Now Im having fun

[megacal]

@paleo3d,

Possible solution to *.exr Maps : Import them BOTH from the Alpha Palette and transfer the AO.exr to the Texture Palette and apply

the result is very clean.

But when I tried to import the .exr it didn't show up in the Alpha palette (see earlier post, bottom p126).


**What level of division are you all using?**


re: tiff vs png vs jpg.........I tried each type, and only see artifact with jpg, so I guess it's a moot point if
I can use the exr in ZB......maybe because it's OSX vs Win? I was able to use it in Blender, so assumed it
would work in ZB. Lots to learn yet.

A Dutch neighbor once told me they have a saying, "Too soon ve get old, too old ve get smart."

[paleo3d]

megacal, You are getting jagged edges probably because you are using "low grade" displacement maps...such as some jpgs etc...

Try using this one http://blenderartists.org/forum/show...cements/page19
at post #374. Get the biggest size available ( 1280 X1280 ) I think. I threw it in Psp and increased the contrast and sharpened it, used despeckle and removed noise ( jpg artifacts ) etc... to help,
but it's still a jpg...you will notice some distortion ( grainyness ). ( That was the first one I started with... )


Nothing beats the tiffs or exrs by Michalis however...


What's this about your .exr not being in your Alpha palette? If its in your computer somewhere just transfer it to your Alpha map folder ( or wherever you store your images for ZB).

[megacal]

@michalis,

Every decent application can open 32 bit exr. Pshop, gimp, Zbrush, etc etc
If your zbrush can't you should report the bug.
See under displacement panel, it exports exr alright, so it can import them.
Half of my exr shared textures have been constructed and baked in zbrush.

Yeah, it should be easy in ZB from what you & paleo3d are telling me.

@paleo3d,

What's this about your .exr not being in your Alpha palette?
If its in your computer somewhere just transfer it to your Alpha map folder ( or wherever you store your images for ZB).

Maybe I'm not importing the exr correctly......>Alpha>Import>displacementLow.exr....save
....but still no image in the alpha palette. (sigh) )

I've tried it over & over, but no soap! LOL!

Shouldn't I be able to load it from any place on the HD, or
does it have to live in the alphas folder? (can't find it, btw)

re:

Try using this one http://blenderartists.org/forum/show...cements/page19
at post #374. Get the biggest size available ( 1280 X1280 )

Thanks! That worked much better
(I used as is, but will clean it up as you suggested)


BTW, I've asked a few times, but never got an answer.....
how much division is necessary? I've been using 5....higher?
The abstract horse (see attached) is ~20.3 million polys.

Here's my workflow for displacement as is:
1. start with low poly (5k) e.g.horse
2. process with ZRemesher (default settings) to get good distribution of polys (?) At least it
looks better unwrapped after creating UVs than if I don't use Remesher.
3. Use UVMaster to clone, then unwrap
4. in Geometry, divide to level 5
5. in Texture Map, add a blank texture (not sure why ZB requires a texture for displacement...?)
6. in Displacement Map, load a displacement map, increase or decrease intensity to create displacement
7. in UV Map, try different "types" of maps (?), e.g. PUVTiles, UVs, etc.,
changing the AUV Ratio, HRepeat, VRepeat values.

Did I miss anything?

[megacal]

@Zeriel100,
"Follow the yellow brick road!"

I.e. start here, try to go through 5 pages/day.....it will take
about a month, if no new pages are added.

But since ZBrushR7 was just released, I expect this thread will keep
growing & growing, making catching up like trying to find the End of the Rainbow.

But unlike the rainbow, you can find pots of gold all through this thread!

[jan19]

It's like bottled energy, this thread.

[michalis]

Use tiff 16 bit for displacement, at least.
You can easily bake excellent displ maps directly in ZBrush BPR.
1. go here and download the greeble excellent brush,
2. Insert a plane in your scene. The scene better be a square one.
3. Start placing greeble brush , hold M to select. shift to align them
4. Disable perspective view, go to top view. Zoom to have no empty space around.
5. Render as BPR
6. In renderpass panel, click on the depth pass and export as tiff 16 bit.
Voilà

However, (always a however)
We're in zbrush 4r7, right?

1. Start some construction ZModeler.
2. Make it one polygroup.
3. select the greeble brush
4. make it nano mesh
5. enter nanomesh and feel the object accordingly
who needs displacements these days?

Here, two renders, one is nanomesh (particles), the other is the same plus displ(bumps only)+AO map.
However, I had to export to blender to UV unwrap it because I needed a bit of magic, sorry. (lol, just UV cubic projections, where is it in zbrush?)
Reimported rendered in BPR. Costing ~ 76 k poly only.

[MealeaYing]

To get things like Alphas, Materials and Brushes that you want to always be in ZBrush into ZBrush you need to put them in the right folder/directory.
In this case go into your Pixologic directory and look for the Startup directory, on the PC it would look like this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Pixologic\ZBrush 4R7\ZStartup\

On the Mac it would be surrounded by angels and cherubs and when you find it harps would play and you would be fed something nice by your butler.
In other words I don't know the Mac directory.

Dont do too many, apparently more than some number (25?) causes ZBrush to freak out, but I don't know the exact number.

[paleo3d]

Michalis, Your method works real great! Thank you so much. ( I was doing it the wrong way up to now )

- Need more practicing and do something about coloring/Texturing.

( ZB's antialiasing is not always so great is it? What's this about making the document twice the size for antialiasing? )

[michalis]

@mealea
ZBrush is a crossplatform app, so, same directory ZStartup.
IMO, not very wise. Pixo should create this startup directory in something like user/application support/ZB4r7/Zstartup.
Sorry for the big images post, ZBC makes me crazy sometimes. I did ask for thumbnails only. Didn't work. Fixed it now.

Question:
WHen using nanomesh (basically a particles system), I pick an M brush (basically a group of tools-brushes)
Is it possible to have random access when instancing? (nanomesh). I was expecting a way to select this group from the nanomesh, use randomness when placing this multi object group. Can't find it.

[paleo3d]

If I understand your question Michalis , I think that the answer is YES but its a "longer" process.

- Select faces/Island then click M , choose a greeble and apply. Select other faces/Island, click M and choose another Greeble and apply....so on and so forth. You are asking if this can be done in one operation? I've tried but did not find a way to do this yet. Maybe 4R7B?

[MealeaYing]

What is an M brush?

I don't care where they put the directory, it makes no difference to me, I have a shortcut to it on my desktop.
I like ease of use!

[MealeaYing]

By M do you mean insert?

[paleo3d]

Yes, After selecting the Greeble Insert Brush, clicking M will show the sub-brushes for this IMM.

[MealeaYing]

I know about that with IMM brushes, but wasn't he talking about NanoMesh?
Im confused.

[paleo3d]

Yes, but your IMM brush is now a Nanomesh brush ( after clicking make Nanomesh brush with your IMM selected )

IF YOU NEED MORE HELP JUST ASK AWAY...