need to set the hdivide to 32 and vdivide to 33 – that makes for 1,056 ‘active points’ in zBrush.

You can most of the zBrush primitive shapes like sphere, cylinder, plane, etc. The ring (torus) shapes does work as well – sort of. The sculptmap that is generated is a bit messed up, sort of sheared at a 45 degree angle. You can fix the map with Photoshop but it does still have a few glitches.

I’m actually in the middle of making a new tutorial aboutusing the zBrush primitve shapes to make sculpties. It should be on the site here sometime today or tomorrow.

If you want to work with a Torus, I would suggest using Wings3D along with Omei Turnbull’s converter plugin and objects. You can still sculpt in zBrush by loading in the object then converting with Wings3D. YOu can find that stuff here:

http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=183764

Thanks so much for the information Vlad I should be able to finish my first sculptie for use in SL in a day or two thanks to your tutorials and advice.

Kindest regards,

Oscar.

RESTORING the UV-Map in ZBrush 3.1:

The reason that we all run into the painful issue of losing the UV is that the “Disable UV” button actually deletes the UV. This was also pointed out by 2K Susei, who I wanted to thank for all the fabulous ZBrush feedback. Also a big TY to Vlad: “You Truly Rock”.

The typical scenerio where you would want to disable your UV is when you want to poly paint. What you have to do instead is to disable your texture. This is especially true after you first bake (Color to Texture) or after a UV check (which I recommend to do before you start).

You can see the polypaint only when the texture is disabled (select no texture). Certain ways to draw however like applying textures with drag-rect (which is a fabulous way to paint) do require for you to select a texture. The only way to see what you are doing on the mesh in that case is to actually disable the UV. Otherwise the mesh would be covered with the selected texure. Disabeling the UV (which should really be labeled DELETE UV) in turn throws the UV away but it is actually easy enough to get it back.

HOW TO GET IT BACK

To get your UV back the first step in your sculpty creation process has to be to export it as OBJ before you subdivide it. The obj will also contain the UV information. Vlad described it that way so you can use the obj you saved following his tutorial. I actually highly recommend to use “Disable UV” at this point, then to subdivide your mesh and paint ahead. Once you are ready to create your UV map with “Color to Texture” reduce the mesh to subdivision level 1 and import the OBJ you saved (don’t clear your canvas before you do that just leave everything as is). This import actually reloads the UV. You can now go back to your highest subdivision level and create your map.

So in short:
Export your OBJ before you subdivide.
To reload it reduce to subdivision level 1 and import the OBJ.

I hope this is helpful
Bagnaria

turns out, I hadn’t manually made the destination directory, so it was crashing when it couldn’t find it

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I know this is a bit off target as a question, but I have finished making my first sculptie product. And I would like to be able to put it up for sale in SL but I have no idea how to protect my work from being copied. It is made from 1 sculptie, several standard prims and a texture I created for the sculptie. My intention is to sell the product as standard ‘for sale’ item, i.e. one purchase gets one product, and I don’t want people to be able to copy out the sculptie map image from within the product.

Like I said I know this is a side issue to the usual comments on this page but I am sure lots of people here would like to know how to safeguard their work from those looking to make a L$ from your hard work.

Thanks again for a fantastic site Vlad.

wow! very cool! I have been on the hunt for the right tool to use for modeling and TEXTURING for about a week now.. Looked at AC3D, Hexagon, C4D, Maya and more! So glad I found your tutorial! Not only is it super informative and helpful, but a great SL advertisement for ZBrush as well! Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together and the excellent production quality as well! Can’t wait to get started.

Oscar: It’s possible to make the sculptmap invisible so that people cannot see the image when examining your object. Basically you create a totally transparent alpha mask for the sculptmap image. I think that there is even a thread on the SL forums that describes the procedure. Lemme see if I can find it…

Here’s one that shows you how to do it in the GIMP:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=256719

And a couple other discussions on the yopic
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=193906
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=248258

Collin: Awesome – so glad that you found SHiny Life and are enjoying the tuts. Good luck with your experiments and stay tuned for more of the same. :D

Sorry it’s taken me ages to reply but thanks again Vlad, I now have a good product and protection from screen grabs of the image map. I never thought working in a 3D app would be this much fun.

And i have to say that without this site i’m sure i would not have managed to do so much so soon, if at all.

Thank you so much.

Oscar.

Cool, Oscar – Thanks for the positive feedback. Always great to hear from a happy visitor. :) zBrush IS fun!

Vlad — thanks for sharing your knowledge and making these video tutorials. I hope many more Residents will watch and benefit from them. *applauds*

When you made the mistake on the guy’s name, you covered up what you were doing to show who it really was. As a result, I have no idea what that step was. Not cool :(

Chris: Fortunately I put that text on the screen when nothing important was happening, just wiggling my mouse around while talking. So you didn’t miss anything.

I just found out about Zbrush today… and just by seeing your tutorial i loved it! :D

Thank You So much! :D

Hey there,

Thanks so much for these videos. I am wondering how long does it take for zbrush to render the texture from color. I am doing fine until i hit col>txr then it hangs with the hourglass and freezes up zbrush, if I try to click anywhere zbrush turns white and I have to force it closed. I’ve left it sitting for 20 – 30 minutes at a time and have yet to be successful pulling a texture out. I’ve tried setting the texture at 1024×1024, document as well. Any other suggestions?

d46int: Hmm. Using the col>txr feature should only take a second or two at most – it’s pretty much instant on my machine. Not sure what to suggest. Have you tried using col>txt on a new object, maybe just a sphere that has been intialized and converted to a PolyMesh? Sometimes helps track down a problem if you work with a fresh object.

I did what you’d said and got a sphere to work fine. Tried the other again, no go. So I did a sphere and imported my tool replacing the sphere.. it worked fine then. And I think I narrowed it down to just that shape, so not sure what the problem is with that one. Thanks for the help :)

Dude you rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TYSM your a life saver ive been pulling my hair out trying to figure this out wooot I love ya babe

Allota :*

One little problem since i tried to use the converter it keeps telling me Oooops! to many verticls can you tell me what that means Im about to rip my hair out LOL. Please

Thanks for your time

Allota

Allota: Make sure you are using the most recent version of Sculpty Maker (v2.5).

http://www.shiny-life.com/sculpty-maker/

Also, make sure you are starting with one of the zBrush primitive shapes, like the Sphere, Sweep Profile, Cylinder, etc. Sculpty Maker was made to work with objects created in zBrush and generally does not work with objects created in other programs.

I’m trying to make shoes.. but I can’t even get the mushroom right. Can you make a tutorial on how to make a high heel in SL?

It’s not likely that I’ll be doing any tutorials about HIgh Heel shows, Precious. I’m not really into fashion so any shoe I made would probably look pretty dull. I think I have maybe 1 pair of sneakers in SL. :) Most of my tutorials don’t really focu on making specific items, they are more about showing techniques and tools.

I would suggest just spending some time with zBrush until you get a feel for how the tools work. It is not an easy program to learn – took me several months until I began to understand it. You might also want to search out some other, non-SL related tutorials about zBrush. The more you learn about it the more shapes you will be able to make.

Not sure why im not seeing it. But for some reason the part one video which i really want to see isn’t showing up for me

Drapeta: that’s odd. you can try watching it here

http://shinylife.blip.tv

or here

http://www.veoh.com/channels/shinylife

Heya, I have this little problem whereby everytime i load the sculpted texture into SL and apply it to a prim, I noticed that there’s some sort of ‘transparent’ look to it instead of a solid shape x.x; I went through the tutorial videos again and noticed that you have your Alpha off on the left side of the screen. How do I go about switching it off?

Diabolicalsaint: Sounds to me like your sculpty is actually getting flipped inside out, rather than being transparent. The Alpha tool that you see on the left of the screen is actually for painting/masking and such and has nothing to do with Alpha Transparencies in-world. Getting you sculpty flipped inside out is a pretty common glitch.

Check your zBrush preferences under the ImportExport section and experiement with the eFlipY and eFlipZ options. On my set-up they are both selected.

You can also turn a sculpty inside out by flipping the sculptmap image horizontally – mirroring it across the vertical axis.

Thank you so much! I love you man!

This tutorial video was great. I have been using blender for the longest time to make my sculpties, but longing to be using a much more advanced program. I havnt actualy been able to texture what ive sculpted using this tutorial, but i would love to. I cant seem to figure out the “selecting” where you want it to “select” where its going to go. Is there some button you are pressing while you select or am i just not getting it D:. please help

Livi: When you are using the polypaint texturing method (as I did in this video) You use the zProject tool to copy or ‘project’ the colors from the canvas to you object. You need to have the zProject tool selected, then you go into MOVE mode (rather than EDIT) mode, then click and drag a line from where you want the color to come from to where you want it to end up on your object.

Might want to watch this video where I do a bit more texturing, might help fill in some of the missing pieces. It uses the standard 2D ‘canvas’ sort of painting, but many of the concepts are the same.

Two basic issues.

* I need to mask specific faces in order to perform exact sizing. I have used the CTL ALT keys to clear a masked area with a brush rather than a box. I get different intensities of masking creating a section of the tool that is not uniform in shape. If I drag a box around the area to unmask,the unmasked area bleeds on to adjacent faces.

* How do I get a tool to sit on a specific xyz axis. If I use rotate, there should be a hot key to bring the tool back to a specific xyz. I cant find it. Please help.

I don’t know if there is a way to select/manipulate specific faces in zBrush, I don’t think there is. Not really what zB was designed for, really. I’d love to know how if anyone discovers a way, though. :) I use a different program when I need to manipulate specific faces of an object. I like Hexagon, but WIngs3D would do just as well I think.

If you hold down shift while rotating an object it will snap to the nearest axis.

Hey!,

Yeah, masking is odd in that it works on points and not polygons. So to mask a polygon fully you should mask its four points. Don’t worry about the immediate surrounding polygons being slightly selected.

But remember to use a nice sharp edged alpha too! :)

Specific XYZ axis:
To add the Vlad’s good tip – the Image Plane plugin has a button that let’s you record the position of an object and later recall that position.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=46396

There’s other more specialized plugins that let you record and recall an object’s info too.

I’ve had trouble using zproject and material baker in the past, but will, thanks to these, give it another try :D

Thank you so much for your time with this!

Great tutorial. I have been fighting with sculpt programs for quiet some time and when i heared of ZBrush, i toughgt, omg, another worthless try. How wrong kan one get lol. This is a nice program, and a very good tutorial to take the first stepts. Keep up the good work !

Greets
Jody Palmer
BST Corporation

[...] Shiny Life

very hard to see what you are doing in the texture video even though i got it figured i cant get z brush to do it at all it keeps on freezing is there any upgrade i can do to help me

Vlad, you inspired me to buy ZBrush 3.1! Thanks for your great tutorials.

Question: Once I have Namssor’s avatar mesh loaded into ZBrush, the torso polygroup isolated, how do I apply my Photoshop Second Life shirt mesh so it aligns as…well, as a shirt!

Related question: Once I polypaint the torso, for instance, then col>txr and export, of course that pds won’t align with the Second Life templates once I import into Photoshop.

Methinks I am missing a basic step here. Any pointers to instructions or tutorials would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Shaoshan

Shaoshan: Cool, glad that you are enjoying the tutorials.

For some reason the texture maps for the Av in zBrush are upside down. So once you export them you need to flip them Vertically before you use em on the avatar in SL.

Sounds like you have the basics down. Flipping the texture may solve both of your problems. If not, get back to me and we can try something else. :)

One of these days I will be making a tutorial about painting on the Avatar mesh in zBrush.

I hate you, dont be giving away our l33t secrets…

shesh man…if someone asks how you do sculpties…tell em you open up notepad and start coding binary, and that only professors with hybrid alien blood can ever do it…and that they should pay us sculpty wizards 400 bucks a map for it.

next your gonna show people that the rabbit was actually not in the hat the whole time but in a secret chamber below

oops

nice tutorial btw, pretty straight forward.

but make another and your a dead avi, hear?
:-P

Hey! I downloaded the material baker by David Ikeda , but when i try to run it and press start , it gives me a error after clicking away the little info box.
First the info box says
‘The render settings has been set to fast aid in visualizing the texture output.The original material and texture you had selected will be used for baking’

Then I click on that message so it goes away and get this error:

Zscriptnote: Specified routine could not be fo ( im guessing the rest is found)

And under says :[RoutineCall,"ResetToolRotation"].

What does this mean :( Im really stuck

Hope to get a reply soon!!
Thanks

Kookie

Also!
Not all the buttons are highlighted in the script window , Only getting started 1-2 and Start button :(

hmm. Sadly I am no expert on zScripts. o.O I would try removing the script and replacing with a new copy. Also make sure that you are loading in the correct file – the material_baker.zsc file is the actual script file. Also make sure that the files are in the proper place. THere should be several files in the plugin folder, plus two folders: Include and Images.

Hey there :)
Yeah I redid the whole thing. I include all the include files but not the images? As those are just ref images I think?
I still get the same error :/

Im basically wanting to import my skin files from PS into zbrush to continue working on them there.
Also later on when I have time to import my shoes and work on them there also.
I’ve been following http://slhowto.com/slhowto_zbrush_bake_seamless_bump_sl_avatar.asp

Not sure If i even need this? to paint skin and shoe textures.IS this the only way to bake lighting etc?

I would include all the files that come with the script – and make sure that the Include and Image files are still in their respective folders.

Material Baker is the only way I know of to automatically grab and bake the lighting on your model in zBrush. No need to use it if you are just working with the textures on an object without wanting the baked-in shading effect.

btw – there is a Material Baker v2 that you might want to try. I’ve never used this one but maybe you’ll have better luck with it.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=49966

and if you’re using this verison alreayd, maybe try the original v1

http://www.davidikeda.com/zscripts/materialbaker.html

Ok thanks alot :) I’ll try that with the folders.

Quick question though , I cant find any kind of tutorials or so on how to actually paint onto a skin or so.
I usually like to read loads of tutorials before I attempt.

Thanks

I got it working :)
I did what you said by putting it in there in folders.
Thanks! Sometimes the msot obvious thing is the solution lol.

Come to think of it , Im not sure if I’ve seen anything anywhere on how to apply a already done texture to the sl av in zbrush :/

That was a great tutorial.
Thankyou

Now hows about someone’s head from 2 photos ?

Hello Vladimir, thanks for the great videotuts,they really helped me a lot, and lots of others ,struggling around with sculptymaking. I have a remark about painting the sculpty in Zbrush. It seems to me that it is necessary to subdivide the model 5 or 6 times and then paint, using the clonebrush ,from a background photocomposition of at least 1024 x 1024.
I have tried a app called deeppaint 3d ..http://www.righthemisphere.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7123
and i wonder if you tried that relative old app, because it did not need subdivision before painting in order to get a high resolution texture on the sculpt, and in projection mode it can zoom in to 2000 % , so, after opening just any obj in the app you can start painting.
The only problem i had was to get my own textures in the app, i replaced a few si-fi files by my own textures (renaming, copying, overwriting the si-fi types)and succeeded in painting,so i think this app could do the painting job better then zbrush, but i’m busy with this since two days so i have to learn more first…or read the manual :-), anyway…high precision painting can be done , i’m sure,again thanks for your tuts !!

Hello :D there is a converter from .obj into .tga/.bmp
but i would need a converter from .tga to .obj to import my sculptys to texture them in zbrush

Please please help me if you have any idea where i can get such a converter !

Ahm and Thank you for this video tru. itz awesome thank you 100 times :)

good tutorial movie :))

Hi, I’m having the same issue as Kismet Muromachi. Whenever I apply the mask and then do the size thing it re-sizes the stem all the way up into the cap. If i turn off z, its a little better but nowhere close to the shape you came up with….any suggestions as to what I’m doing wrong? I set everything back to the default values and started over with the same results….one thing i do have differently though is, the alpha on yours is “off” and i don’t seem to have that option, so i’m just using the 00 alpha brush for the mask…the solid white one.

Hey there,

Is there a good website to get the textures you use for the mushrooms? Im having trouble baking a texture. Thanks, your tutorials are very good.

Thank you so much for creating these tutorials, they are fantastic!! I was completely lost trying to learn ZBrush until I came across your wonderful tutorials.
You have a pleasant tone to your voice too and that made it easier for me to follow.

So thanks again for creating these!!

this goes beyond being a tutorial for me..it’s inspiration. the clear, calm way you explain everything is so helpful when i’m trying to deal with something i know basically nothing about :P
i always find myself coming back to this – not even specifically for zbrush – but to refresh my mind and remember that there are amazingly selfless, giving people like you still out there. and btw, you have a great voice for tutorials.. even radio! hehe.

thank you so much :)
m

Hello Vlad,

I was wondering if you knew if the tool “ZSphere” is compatible with Sculpty Maker/Second Life? I noticed when loading the Zsphere in ZBrush, there wasn’t an initialize tab to set anything to 32×33, so I’m assuming it’s not compatible, but maybe you know? It’s too bad if it isn’t, the ZSphere is a really powerful tool and can be used to make a ton of things.

Thanks for your help!

Pheonix: Unfortunately I don’t know of any way to use zSpheres and get the resulting mesh converted via SculptyMaker. zSpheres ARE really great, tho.

If we ever get the freedom to import arbitrary meshes into SL, then most of these sorts modelling-for-sculpties limitations will be removed. That’ll be a good day. :)

I am also having trouble with the sizes, the stub goes all the way into the cap without making it look like a mushroom, help?

I need some help-
I messed up my initial sphere’s V divide/H divide… I got them backwards.. so instead of hdivide at 32 and vdivide at 33.. i got my hdivide at 33 and vdivide at 32…
I (not realising this…. yet) continued to work- and finished a project.
I now want to convert the .obj for use in second life, but the converter seems to get very upset with this and crashes…. is there ANY way to keep what i have done and change the V divide/ H divide so I can use the converter?

Hey, I am new to Z-Brush and I am still learning it. I was wondering if that converter you used would work on a Mac or if you know of another one that will. Btw this tutorial has helped me tons! You did a great job on the mushroom and I really like your work, you put a lot of effort into it, I hope to learn some of your skills soon ;). Thanks!

Hi Vlad… great tutorials! They have certainly helped me out a lot.

Do you have another link for the Material Baker zscript that you use? David Ikeda’s website does not seem to be available anymore and the version2 script from zbrushcentral does not have “autobake”…

Thanks in advance..

Hello everyone, for those of you wondering how the Material Baker Version 2 works, I’ve figured it out – and to help my fellow SL sculpties I’ll give a small tutorial.

Yes, the link to the material baker is broken. However you can find it here below the first post: http://www.pixolator.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=49966

Pretty much you’re going to follow the steps as far as loading the script goes.

When the script is loaded make sure your sculpt is divided a few times.

Click Start

A) Checkpolypaint+material = Your texture and the shades of the material

B) Material = Only makes a texture of the shades of your object(I prefered this as to not make my texture too dark)

Choose whichever you want.Next to Material, click ON.

Now position your model either from the side, front or back. I find it’s better to leave the top and bottom for last. (hold shift when rotating to position it perfectly)

Side position – hit bake. It’ll do it’s magic, then a pop up with confirmation that it’s done will pop out. Click it. reposition it to the other side and repeat. Do this for every side. Also if you want to see what’s being done, click “check” next to bake and it’ll show you your model with the texture you’re compressing on it. After you’re done, simply hit generate. (don’t forget the top and bottom – for last preferably) and click your texture and export.

Hope I helped anyone that was having problems like me.

Also this site is so awesome, I love how it brings people together that are learning, really great site.

Oh. By the way, I’m sorry I forgot to mention. You must create a temp folder in C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush3
It HAS to be program files, not Program Files (x64) or anything else. I had to create the Pixologic and ZBrush3 folder, after that add another folder in the Zbrush3 called, “temp” and you should be on your way.

C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush3\temp

Hi, i have a zbrush for mac, i create sculpties on it and then transfer the obj from the mac to a pc so i can convert it with sculptie maker, but with the material baker, it doesn’t seem to work? I keep getting errors like

“Zbrush note:specific rutine could not be found”

and

“Zbrush note: interface could not be found”

could someone help thanks

Amazing tutorial. Just one question, where is that Texture tab in the Tool bar? I’m using 3.12 for Mac and had started with a sphere created from Wings 3D (to fit SL requirements). Basically what I’m trying to do is find “color > texture”, but all I can find is a tab called “Texture Map” in the Tool bar which only contains a “Texture > Color” option that is greyed out anyway.

Help plz? D:

where can i get the material baker script please,
cause the link here is broken.

thanks

Sean:

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showpost.php?p=388197&postcount=14

You need to install the script modified for zBrush3.

if you use Vista, be sure to do the temp folder workaround described in this thread. also, make sure you download the .zip from that post I linked you to, and not the first one (it didn’t work for me when I tried it).

You have not listened to what I said and have not understood. ,

@ganry99: this is the first time you appear to be posting on the thread. What are you referring to?

They called me back and I interviewed the next day and it went great! ,

Hello, I’ve followed Your tutorial but when I try to Make Polymesh3D it doesn’t work. No matter how may times I click it, it’s not working. All I can sculpt on is Polysphere:(

I use Zbrush 3.5, tried reinstalling and it’s till he same.
I’m new to this program but I’m sure I was following the tutoria..well to the point I stucked on that Make Polymesh3D :)
My Save as buton is inactive, but not much to save since I can’t sort out my problem:)
Could You please help me out?

Candiee, u may get an answer at the zbrushcentral forum faster. in addition, i’ve found zbrush’s support to be quite good – just go to the site and submit a ticket http://www.pixologic.com/

No…simply does not work for m….
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

I already made a sculpty in Wings3D….
I then bring it into zbrush and try to follow similar steps. This is the SECOND time I have followed one of your texturing tutorials that only spits out a jagged polygon-based image. I simply want a flat texture I can load into SL, tweak, and have fit. But I’m getting the folded-out polygon textures.

Does it have to do with the UV map? zBrush is such a poorly laid out program that I’m having trouble making one.

As an object by itself, clr>txr crashed Zbrush.
So in Blacksmith 3D I gave the object an auto-UV map, and re-imported the .obj. Now it won’t freezse, but like I said, spits out the wrong KIND of textre image

PLEEEEEASSEEE Help, I have been stuck on this issue for months. I cant get anything to spit out a useful, flat texture.

To convert with Sculpty Maker, your object MUST start out as one of the zBrush primitive shapes – like sphere, cylinder, sweep profile etc. Objects created in other program will not work.

Ohhhh…
so this program you mention does more than just convert to a map, but helps with textures as well? Making my own UV maps with Blacksmith3D definitely didn’t work.

Thanks, I’ll try it tomorrow. I was under the notion that this Sculpty Maker was just a small alternative.

Boy, making sculpties, exporting them, baking textures, uploading, and tweaking, is the most tedious part of SL lol.
Been at SL for over 3 years and I’v never been quite as confused when building/texturing :D :D

yes, alot of hoops to jump through. o.O If the Mesh Import feature that LL has promised really makes it into the viewer, then there should be fewer hoops when making custom shapes.

SculptyMaker works very well when you start with a one of the zBrush primitive shapes. The UV map is correct for use as sculptues. IN case you missed it, there is a page here dedicated to ScultpyMaker info.

http://www.shiny-life.com/sculpty-maker/

I’m even more confused now – what’s the point of SculptyMaker if we’re not going to re-import the object or anything? I already use Wings3D to save my sculpy maps. That part’s easy..

it’s the texturing…

And now i’ve watched your texturing video for the tenth time and I’m still having touble. I have my 6-times subdivided sphere, my crop/filled background texture, and an object ready to paint on. I have zproject selected, and add turned off.
But when I drag the brush, nothing happens. It’s not painting anything whatsoever D:

yu can use zbrush to texture a sculpty made in another program, as long as the UV map is set up correctly. There may be a way to setup the proper UV in zbrush after creation in another program, but I dont know how.

if the UV is set up properly you can paint your texture and export it from zBrush. SculptMaker is not needed for the textures, just exporting the sculptmap shape.

Ah alright. I’m betting my problem is UV map. Even though I auto-added one in Blacksmith 3D and brought it into zBrush, and it still didn’t work. I’ll have to try again tonight.

BTW nice site, I love the videos

Hold on – I tried later, didn’t change a single thing, and it’s working now.

This is beautiful. I am SO GODDAMNED sick of planting normal textures on my scultpies awkwardly and trying to make it look normal….this is so amazing…

Thanks for the help :D

Hi, I’m using zbrush 3.5 and i’m trying to texture an object using zproject. I got it how i like it but there is no texture group. there is UV map texture map ect but they don’t have the same options. I don’t know how to get my texture map to a flat texture that i can photoshop ect. plz help :(

Hi there!
First off, your tutorials are fantastic…thank you so much!
I did have one question: it looks like David Ikeda’s website is no more…a spam website seems to have taken its place. Do you know of an alternative location that I could get my little sculpty hands on the Material Baker?
Thank you!
Kielan Parx (in world)

found my answer >_< sorry should have read the thread first

I love your tutorials! I normally have -no- patience whatsoever to watch tutorials/read manuals, but these babies I sit and watch over and over XD
Also, I was wondering (perhaps I missed this, I can be blind and if so sorry in advance) if you have done any videos on how to do the shade mapping, I think that is what it is called? Not positive, but I make elf ears and I have -no- idea how to make a texture that has the shading for my ears.
It is very frustrating and I don’t want to have to hire someone to do this for me, considering they might run off with my sculpts, lol.
IF anyone has any info on this, I’d really, reaallly appreciate the help.
<3 Rei

Hello,
I try to follow this tut because I find it easy… but I’m lost in the 3rd step lol
I can’t convert the sphere to polymesh. I’m using Zbrush 3.5R2, the button Make Polymesh3d appears but when I click on it anything happens. I read in other coment “Go to the tools palette and make sure disable uvs is UNselected.” maybe it’s related with this but I also can’t find it.
If somebody can help me, thanks.

Thnx for the video <3

First of all, let me say BRAVO. This was an absolutely wonderful informative tutorial. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that it went beyond ‘tutorial’ status and on into ‘inspiration’ status, and i am forced to agree. When i first sat down to watch it i thought to myself ‘ugh, 30ish minutes?’ but it was completely worth it. Just… wow. Fantastic.

I do have a question about the ‘transpose’ section of painting the texture to the object though. I am using 3.5, and for some reason the click and drag to the point you want for reference simply isn’t working. It clicks. It drags. And then it paints whatever is directly behind the object, completely ignoring the reference point i’ve set. I cannot find any info on this [excepting that someone else has noticed it] on the Pixelogic forum, so i am hoping you may have an idea as to what’s going on?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks Saskya, glad that you are enjoying the tutorials.

I’ve noticed the same thing with zProject and the transpose feature. It looks like it is either broken in 3.5 or that feature has been removed. I did find a couple of mentions about it on zBrush Central, prolly the same ones you saw. I’m guessing it is a bug, since there are other problems with zProject and subtools as well.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=78194
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=80613

Guess for now we are stuck with moving the object over top of the area to be transfered or dropping the object to the canvas (Projection Master) and using the Cloner Brush. I show that texturing technique in this video:

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=80613

I am still working out the kinks in my 3.5 workflow. As soon as I feel like I have a good handle on it, I’ll be making a new series of tutorials.