Here is my latest video tutorial about using zBrush and Sculpty Maker to create sculpted prims. This time around I show you how to create an object made up of multiple sculpties. You’ll be using the Subtools feature in zBrush, the Sculpty Maker converter (or zSculpty), and a plugin called Subtool Master. *2k has let us know that Subtool Master is no longer necessary when using the zSculpty plugin.
I got a bit carried away in this video and ended up spending more time sculpting than teaching. :) I do tend to get a bit sidetracked when I sculpt. I’ll be creating another video on this same topic that is a bit more concise and informative. I decided to post this one anyway since there is plenty of useful info stuffed in between my digital doodlings. :D
Great tutorial, Vlad! I learnt tons! :)
One suggestion:
When using ZSculpty you no longer need to merge the SubTools together with SubTool Master. ZSculpty is scripted to go through your SubTool list converting each tool in turn.
hey cool, thanks for the info 2k. That’ll save a step and make it easier to continue working with the set of subtools after exporting.
Thank you so much for making these tutorials. I watched your first couple before making the decision to buy Zbrush. I love it! I have learned much from you and thank you for being so helpful to the rest of us.
I also enjoy the music you play and I have not heard most of it before. Could I ask that you put in text references to the music you use in your video descriptions so I could look for it and buy it?
Thanks again. Your help is appreciated.
Hi Vivienne, Glad that you are finding the zBrush tutorials useful. :) I almost always mention the music used in my videos – usually in the credits at the end. I was a bit lazy on this particular video and only listed the artists. Lessee..
First track was by Deltron (aka Del the Funky Homosapien) from the album 3030. Called National Movie Review. Second track was also by Deltron, called Meet Cleofis Randolph The Patriarch.
Then there is a track called Lift by Cut Chemist from his latest album, The Audience is Listening.
Next was a song by Beck called Satan Gave Me a Taco from his Stereopathetic Soul Manure album.
And the last song was one by DJ Z-Trip called Breakfast Club from his Shifting Gears CD. Z-Trip is absolutely the most amazing mash-up style DJ EVAR! Check out his website, lots of legal downloads of live shows and mixes. http://www.djztrip.com/
Hi there!
Awesome tutorials, I’m really starting to like Z-Brush and its possibilities.Keep up the good work with those tutorials,Vlad!
Anyway…besides having some trouble with the new sculptymaker 2.51 ( zsculpt seems to work though, not sure about resizing ) there’s a nasty Zbrush bug when working with the subtools which really annoyed me one night, I thought it’s the subtool master or any of the other plugins.
But it seems to be a very known bug and there’s a workaround for that: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=61993
I hope that helps some people with the same problem.
Cheers!
Hello there,Vlad!
Thanks for the video tutorials & the time of your life you spend to create/edit/share ‘em with us.
Hi, it’s me again, I’ve seen something I want to share with you all, it’s a video preview of a sculpted flexy prim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8SPB8aIWrQ
Also, if you wanna try it by yourself download the Flexy Sculpt 1.21 viewer: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/17364-flexy-sculpt-1-21-viewer.html and enjoy! (it’s not perfect… But works).
Well, hope it officially comes soon…
Ben: Thanks for the tip. This sounds similar to a bug that I have noticed. ZB crashes fro me every time if I create an object then use the Deformation tools right away. To get around it I just sculpt on my object real quick and undo it before using the deformations.
I’ll put a link up on the SculptyMaker page to older versions of Sculpty Maker, too. Just in case other folks are having trouble with 2.51.
Manny: You’re welcome. :)
Hi Vlad, thanks for all the work you do provided folks help with building and other in sl.
I built an object with 8 subtools. Opened the sculpty plug-in set it at 64. I didn’t do merge per 2K. I hit the export button and got the little Z icon. All that is just like in your video. Then my computer just stayed with that little z icon. When I finally got bored waiting I tried to minimize Zbrush to go check the files to see if it the maps were there. My monitor went kind of clouded milky white and I got a little rotating circle icon as if something was trying to load. Nothing ever did. I finally had to hard shut down the computer because it was locked up. I’ve repeated this same thing several times. Each time I hit export I get the same thing. Any suggestions?
HI Ezra: Glad that you are enjoying the tutorials. hmmm. Usually when zSculpty plugin crashes it is because you are trying to convert an object with too many faces. If you have subdivided the objects, try going back down to the lowest subdivision level before exporting. NOt sure what else to suggest. If you are desperate you could try to merge the subtools with that Subtool Master plugin, export to .obj, then use the external Sculpty Maker to try and convert it.
Hi Vlad,
Not too many faces for sure. Each subtool started out as a zsculpt cylinder. I haven’t been able to decipher it either. Well just thought I’d check here. I guess I’ll try the Master, see what happens.
Thanks Vlad.
Hi Vlad:)
First of all thank you for all your great tutorials!!
Now, I’ve tried to export something with Zsculpty for the first time, made sure the names were short and did not contain any extra # characters, and did not merge the subtools but named them each the same followed by their number. Everything exported okay but when I put them into Sculpty Rezzer I just get a teeny tiny ball of prims all jumbled up together instead of organized into place. I had the sculptmap size set a little higher, like at 128…I just can’t figure out what step I must have gotten wrong. Any ideas?
Violaine: I replied with a few ideas on your SL forum post. Not sure what else to suggest. o.O
THe names of the actual subtools shouldn’t matter,a s the sculptmaps files will be based on the name of the first object (I think) – or at least the name of the object that you saved last.
“Shouldn’t matter if you are exporting the textures along with the objects, or what resolution you are using for the sculptmap. Make sure that the initial object naem doesn’t contain any # signs. zBrush likes to use the # in duplicated objects. All those numbers and other things in the name of the exported scultpmaps are there for the SculptyRezzer to use when reassembling the object. No need to make any changes to the names after exporting.
Have you tried exporting just a simple, single object to make sure that your setup is working properly?”
Everytime I try to export the obj file (with multiple subtools, the sculpty maker or zplugin crashes. I’ve tried exporting each of the objects that the makes up the bigger objects. All of the individual pieces export just fine. I am working with more than the 32/33 division. Is that the problem?
Kala: Hmm. Seems odd that they you can convert them individually but not as a whole. There is a limit to the number of vertices that SculptyMaker can handle at one time, maybe taken altogether the objects are too detailed? If you are using SubDivision levels you could try making sure that they are all at their lowest division level. You might try using the SubTool Master plugin to merge the subtools before exporting. That is no longer recquired, but it’s worth a shot.
I think it has to do with the number of vertices, yes. I did try the merge, but that didn’t work. Next time I’ll be sure to make my base models 32/33 and then make the polymesh 3D then subdivide up. I have an easier time working with the higher mesh objects, but now can’t make the mesh any lower. Thank you for your help again :)
I realized what I was doing wrong – and I feel pretty silly, but I will share this in case someone else has the same problem.
Make sure you install or create a folder called Zsculpty Maps – or the zscript won’t work and will crash zbrush.
Awesome, glad you got it working, Kala. Thanks for sharing your solution. :) I’ll make a note of it for next time I update the SculpyMaker help page.
DUDE! i made some kick ass armor for my group but couldn’t upload it into SL. THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR TUT.!
LOL @ 11:45, Yeah I just found out yesterday why you can’t have ANY faces crossing. I tried making a sculpt of a rabbit head & committed EPIC fail by having crossing faces. It’ll make your sculpty semi-transparent in world. Whenever you look at it all of the faces in direct line of site of your viewer disappear. Makes for some cool fire effects but sucks big time if you’re trying to make a slightly complex sculpt! ^_^
Премного благодарен за то что просветили, выводы сответственные обязательно сделаем. ;)
Thanks for the tutorials, they’ve been a huge help and without them I doubt I’d ever have gotten anywhere!
I’m curious if you or any of the other readers might be able to answer this.
I want my sculpts to not reach the edge of the bounding box(I think that’s what it is called). Ex. the prim would be sized at 2m in each direction but the actual sculpt only rezzes to be 1 m or so. I’m pretty sure this is possible but have no clue how to go about it.
Thanks in advance for any help you or anyone else might be able to give:)
Found the answer!
To make the sculpt rezz without hitting the edges of the bounding box:
Take it into Photoshop
Image>Adjustments>Levels
Change the output numbers proportionately
(Ex. default is 0 and 255, change to 55 and 200)
Odd for me when i go to sculpty maker it into a texture with sculpty maker 2.51 it goes into not responding and crashes on me :(
[...] Shiny Life » Create Multiple Sculpty Objects with zBrush – [...]
I’m having a problem this works fine for me with one object but I made a object with a subtool and the first object makes a sculpty map fine but when I try to convert the subtools obj file to a sculpty map I get the message
multiple sculptmaps created and saved to the objects folder
But when I look in there there is no sculpt map texture for it just some bmp and some other weird file. Anyone know what I’m doing wrong its probably really dumb cuz I’m pretty new to this but any ideas please?
nvm figured it out I didnt have it set to a polymesh sorry
I have a question about this. In the past a create a lot of things with Cinema. Is it possible to transform those obj-files into zbrush and start the worklfow für SL-Sculpties?
The problem is, that i can not reduce the devides-lenght. Is there a way? Thanks!
Смотреть фильмы онлайн
What would make it so that when I try and put a transpose line down it just edits the sculpt even though I have it on edit and move?
I found a solution for the problem people have presented where they can’t sculpt objects from Zbrush because they hit polymesh too often.
Everytime you hit polymesh it creates a copy of your object in the display window below. Each version has a # associated with it. Look for the first one and make a .obj with that, then translate that to a sculpty.
Thanks ever so much for the extremely helpful tutorial, Vlad, it really saved me tons of time!
I did want to point out, you mentioned that the VDivide values would not enter unless you use the slider, however they actually will. When you enter “33″ as a value, simply click in the empty gray area on the lower right side of the ZBrush window. For some reason this seems to register it.
Once again, thanks for the awesome tutorial!
First off, thanks for these tutorials.. I went crazy looking for tutorials on how to make detailed objects like this in SL.. I’ve been an avid zbrush user since 2.0 (mostly making my own art), and recently found links to SL-related stuff, eventually leading me here. That said, let me see if I understand this correctly: Since I can’t have ONE hi-poly model due to SL’s restrictions, I can create a ztool with multiple subtools, all at the highest poly count that SL supports (with the H and Vdivide set to 32 and 33) to make ONE single object? My goal is to make hi-quality accessories, such as this watch: http://www.slmen.com/images/070609A.jpg (you can tell the links are simply cylinders) or this set of bracelets: http://www.slmen.com/images/230909A.jpg …I’d like to make sure I understand this fully before really starting anything. Thanx in advance and sorry for the long post
i have a sl avatar head upper lower obj file that i can open in photo shop extended , when i open it it has 3 layers so i paint on the 3d model and it fills the respective (uv’s?).I have a multi subtool model in zbrush i made.I can merge it using subtool master export it as an obj file but it only has 1 layer for all the many parts when i open it in ps extended.How do i export it and get the uvs on seperate layers?
I want to texture my creations in ps all at once as i can with the avatar mesh there, not piece at a time
re my own question i figured it out , is happy :)
can you do thi for me, http://my.speedtv.com/darvocet darvocet now, =))),