thanks much for your help vlad

“Veoh is no longer available in Brazil” <=== WHAT *cries loud*

Any chance you could put the videos on Youtube?

Lucilla: Oh, bummer. I wish these new media outlets would just get over the old regional restrictions and realize that the Web is Global.I will still be putting my vids on Blip.tv, uploading this new Sculpty Maker tutorial now. Can you view those? I don’t generally put my tutorial vids on YouTube because of length and file size restrictions.

Here’s a link to the video on Blip.tv
http://blip.tv/file/1161672

Are there different inputs for the ‘32, 33′ thing, like, for a torus? I heard you had to put in different numbers for a torus to come out better.

Legault: Yes, there are different settings that will match the in-world mesh for the differnet primitve types.

Torus, Sweep Profile (with thickness), Gear : 32×32
Plane: 33×33
Sphere and most others: 32×33

This has to do with the way that SL wraps the mesh to form the sculpty. The sphere wraps in one direction so 32×33. The torus wraps in two directions so 32×32. Plane does not wrap so 33×33.

The newest version of SculptyMaker (v2.5) is much more lenient about the specific mesh sizes, but I still prefer to work at the exact in-world resolutions.

Fantastic tip, Vlad, thanks for that!

My sculpty maker freezes when I hit make sculpty.

IneedHelp: hmmm. Well, the most common causes of SculptyMaker crashing:

Trying to convert an object that did not start as a zBrush primitive shape.

Trying to convert an object who geometry has changed via extraction or some other method that changes the construction of the mesh.

Trying to convert an object with too many faces.

You might want to try making a simple sphere object, go into edit more, press the MakePolyMesh3D button, then export that as a .obj and convert it. If that works then you know that the problem lies with the other object(s) you are trying to convert.

I was wondering if you could quickly explain how to put together the ‘Sculpty Rezzer’.
I am on the TeenGrid, so I don’t have a premade one.
I downloaded the scripts from the link at the top of this page, but I couldn’t get it to work right.

Any help?

To assemble the Sculpty Rezzer:

1. Create a regular prim sphere and name it ‘Sculpty Rezzer’ and drop the provided ‘Sculpty Rezzer’ script into the sphere.

2. Create a cube and name it ‘Section’ and drop the provided ‘Section’ script into it.

3. Drop the ‘Section’ cube into ‘Sculpty Rezzer’ sphere.

Then to use it you drop the sculptmap images created with Sculpty Maker into to the contents of the Rezzer, touch the Rezzer, and it’ll create the sculpted prim. It’ll also restore the orginal proportions of the object.

Awesome, thanks a million Vlad.
You’re tutorials are the best and most helpful I’ve seen, keep’m come’n.

How do you export multiple subtools using SM?

Ina: I have this topic planned for a future tutorial.

In the meantime, here are the basic steps:

1) create your objects in the normal way for use with Sculpty Maker.

2) Use the Subtools feature to assemble and align them all together

3) Use a plugin called SubTool Master to Merge all the separate objects into one object.

4) Export that merged object as a .obj file

5) Run that .obj through Sculpty Maker – you’ll get a sculptmap image for each of the original parts.

6) Upload all those sculptmaps and drop em into the Sculpty Rezzer, then click to rez and assemble the full object.

You can get the SubTool Master plugin here:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=057154

Check out this two tutorial from Virrginia Tombola. She demonstrates the process of working with multiple objects and SubTools. The tutorial is aimed at animating a sculpty, but most of the same basic concepts apply

http://labicyclette.blogspot.com/2008/06/creating-animated-sculpts-with-zbrush.html

There’s a video on this page that shows the basics of how to use SubTools – and many other zBrush tools:

http://www.pixologic.com/zclassroom/homeroom/

I’m not finding the multipart sculpt map’s in the folder where the obj is in… After clicking “make sculpty” I get the dialog: “multiple sculpt maps created and saved in the object’s folder” … but these sculpt maps are nowhere to be found o.O

it seems that i get the same dialog for all non-sphere zbrush primitives.

I’m wondering whether this might be due to Vista’s UAC (which I have turned off – everything is still marked as read-only, though, which i can’t seem to change.)

Ina: hmm…Wish I knew more about Vista. I have never even seen it let alone used it. I don’t think that 2k has ever really tested it on Vista, either. So when you convert a single sculpty object the map is saved in the proper place, but the merged Subtool objects are not saved properly?

Ina: Have you tried used the zSculpty plug-in to convert the merged Subtool object? It saves to a folder inside the zBrush plug-in folder. On an XP default install it would save here:

C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush3\ZStartup\ZPlugs\ZSculpty Maps

Worth a shot anyways.

Ah Zsculpty seems to have done the trick. Thanks!

THANK YOU !! U’re a Genius !!

well everything works fine apart from the part when its uploaded it goes Hollow as in the camera rotates around u see trough it anyone can help me with that cos everything is as explained using Zbrush 3.0 and tryed everything still i can see trough my object for som reason … ;//

lol im sry im dummy i updated my zbrush to 3.1 and worked just fine with the converter 2.5 tytytytytytytytyytytytyt!

Excellent Joe, glad that you got it working. I’ll keep that in mind next time someone has a similar problem.

OK, I am getting sick of nothing working with my computer. I’m on Vista. PLEASE tell me that I am doing something wrong and I’m not once again at a massive disadvantage with my peers due to my operating system.

I followed the turtorial. My object was 32 x 33 for the mesh, a 3D polymesh, I only used the basic edit tools, and finally exported it as a basic .OBJ file.

Whenever I try to make it into a sculpt, Sculpty Maker crashes. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong.

Zombie: hmm. My first guess would be that you pressed the MakePolymesh3D button more than once. This would destroy the UV map and SM could no longer convert the object.

Have you tried just converting a basic sphere? just create a sphere, go into edit mode, press the Make PolyMesh3D button then export as a .obj file. That should work every time. If it does then there is something wrong with your other steps. If it doesn’t then something else must be wrong.

Also, have you tried the zScultpy plugin rather than the Sculpty Maker program. zSculpty solved another Vista users problem. Make sure that you are using zBrush 3.1 and the newest version of Sculpty Maker (v 2.5).

I’ve also tried to zSculpty plugin. When I export the object, I can’t find it in the sculptmaps folder and I get an error saying that it’s missing a texture or something, AFTER it says “Finished”

If I make it a 3D Polymesh before doing so, the whole program crashes on me.

I can’t even convert a basic sphere. It crashed with both the plugin and Sculpty Maker.

Well, Zombie, I don’t know what else to suggest. Maybe another Vista user will come along with some further suggestions.

When I use the sculptmaps created in sculpty rezzer the maps seem to have a bit missing. When I create a prim and change the sculptmap to the one created the sculpty seems to be ok…..

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/1839/snapshot003qd7.png

They’re both 32 x 33 zbrush spheres. The one on the left was a sculpty created the “normal” way – open a prim, change type to sculpty, change default sculpty texture to the one created.
The one on the right was just put into the sculpty rezzer contents.

Does anyone have any ideas what I’m doing wrong/why the same sculptmap behaves diffently using the rezzer?

(btw I’ve noticed if you append a few unaltered zbrush prims together then merge in subtools you can sculpt on the merged object. It’s an alternative to sculpting objects seperately then merging them together (although smoothing does mess things up slightly at edges)…eg. you can merge two 180 degree half-spheres into one large sphere with more vertices then sculpt it, allowing you to sculpt on a large sphere with 32 x 33 x 2 vertices.)

Scratly: it sounds like the ‘Stitching’ type of your sculpts is not getting set correctly. In v1.20 and above of the SL viewer their is an option to choose from several sculpted prim types like Sphere, Plane, Cylinder and Torus. Try selecting SPhere from that list and your gap will dissapear. If you are using an older version of the viewer you will need to change the culpty type via script.

The newest version of Sculpty Maker (2.5) is not as picky about the number of faces in your objects. You are free to use other configurations beside that ones that match the in-world setup exactly. Just keep in mind that you can sculpt add more detail with a high rez mesh than will show up on a single sculpty.

I like the idea of merging several objects together and sculpted them as one, tho. It’s also possible to split those objects back up into their original pieces, at least it is when texturing. I am gonna have to give that a try! :D

[...] objects created in zBrush with the Subtools. Check out the new Sculpty Maker page for more info: Shiny Life Sculpty Maker | Shiny Life Nice shoes, [...]

I am having trouble with the sculpty rezzer. I went and picked up the one in world.

I put in the sculpt map with the data in the name, touch it, and I see it rise up into the air and rez the apple shaped, plywood object. Then the object rezzed disappears and the rezzer goes back to ground.

Any idea of why?

Vivienne: Hmmm…I have never seen this happen with my own objects and sculpty rezzer. Many of the problems with Sculpty Rezzer mis-behaving have to do with the object and sculptmap file name. Make sure the object’s file name is short and does not contain the # symbol. Otherwise I’m not quite sure what to suggest. o.0

I have figured out that the created objects are not de-rezzing, but are zipping off to another location. I had them set to the wrong group and they were returned to my lost and found folder. Now, I just have to figure out where they are going! I am working on a platform 500 meters up, would this have an impact?

Next time I rez one, I will drop a script into the session object that will tell me the location of the prim. That should solve the mystery.

Hi, thanks for all you’re tutorials and hard work!

I had a question, does Sculpty Maker work with Zbrush 2 (not Zbrush3)? Is there an older version of Sculpty Maker that would work with it? I noticed the ‘makePolymesh3d’ option does not need to be applied with zbrush 2 (It won’t let you).

When I try to make a sculpty image, I only get a small white box bmp file.

Thanks.

Danehy: I am not sure if the curretnv ersion (v2.5) of Scultpy Maker works with zBrush 2. I know that older versions did, as there were two versions – 1 for ZB 2 and one for ZB 3.

Here is a link to a version )I think this is v1) that should work with zBrush 2
http://www.shiny-life.com/SculptyMakers.zip

Keep in mind that this version will be very particular about the mesh sizes – must start with a 32×33 zb shape.

Okay, thank you very much, Vlad!

Hey, I have been trying to make thin sculpts, for glasses, etc.
but everytime I make a sculpt, when I upload it, it resizes it, so even at .010x.010x.010 it is chunky and I can’t create small details, or even thin glasses-frames.
(glasses, like, for your eyes)
Is there a way to work around this??

Legault: Make sure that you un-check then Scale option on Sculpty Maker if you want to make very small items. With the Scale option checked your scultpy will be resized to fill the prim bounding box on all 3 axis. With it unchecked it will only be sized along the longest axis of the object.

It is also possible to manipulate the size of a sculpty vs. the size of the prim bounding box using Photoshop or another image editor. By controlling the saturation of the red, green , or blue channels you can effect the scale of the x, y, or z axis.

I attempted the first suggestion, but, I compared it to the first one I uploaded and it’s the exact same. It fits itself to the bounding box. :(

How might I go about doing this photoshop method?

Hi guys!,

I’m afraid the Scale preserving feature is broken in the latest version of Sculpty Maker. I only found it yesterday after trying to use it myself.

I may get time to fix it next week. If so, I’ll give our Vlad a poke when it’s done!

Next week came early!:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?d1wmm0myunl

Cool, thanks 2k. I’ll get that new version up here right away.

Hmm…the Sculptymaker 2.51 just locks up when trying to make a sculpt map.
Tested this with a standard 32×33 sphere, running XP.
Zsculpt plugin works but seems to be resizing automatically, which is bad for animated sculpties.
I have an old Sculptymaker(ZB3) version that seems to work, but has no options for resize or centering…

Hey Ben!,

I was just playing with Sculpty Maker and it kept crashing on me!. After much confusion I figured out why. Turns out I had disabled the Txr button in the ZBrush Export settings.

Take a look to make sure your Txr button is enabled.

Or better still – make sure all these buttons are enabled:

Obj
Qud
Txr
Grp

Hello all,

thx for the nice job in this suclpty maker, making my life quite easier, but I’m having a noob problem, my sculpties are inverted, don’t know how to fix it.

BTW Vlad, I’m you fan m8. lol

my Zbrush does not have the initialize option so i can change my sphere to 32, 33, why is that? do i have to download a plugin?

Schaduwen: Not sure why your Initialize options are not showing up. On the defaul layout (in zB 3 anyways) The Initialize options are over on the right side toolbar. THey are not grouped with the icon that you press to start creating a sphere, but down lower in that list of tools.

Yud: Thanks, mate. :) The inverted sculpty problem can be fixed a couple of ways – although if things are set correctly your sculpties should not end up inverted. There are some options that you can set in zB when you export the .obj file. Look under preferences for the importexport options then play around with the eFlipx and eFlipz options, on my setup both are selected.

You can also turn a sculpty inside-out by mirroring the sculptmap in Photoshop. Can’t remember off hand but I think you flip the image horizontally and it will turn inside out. if not it is vertically. :) Been too long since I needed to do that, cant remember exactly lol.

You might also try using the zSculpty plugin in rather than the separate Sculpty Maker converter, might give you slightly different results.

I wanted to take a moment and thank Vlad for the years of making great items for us. We dont thank enough so, I stopped to smell the flowers

Aww shucks. :) Thanks Nubian. Really appreciate the feedback and encouragement.

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

looks like can be a vary usful tool would be nice to do art from another program trying to make person statue

Hiya. I have a problem with something. Whenever I try to make a sculpt, about half of the sculpt map is black or missing. (It doesn’t happen all the time, but it seems to happen with most of my objects) I have the resolution on 1, so I don’t get what went wrong.

Please help. :)

Hi Zeph. Hmm. The only time I have seen that sort of glitch in a sculptmap is when I have messed up, or tried to replace, the UV map that is created when you make a PolyMesh out of the zBrush primitive shapes. That UV map is very important for proper sculpty conversion and if it gets modified your object wont convert properly.

If you can make a sphere, convert polymesh3d then convert to sculptmap and it turns out correctly, then it’s possible that other times you are destroying that UV map somehow. Maybe be using the Extract feature, or otherwise changing the topology of the mesh.

Hi there, it’s me again, I’ve commented before, anyway…

Talking about UVs and Polymeshes:

Reading this post/comments and watching some of your videos Vlad, I’ve noticed that depending on the sculpt type/form it should be 32×32; 32×33 or 33×33.

Up there you mentioned Plane3D should be 33×33, now watching the videos you use 32×33 on the Plane3D, Circle3D and Terrain3D.

You only mention it about Plane3D but I guess Circle3D and Terrain3D should be as well 33×33 since they doen’t wrap.

Now the question is:

1) Circle3D and Terrain3D should be 33×33 as well?

I think, not quite sure because it was while ago, probably few months ago… I created a terrain 32×33 and I think it worked, not sure… Ok, I checked the back-up, yeah I used 32×33 it worked fine. Not sure if I used 2k’s application or Zsculpty…

Another question:

2) Would be better 33×33 talking about Terrain3D?

I have another question, believe it or not I do…

Is there much difference between Zsculpt exporter and 2k’s application, talking about performance and results? (both are able to answer this one 2k or Vlad.

Ok, I hope and answer for each question.

I really enjoy reading/re-reading your posts and watching your videos, keep it up, buddy!

Manny

Ah typos… It’s a problem when you are LIVE.

Fixed:

1) 33×33 since they *doen’t –> (don’t) wrap.
2) Is there much difference between *Zsculpt –>(ZSculpty).
3) Ok, I hope *and –> (an) answer for each question.

Manny

HI Manny. I think in my first couple tutorials I had some of the mesh sizes wrong – was still learning and older versions of SculptyMaker were very picky about those settings. Pretty sure that the best sizes (ones that match the in-world mesh exactly) now should be:

32×33 for sphere, cylinder, spherinder
32×32 for torus and maybe the Gear
33×33 for plane, terrain3d, circle

You can think of it in terms of how the shapes wrap. All sculpties are basically a plane shape wrapped in different ways. the planes are 33×33 since they dont wrap, the sphere wraps in one direction so 32×33, the torus wraps in two directions so 32×33.

The current version of SculptyMaker doesnt care as much about the exact number of faces, but I still like to stick to these numbers to match as closely as possible to thein-world mesh.

SculptyMaker and zSculpty are basically the same program, both created by 2k Suisei. As far as I know the only real difference is that the zSculpty plugin doesnt have the options for center/scale adjustments like SculptyMaker does.

Thanks Vlad, for answer the questions.

What do you mean by center/scale?

I think if that’s a difference it’s a quite important difference, however it’s not so clear to me, for example…

All I’ve created are basically subtool models and I’m a ZSculpty fan, I feel it much more handy bundled right in ZBrush.

Point is… after to create the subtools, I Merge, save, export using ZSculpty, up-load and drop the rgb maps in 2k’s Sculpty Rezzer. And here’s where it’s not too clear to me, it’s looks fine I’d same almost the same as in ZBrush, scaled and centered.

So is that what you mean by center/scale or you mean something else I didn’t find out?

I’d like to know since that center/scale is an extra/lack I didn’t know about.

I’ve to add while working with subtools, Sculty Maker can give some extra help that ZSculpty doesn’t. For example lately I was working on a project that I needed to add shapes created in Maya as guides, all was working just fine until I had to export it.

Easy, I had to remove the non-compatible meshes with SL, because the Maya models weren’t created with the proper poly count and so on, so here is when ZSulpty lacks something Sculpty Maker can fix…

If you work with subtool and multiple models and models not supported by SL you’re gonna find out after you remove the tools not compatible with SL that something is wrong because ZSculty is not exporting the new subtool model…

Why? Well I didn’t try to edit the zscript 2k’s created, but leaving aside the scripting affair it could be part of the subtool tool itself, it’s really tricky at some point, and I fixed it to make it work with ZSculty, I will explain later. Where I was…? Oh yeah, I was saying, that… Well you try to export the new subtool, polygrouped and all that stuff you need to create something good within ZBrush, with ZSculty and you’re gonna encounter some troubles, it won’t work (at first)… So here is when you can use Sculty Maker, instead to use ZSculty and export (supposedly from a ZTL file) you export ‘em with the built-in ZBrush exporter to a .OBJ file then you use Sculpty Maker and you can take breath it worked, you didn’t lose all you worked for but you will notice “hey, hey, hey, what’s going on the name of the files don’t match it adds some “_part” and that wasn’t supposed to be there” (in some cases) and of course that will affect the Sculty Rezzer behaviour. At this point I’m not sure it I can comment so long, anyway let’s give it a try…

So here’s the thing, ZSculty didn’t export it, but using the built-in exporter worked so I created .OBJs and God blessed me Sculty Maker did and I’ve got the rgb maps out there which is something already, I didn’t lose what I was working on but OMG, I’ll have a hard time fitting each piece in the right place, so the miracle helps but it didn’t save anybody, ya’ve a long ride ‘nd y’aint gonna get a cold beer for it.

That’s another important difference between ZSculty and Sculpty Maker.

How do I fix that so it works with ZSculpty and it does what I want it to do? Well, “bigger, stronger, faster”, nice movie/documental… Anyway, you happily work on your subtools with the models created using supported prims by SL and the models created with whatever other bunch of codes packed software you use, storm over my head, hope my Internet connection survive… Ok I’ll hurry… And… After you removed the unwanted tools from the subtool menu, don’t export it, even if it works, subtool is tricky it keeps track of the previous tool you deleted so it won’t fit. What I do is simple: I delete the unwanted/unneeded tools, I rename the tools in the menu, I Merge the splitted parts into a new subtool, save the project and export using ZSculty. Works for me. That keeps the rgb maps with the proper file names making it easy for Sculpty Rezzer to work with.

Well hope it answers future questions related to subtool and ZSculty, and it’s up the way you work I work with polygroups, not suported meshes as guides, most of the time with a lotta substools and some magic… So maybe it never happened before but, hey, it’s free and it’s knowledge, enjoy!

Hope an answer, read you soon, ta ta.

Manny

There are options ins the SculptyMaker stand-alone application that allow you to control the Scale of the scale of the shape withing the sculpted prim bounding box, as well as the ‘center’ of the object. These options are mostly useful when working with animated sculpties. For instance when you could model a Horse’s leg and then move the ‘center’ of the leg to the to of the shape so that it will rotate about that point, rather than the geometric center of the object.

Thanks for the tips about subtools, ya never know what info might come in handy for the next person who is having a problem. :)

Oh, yeah, I understood now.

Thanks again Vlad, keep it up, buddy.

Can anyone tell me why Initialize is never there in my tools menu and how do I get that please?

Lee: The Initialize option will only be visible after you have created a zBrush primitive shape (like sphere or Plane)in edit mode. Draw out a sphere shape, enter edit mode (t key), then look for the initialize option.

If it is still not there then maybe your interface was modified. Up at the top right there are some arrows that let you switch between different versions of the interface. flip through them til you see the one called Default.

Thank you so much Vlad! & thanks to 2k as well. I never knew there was a zbrush friendly way to make sculpties! As a well versed trafitional artist, Zbrush just feels so much more intuitive as far as getting the results I want. I’ve tried all of those other useless plugins for all of the other 3D programs & so far Zbrush & sculpty maker are just THE BEST & eaesiest way to get the sculpted prims I want! Thank you both so much. Oh, & I <3 your videos, Vlad! You rock!

Hey, it’s me again. I’ve gotten my problems with sculptymaker sorted out.

For some reason, trying to convert a mesh I made from a blank canvas, with the proper settings (I thought…) did not work and crashed. But, when I started with the default sphere polymesh in Zbrush, things worked fine and it could make and save.

Oddly enough… it worked afterwords when I made a new sphere from scratch, with the appropriate settings.. I think it was before I hit the “Make Polymesh 3D” button, however.

I kinda wonder if I wasn’t doing something wrong..

Zombie: I tell ya, zBrush seems to have a mind of it’s own sometimes. o.O There have been times where I’d swear I was using the proper workflow but it just wouldn’t cooperate. Now I generally restart zBrush every time I want to work on something and sort of make sure I got through the same motions when starting out. On a big project I will even do a test convert of my objects early on just to make sure that everything is working correctly.

Hi Vlad, ive used Zsculpty for a while and just installed it on my swish new Dell pc. Now the problem , lol .It says its working fine and at the top of screen says its sending the sculpt maps to the folder etc but when i open the folder theres nothing in there.I’ve tried it on old tools i know work and ive tried it on a sphere at 32×33 and hit the button to make a map, again i open the folder to find nothing in there ? ive uninstalled both Zbrush and Zsculpty and re installed . My PC is a Core 2 quad core with Nvidia its got loads of grunt etc i cant see what is the problem ? please help a sculpty maker devotee :)PS the old PS: the older method of sculpty maker works so its not an issue with the pc generating the maps from objects

Payl: Hmm.. THis was happening to me the other day as well. I used the FLUSH option in the zSculpty panel in zBrush. I think I also deleted the whole zSculpty PLugin folder and installed a fresh copy. If that doesn’t work you could try exporting as .obj and using the stand-along SculptyMaker until you can get zSculpty working again.

Hi Vlad, yes i found the flush button on my older pc but unfortunately it dosnt fix this prob.I did discover that when i hit the button to make a map it sends a file to my desktop EG:shirt ruffle ver2 left.mtl . Now what the … is an mtl. and why is zsculpty sending those to my desktop instead of a map the the zsculpty maps folder? lol its something id love to sort as doing it the old way is far too time consuming when you do a complex multiple prim sculpture as im sure you know.

Hey,

I have a problem with making sculpts that have more than 4 subdivision levels (65,792). My zbrush Crashes when I try the Zsculpt plugin to create the sculptmap with subdivision 5 or 6 like in the tutorial videos. Also if I export it as .obj file and try the Sculpty Maker it just crashes too.

My computer specs should be ok since i got a Core2Duo 3.17GHz with 4GB RAM and a Nvidia EN9600GT graphics.

Does anyone else have the same problem or is there anyone that knows how to fix this?

Heya

I’ve figured all this out up to the point where I made the sculpty rezzer in world , clicked it and it started processing the shapes but all I got was cubes :/ and not the actual sculpties..

Im sure theres something very obvious im missing here lool

thanks

Kookie: Check your spelling on the names of the objects in your Sculpty Rezzer. They must be exactly as they appear in the instructions, including the Capital letters. You can can also IM me in-world and I’ll drop a working version on you.

Gozza: Before your convert to a sculpted prim, try settings your SubDivision level back to 1. There is a slider in the Geometry palette called sDiv. Set that back to 1 before converting.

SculptyMaker isn’t made to convert objects with thousands of faces, to many polygons at those higher subdivision levels.

Hi,

Im having problems with a project that has three Torus as subtools, after merging with SubTool Master and export them Sculpty Maker creates scultpy maps that are wrong, i can do this with other objects but the torus, any ideas?

Thanks

Hi Vlad,

I want to firs off thank you very much for your tutorials. They have helped me out a great deal on something I have always been a bit intimidated on trying.

Now for my problem, of course lol. I am trying to make a sword blade to put into SL. I start with a cube, and set it to 32,33 as you said, then shape it. When I shape it, all I really do is bend it a bit, and use the move tool to make the point at the end of the blade. I’m trying something basic and simple just to see if I can get it in world. Anyway, I convert it with sculpty maker, upload it, and it comes out in world looking like a cylinder that has the curve, and the rest of it just looks droopy and squishy.

I have looked through all of these comments and found a few solutions that made it better than what my first few attempts looked like, but I am just lost at this point.

I also made a quick version of a mushroom just to see if the sphere would work any better, and it came out perfect. So I’m assuming it has something to do with using the cube. Any ideas, or experiences that you know of similar to this?

Thanks a lot for the help, and I apologize for such a long message here.

I forgot to add previously that I am using zBrush 3.1

It seems Venom, that you not using Lossless compression in SL when you export it has a Sculpt.

Now i am having a problem with Zculpty, when i hit make sculpty, Zbrush stops responding i have made lots of Zbrush sculpts and loaded to SL, and this its happening just a few days ago, anyone has having the same problem?

Just a little request for Sculpty Maker.
It’s been out that if you shrink the image size from 64pixels to 32×128 or 16×256 or even 8×512, you can make a sharp edged, or unwrinkled thing long sculpt with in SL.

Ive been looking out for a tool that automatically does that without mistake, and I thought Sculpty Maker is almost perfect if it had this feature, since we know we create many long organic shapes in Zbrush. ;)

So, I request that little options to pick a image resolution for output texture.
I love Sculpty Maker, thanks for making this!

With all the Modo 401 revolution in progress I was asking myself, like so many other people related to modeling, animation, etc… “When is gonna launch Pixologic, Inc., a new release? IS it 4;5;10 version?” Well trusting Pixolator one of the zbrushcentrar’s admins: “August 2009″ is the key for ZBrush 4.0 which for I hope cool stuff.

So, following the up-grade fever (I didn’t check SL forum lately) is Mr., 2k gonna up-grade Sculpty Maker from 2.51 to let’s say: 2.51½? I remember I read in the forum the work on the ZSculpty addon (which I love) was kinda left aside not sure how long ago, don’t remember… However, you never know…

So 2k if you are around here or if you Vlad get in touch with him, get me an answer.

Manny

I too have a problem with zscuptly plugin and vista ultimate.
After creating a simple sphere and creating the sculpt the map folder was seemingly blank. I had followed all the steps and tried it on 32bit and 64bit versions,nothing appeared in the folder.
At the top of the folder was a tab to view “compatable files”. I clicked on this and hey presto the sculpt map appeared albeit a .bmp file with a real long file name comprising all the color info.
Can you guys who have this working properly tell me the file types to expect. It seems they should be .jpg or .obj.
Would appreciate some help on getting this to work with vista.
Thanks

I am also having no luck with Vista. Same exact problem:

I click the “Make Sculpty” button, and get the message “Multiple sculptmaps created and saved to the object’s folder”, but nothing is there.

I’ve tried multiple solutions:

1. Force Sculpty Maker to run in Windows XP compatability mode
2. Run Sculpty Maker as an administrator
3. Run Sculpty Maker in the same directory as the .obj file
4. Give full permissions to “Everyone” on the directory containing the .obj file

Nothing works…

I can’t seem to get the zBrush plugin to show up in my plugins list either.

Looks like Sculpty Maker and Vista just don’t get along at all.

Well, looks like I made a noob mistake. Surprise surprise.

I was messing with the primatives and using masking and deformation, and hadn’t even punched the “Make PolyMesh3D” button…

Once I did that, everything works fine. Vista and all.

I found a fix for the missing bmp files. Do a search for fixbmp_vista.reg and apply the reg patch.

I’ve been loveing useing both ZBrush and Sculpty Maker. Finaly I can create textures for my sculpts right on the shapes! But there’s only one problem. Every time I try to make a texture with the Shaded option selected in ZBrush’s Projection Master, I end up with these jagged edges running down the sides of my shape. And try as I might I cant ever seem to stop them from appearing. Anyone know what to do to stop this from happening?

[...] night he told me that there’s now a direct export to SL sculpty map tool for ZBrush called zSculpty. That’s good. Choice is good in terms of content creation for SL. Many designers already have [...]

Hi Elf. The torus can do odd things. Not sure if zBrush constructs the mesh the same for every kind of torus shape. for a square sculpty a 32×32 mesh works well for the torus, since that matches the geometry in sl.

Also – With the newest versions of Sculpty Maker and zSculpty you no longer need to merge the subtools before converting. It’ll convert each subtool individually.

HI Venom. Not sure what to suggest without seeing the objects. but.

Maybe the Sculpty Stitiching type is set wrong in SL. THere are several ways to ‘wrap’ the mesh for a sculpty. SPheres, Plane, Torus, Cylinder. Look for that option under where you place the sculptmap image in the editing toolbox

The cube is also built a bit werid in zBrush. Almost all of the faces are along the sides and only a few at the top. Try to get an detail with the top faces is difficult. try turning on the Faces option while sculpting. That’ll outline the individual faces of the mesh and make it easier to see what I am describing. It is a button along the right of the zBrush canvas area.

Couple of things to try anyways… good luck. :)

[...] CommentsSculpty Maker [...]

Multi-part sculpties in ZBrush 3.1

Multi-part
sculpties in ZBrush 3.1

Well I’m not sure if somebody already wrote about this
using ZBrush, and I really don’t care, I just got to know it experimenting with
ZBrush a year ago. I guess it’s already known there are a bunch of creators in
SL who use Blender to reach the same results.

I believe you can apply this to any 3D modeling
application that allows you to: “…scaling faces to zero width to
isolate part of a mesh. So === becomes >-< as the middle face is zero
width, it’s invisible in SL. By using this horizontally and vertically (or even
diagonally if you use triangle faces) you can separate bits of mesh and make
separate objects from each…” at http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=319424&lang=en)
I read today sneaking in the forum looking if 2k Sussie, up-graded the Zsculpty
or Sculpty Maker to fully support oblongs rgb maps in a stable stage.

Just an inner comment:

I’m not a forum’s fan so I hardly ever read the SL forum… So most of
the time I think I discovered something new but no I didn’t… So… It’s not
about “oh, Manny, is copying my – super top secret technique – which involves
tight up the edges absolutely close and then mask and move them further so it
looks like two primitives instead one but it’s actually 1 primitive” Because…
Come on… That’s common sense, you will figure out soon or later if you often
or daily use a 3D modeling application… I’m not interested into people telling
me later: “dude, y’know I developed that technique before, give me some
credit.” Because I will say, ok I’ve created manually “multi-part sculpts” that
look the same but vertices are in different positions that means I can fully
manipulate vertices’ positions not even using a 3D modeling application but the
map components so that people will be ridiculed if they think I need to copy
something from them and proclaim it’s mine.

Domino Marama talks about “faces” you can think about
edges, I prefer edges… Yes, I bet you are smiling, it’s absolutely easy to
work out in ZBrush.

How-to:

1) Create a
cube in ZBrush 32×33.

2) Rotate the
cube so the top and the bottom are the faces where the edges converge.

3) Use the
Mask feature to select the edges you want to scale to zero.

4) Once you
have masked the edges/faces/vertices, whatever you prefer to call it, open the
“Deformation” palette > using the “size” feature unselect the “z” axis
option and select the x and y axis options > decrease the size all the way
down, do it again, and if you are not sure do it again, that will compress the
edges so tight you won’t see the line of the vertices connecting the parts of
the sculpted primitive as often seen in sculpts created using Blender when you
edit them into SL.

5) Now use
your knowledge to mask and move apart the parts far from each other so you get
the shapes you need or those you are able to get.

6) This
applies to normal rgb maps and oblong maps using ZBrush.

I use  Blender, Hexagon, Modo, ZBrush. I used
Maya & 3Ds Max. I believe you can get this work done using any of those
since all you have to do is tight up the edges and move.

You will need to tweak the sculpts to improve its
LOD… Feel free to experiment.

it would be cool if you Vlad, record a video explaining the procedure shown up there so we use that video post to comment and improve the way we create “multi-parts sculpties” using ZBrush 3.1, the pros and cons, limits, bugs, etc…

For a productive and positive conversation related to 3D modeling you all can IM me in-world as: BJ Mayer

I have made a try to use both Sculpty maker and ZSculpty without success:

1) I used Sculpty Maker with a input of a surely too big OBJ file. Sculpty Maker generated a 2048 tiff bitmap without RGB, in grey-sepia color. After resizing this output to 128×128 and converting to png (and jpg) I have upload the grey-sepia image to my opensim world. I think I applied well the image but not having colors the file made no effect in a sculpted prim. I did this because I had no ZBrush installed. I hope this experience is useful for somebody.

2) After this fail, I have installed ZBrush 3 trial in my PC and tryed to use ZSculpty but my genuine Windows Vista Premium do not let ZBrush (or ZSculpty, I do not know) to write in a children folder of C:\Program Files. Would you please tell me how to change Windows Vista to permit ZBrush to write in this folder? It could be a bug? I have writen a mail to ZBrush authors too. I like much your solution but tomorrow I will have to try with Windows XP.

I am impatient to use the plugins (here is too late to continue, 03:30h)!

Thanks for everything!

HI Joan. for question 1 – SculptyMaker (and zSculpty) only work with objects created with zBrush, they won’t convert objects created with other 3d programs.

2) I don’t have a lot of experience with the permissions systems in Vista. but I think you may be able to run zBrush as if you were the Administrator of the machine. that solves many file permission problems. Try right-clicking the zBrush icon and looking for Run As Adminsitrator.

Just adding a little more:

Joan;
1) Importing into ZBrush: I have done and I do time to time import into ZBrush OBJs modeled in another 3d modeling applications and then I export them using ZSculty pluggin or Sculpty Maker. It works. The important aspect you must keep into mind is the mesh you use as model base must be compatible with the Sculpted primitives supported.

2) Vista & Sculpty Maker or ZSculpty: read around this site, I have read before (in some comments) people having troubles on Vista with Sculpty Maker/ZSculty and I think it worked out. Just dig around Vlad’s posts related to Zbrush or Sculpty Maker, I think I read some comments about that and at the end they successed using the scipts/addons with Vista.

Thank you for your help, I did try running as Administrator and always was using defauls models from ZBrush but even I was searching in google a lot to find a solution my option was using another pc with XP. Now I can use ZSculpty but I do not know which parameters must be adjusted to export into an OpenSim world. Using XP i have created a NURBS image from a default ZBrush 3 Trial dog model and I have upload it to my Opensim but the sculpted result seems a flower instead of a dog. If you want I give you access to my personal opensim world, it is only a test. You will see my almost succesful attempt to import plopp models too. I will install OpenSim 0.6.5 today. I suspect this is an OpenSim 0.6.4.1 bug but I am not sure.

I would like being able to import Sketchup models to my world using sketchup free version (as you know kmz v4 = zipped collada dae file) but I have not found instructions to convert this file format to oar file format and I supose this do not exists. ZBrush is a good 3d program too.

Thanks

I want to make scupts but I want to use a different program to make them as I am more practiced with it and it can export .obj files. You state I must start with a ZBrush object. Why is this? Why can I not make a sphere in my software with 32×33 faces, export it? Or can i export a basic sphere and from ZBrush, then import/edit it and use that?

Any ideas? I really do not want to learn a new package when I am pretty decent in the one I use now.

Can someone tell me what settings the .obj files needs to have in order for it NOT to crash Sculpty Maker. I know it is something in the format of how it is being saved by my software and I have options to turn some bits on/off. Any help is appreicated.

Klaire – Sculpty Maker only converts objects created in zBrush because that’s what is was created to do. Would be great to be able to convert other objects/format, but it won’t.

It is usually possible to create the initial object in zBrush, save as .obj, import into your other modelling software, sculpt, save as .obj, then import into zBrush for conversion. I do that with wings3D and Hexagon.

Geez your getting so much better in recent vids i still have not found out how to texture zbrush things at all really but when it comes to the sculpt part i do decently well

Hi Vlad. This is what I did. I took the object from ZBrush, and saved the .obj file. Edited it the software of my choice, resaved as an .obj file and tried to load it into SculptyMaker at which point it just hung :(

I have a .OBJ file made in Zbrush that doesn’t appear to have a UV map. I can import it into ZBrush but clicking “Make PolyMesh3D” doesn’t seem to create a UV map, so I can’t export a sculpt map with either ZSculpty or Sculpty Maker (they just hang). Is there any way I can create a new UV map or does the whole thing have to be recreated from scratch?

Is the In-World Sculpty Maker not available anymore? Following the Slurl takes you to empty seas…

NIna: SHoot – you’re right. I keep forgetting to find a new spot for the in-world SculptyREzzer. Thanks for the reminder. I will find a spot asap. or at least get one onto XstreetSL.

Christ: I’ll think you’ll probably need to start over. Once that proper sculpty-firendly configuartion is messed up there is no easy going back. but – you might try experimenting with the Insert Mesh feature under the Geometry menu.

Insert Mesh let’s you replace your current objects geometry with that of another tool’s. So if you can create a new sculpty-friendly object that has the exact same gemotry as your broken one, you could inser t the geomtry of the old onto the new and still have the correct UV and such. Hard to explain…but I have used it to rescue a bork object by creating a new sphere with the exact same settings and using insert mesh.

Hi, I was wondering if there was a Sculpty Maker for Mac computers as well, or is the only way to convert sculpties into second life through a windows computer only? Thanks much!

T____T There is no way you can use Zsperes at all?

Hello Where is the Ne Location fr The Sclpty Rezzer? please tell m :)

Heya Vlad,

Thanks for providing these tutorials, and posts about things that we might be able to look forward to (projection beta, mouth moving etc) I’ve been having difficulty getting the zscript which lets you do shadows on the textures, I’m not too certain but I think the file might no longer be hosted on the sight, If possible would you be able to host the zscript?

If you’d like I’d be happy to host the Rezzer over at my place in world for others to collect if your looking for a place.

Anyway, Cheers.

Dan: yeah, I noticed the same thign just the other day when I went to re-download the Material Baker script. It’s gone, and the 2.0 version I found, that was modified by another user, doesn’t seem to work on my setup.

I don’t have the original download, but I do have a folder with all the Material Baker scripts. Lemmee upload it real quick….

http://www.shiny-life.com/dl/MaterialBakerV1.zip

Missing the readme file but I think most of that info is on this cached copy of the original site

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:http://www.davidikeda.com/zscripts/materialbaker.html

Delano: No, no zSpheres as building blocks for sculpties. at least I don’t know of a way. The mesh that is created with ‘em is just not compatible with the sculpty restrictions and the SculptyMaker conversion process.

Also, I’m going to put the Sculpty REzzer object up on XstreetSL, that way it’ll be easily accessible. Try to get to that tonight sometime.

Okay well i have been consistently tyring to figure out why sculpty maker continues to freeze on me and i’ve tried looking at the help and the comments left to other people and various things and asking friends but i still just don’t understand whats going wrong, when i run it through the sculptymaker program it just freezes if you could explain it in a less confusing way that would be excellent :/ or what i might be doing wrong in “simpler” terms that would be awesome

The tools are great but was wondering if there is any chance of making a change to zsculpty to create sculpt maps greater than 512, perhaps 1024…. Any info would be appreciated

Thank you very much for this wonderful program!!

Hey Vlad thanks so much for this! It helped so much. For the texture baker I can’t see the cache of his page could you please upload it somewhere also? I’m not sure what to do with these files. Thanks so much!

oh sorry I see it in the folder now thanks alot Vlad!

Just a question may be answer before Is way to reduce the box around the points in Z brush .Can make the prims but usually the sculpt is 50 percent of the edit or sculpt shape box.Can do other use no sure how zbrush .as is need make itemj phantom when i constrain the box to the slice point i usually do not have too.

First off all, thanks for the video’s etc.
I have a problem with the scripts that you have to use in SL, i put both scripts in a prim, when ik put a sculpt texture in it and i click the prim it says Section not found. Then i changed the name of that texture in section, click on it and then it says object not found in database.

What am i doing wrong???

Well… when I first used your plugins, they were great, smooth work, good LOD, but now when I use it, for some unknown reason, it freezes on export. Anyone have this problem? I have tried reinstallation many times as well… please help.

Hi Vlad

Loaded the sculpty rezzer scripts into prims in SL and loaded the sculpt map into contents but it goes through the motions and says it has made the sculpt, however no sculpt ???

Please can you help
Thanks Seer

Hi, I cannot see any ‘readme’ in the above downloads for Scultpy Rezzer. I’m new and scripting stuff is confusing. I’ve tried piecing together installation instruction from forum and video. But my rezzer throughs up error that i need to drop textures in content folder, but they are already there.

Please help.
Thanks
p.s is there one inworld I could pick up please someone?
thank you

Andy wrote
>> Hi, I was wondering if there was a Sculpty Maker for Mac computers as well, or is the only way to convert sculpties into second life through a windows computer only?

I haven’t found a Mac equivalent myself, although Sculpty Maker runs great in Windows XP on Parallels Desktop on my Macbook Pro. Of course, if that’s all you want Windows for it would be a rather costly solution. :-] Wings 3D can also be pressed into service, and seems to work well for the task on the Mac.

When i Try to Make a Obj to Map in sculpty Maker it Boots also in Zbrush when I Open a Old .OBJ file i made in dif program i dont see the Initialize i think its importing it as a poly mesh i read on the forum but the person does not say how to make it normal Please help and thanks!

Working with Z-Brush 3.5

I have worked with version 3.1 creating sculpties.
I bought Z-Brush 3.5 so I had to install the plugins again
but I had some trouble to create sculpties in 3.5.
I couldn’t create sculpties at all. As soon I tried to create a sculpty Z-Brushed crashed. I know Z-Brush can be very sensitive if you follow the wrong sequence. The plugins were in the right folder so it must be something else.

It took a while to sort out on two machines (one PC running XP the other Vista).
It works now after I follow the sequence below.

Start Z-Brush
Preferences – Initialize ZBrush
Chose new object
Make Polymesh3D
Modify your shape
Resize shape on all axes
Save your sculpty in ZTool (very important before you export your sculpty)
Export Sculpty

Done

Hey Vlad

Awesome Tutorials they’ve helped me alot
I’m just having troubles with multiple sculpts
I’ve managed to make the two separate sculpts and
get them in the same window together and line up where I want them I just cant seem to figure out how to save and export the sculpt when I try to make the sculpt with Sculpty Maker 2.5 it says multiple sculptmaps created and saved to the objects folder then when I try to upload to SL its a bmp file and wont work right please help

Hello.

Where can I find a copy of the In-World Rezzer?

Thank you, Savannah

Hi i like the sculpty maker exporter, however i do have a big issue with not being ale to export if I use the Extract tool, as this is such an important facet of making shapes. Is there a workaround ?

Thanks

Hi Vlad,

Very informative posts.
One note though. The inworld rezzer points to a map that doesn’t exist in SL anymore. Think you can update that?

Got a new spot for the ‘Rezzer.

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

Whats the Area of use for it 32×33? or something else that just a guest i hope i got it right.

Might mention in your ‘What is Sculpty Rezzer?’ the steps to make that work without getting the inworld version. Here is what I did in OpenSim running on my desktop:

1) Rez any prim.
2) Create a new script in inventory
3) Name it Sculpty Rezzer (doesn’t matter though)
4) Cut and paste content of same name of script in zip to script
5) Drag the script from inventory into the prim you rezzed
6) Note the ‘Script compiled’ notification
7) Rez a _sphere_ prim (sphere seems to matter)
8) Name this one ‘Section’ (and it does matter)
9) Create another script in inventory
10) Name the script Section in inventory
11) Cut and paste the Section script into inventory script
12) Drag Section script into contents of Section prim
13) Note the ‘Script compiled’ notification
14) Take the Section prim back into inventory
15) Drag the Section prim into contents of Scuplty Rezzer

The rest is as it says, drag your scuplty texture into Sculpty Rezzer, close and click on it.

Sculplty Maker crashes before it makes the map. (I use Windows XP & Trial version of ZBrush.)I followed the vids directions and everything. What am I doing wrong?

Hi Rara,

ZBrush is very sensitive in combination with ZSculpty.
You have to practice before you understand what to do.
The following might help you (also shown in the shiny life video tutorials)
1: Start ZBrush
2: Top menu choose: Init ZBrush (Initialize ZBrush)
3: Create a sphere
4: Click on the icon Edit
5: Choose Make PlyMesh3D and click one time (never click more)
6: Change your sphere once with the standard Tool (after it Ctrl + Z for undo) and change your sculpty in something simple
7: Choose Sculpty
8: Change SMRes to 64
9: Export your sculpty.

Number 5 and 6 are very important.
I know it is very frustrating when you start with ZBrush and sculpties but really after some training you will understand and recognize how it works. Also try to follow the tutorials on http://www.softwaretrainingtutorials.com/pixologic-zbrush.php to understand ZBrush.

Good luck,

Taarna Welles

thanks very much taarna :)
i am a newb to sculpting and still having a little trouble.
i tried the first sculpty makers and they crashed, the first one told me there werent any vertices found (?). then i heard i could import a .obj into wings3d so i tried that using the 6463sphere and tried importing it into wings3d but all it did was read the file and it never showed up. when i try importing the sphere on its own it works fine. i think im missing a critical step when i go from sculpting the sphere to importing it into wings3d. any help is much appreciated.
-rara

i have Z brush 3.1 and i just cant figer it out,,, i want to cuse i been diing to build cool stuff.. i already got the neat stuff to trun it to scuplty but no idea how to work the tool’s i need help ,,,i been at thise for almost 1 years on and off it and still cant figer it out,, so plz help me

Also cannot find the initialize button in zbrush 3.5 :/

Ahh found solution:
I was trying to use a poly mesh which doesnt have the initialize option. If your trying to start with a sphere in your tutorial and need the initialize option, go to your tools and pick the sphere3d, not the polysphere, which is the default mesh in 3.5. You should now have the initialize option.