Having fooled around a bit with the tryout d/l's of Zbrush and tuto's, I get the impression of a dazzling opportunity. It seems that with Zbrush you can actually import an OBJ, paint it, and export it complete with colors/texture. If this is true, I don't understand why it is rarely mentioned, and why the texture wizards seem to prefer Deep Paint 3D or Bodypaint. I'm sure there's a reason, though, so if anyone has tried using Zbrush for Poser texturing, please share your experiences. Is there a snag somewhere, or is it just the slightly unusual Zbrush interface that turns people off - hey, come on, it ain't THAT outlandish ;-)

Attached Link: http://www.senntient.com/ubb/zfaq10.html

Nope, not the interface! It's the appalling lack of good documentation, coupled with the fact that the features you mention were just added a couple of months ago, and nobody seems quite sure how to do what you want yet. Certainly, the people at Pixologic did not originally foresee ZBrush for the same use as "Painter 3D", but the potential is there. They also didn't see it making morph targets, but the potential is there for that as well. For now, you should keep your eye on the Zacademy (http://www.senntient.com/ubb/zfaq10.html) What information that is usfull is there. -SMT

This is straight from the ZAcademy site: "Here is how to paint on a 3D object within ZBrush: Select the 3D object you want to paint from the Tool Selection within the Tool panel menu (or Floating Menu above your document). This method relies on the number of polygons (or "subdivisions") your object is composed of. You can check the polygon count for any 3D object simply by holding your cursor over the 3D object's tool icon. With the 3D object selected, you can check the subdivision count within the Tool/Modifiers/Initialize panel. Click and drag within your document to make the 3D object about a 1/4 of the document size (make sure the Stroke type is set to "Drag Rect" so you can click and drag) Now, this object has been "snapshot" by default, so you'll want to 'float' your object so you can edit or transform it, by clicking "Edit" to go into edit mode (or press Move, Scale or Rotate within the Transform panel menu or Floating menu) If you want to paint color without adding depth, make sure you are in "Edit" mode and turn the depth off by pressing "ZADD" (to unselect it) within the Floating menu (or the Draw panel menu). Important: you must "Fill Object" to tell ZBrush you want to paint the polygons with different colors, instead of choosing a different overall object color (make sense?). If you have "MRGB" on when you click "Fill Object" it will fill it with the selected M (material) and RGB (color - or specifically red, green and blue values). In this case, all we care about is filling it with a color to get started, so... Turn off "M" (material) in the Floating menu, so you will only be affecting the RGB. Click "Fill Object" below the color spectrum in the Color panel menu. Now paint whatever you'd like Note 1: When in Edit mode, you can click outside the object to rotate it. Click inside it to edit. Save your object (Tool/Inventory/Save As) Note 2: Exporting the .obj version will save the texture with it, if you wish. Note 3: Use masking to hide certain areas while painting (and you can even completely hide their points too!) by using the Tools/Modifiers/Selection window - please download the PC Tools Manual for more details ;) ...or visit the documentation download page for documentation available through Pixologic!" ----------------------------------- Now I ask you, does this sound easy to you?

Piece of cake ;-) Seriously, the basic modeling tuto one can d/l from the Pixologic site walks one through the steps you mention. But since the tryout Zbrush won't allow one to import OBJs, I have no way of knowing how the UVmapping of the imported object affects the painting within Zbrush. If the UVmapping decides the quality of the painting, one still has to use UVmapper (or rob a bank and buy Deep Paint) - if not, well, then something very interesting is happening inside Zbrush. Anyone who's got any experience with this?

UVMapper is still a must.

Attached Link: http://www.maxon.net

People should stop waisting their money on ZBrush and just go for Maxon's BodyPaint, which imports obj files and a whole host of other file fomrats and allows you to generate paint directly on the model and create texture maps easily.

with BP, you still need UVMApper.

Thanx for all your info, folks. Rtamesis - I've tried out BodyPaint, too. Great program, but I'm a little put off by the Jack the Ripper act it performs on the UV mapping when one applies "optimal mapping" - works fine when painting in BP, but the UV map would be useless as a template for anyone not using BP. And PoserPro - you're sort of right. One CAN generate an excellent UVmapping in BP, but, as I've just said, noone can make sense of it outside BP. I'll stick with Steve Cox's excellent program for a while yet and keep an eye on both ZB and BP ;-) Thanx again for taking the time to share your savvy.

TX done in BP, render in PPP with Bryce BG

TX done in BP, rendered in PPP with blank BG MuscleMan of Daz(Zygote)

even custom uvmaps like p4/ppp or daz-zyg do not mean better map painting, I would remap the uvmap in uvmapp for the head and full body part in order to get better painting effect( to prevent stretching of texture, in DP or BP) UVmapper is always the answer for fast speed.

oops a typo, UVMapper, sorry to Steve;P I most remap UVmap in UVmapper before importimg into BP or DP, despite TW can do similar job. if you have lw6.5, you know they have a new mapping called " atlas" muchlike a box mapping mode, at first look, it is cool, but too many separate smaller maps and ends of useless UVmap.

oops a typo, UVMapper, sorry to Steve;P I most remap UVmap in UVmapper before importimg into BP or DP, despite TW can do similar job. if you have lw6.5, you know they have a new mapping called " atlas" muchlike a box mapping mode, at first look, it is cool, but too many separate smaller maps and ends of useless UVmap to me.

This is turning into a UVmapping thread - and very welcome that is, too! Sorry to admit that LW is out of my price range - as is BP, DP, TW, etc. - but I know my way 'round UVmapper. If you have any suggestions on how to achieve distortion-free mapping in UVmapper, I'd love to hear'em (or read a tutorial (hint!)). Or do you use the interactive painting in BP to compensate for the inevitable stretching? How, for instance, would you approach a distortion-free polka dot mapping on a sweater or T-shirt?

Actually, I have both ZPaint and DeepPaint/TW ... and along that line I have a question ... If you use DeepPaint/TW to do a remap on, say, the P4female or Victoria, is there a way to get a distributable UVS out of it so that you can distribute the new mapped texture? I tried exporting the OBJ file out from TW and then bringing it into UV Mapper. That seemed to work fine. But when I tried to apply the mapping to the original P4 woman, I got an error message (exact wording escapes me, but something about different geometry or vertices or something). Is there a way around this? Thanks! Denise

oops .. make that ZBrush ROFL

remaped and exported OBJ from TW must be associated in cr2, you can't use the origin p4 femme if you wish to apply the remapped uvmap.

This is getting too interesting to bury under a misleading heading, so I'll start a UVmapping / DP+TW thread. I'm sure I'm not the only one struggling with mapping.

imagine a baloon or just a bigger ball, you cut it off so that to expand the whole mesh and flatten it, you end of a irregular shape no matter how many balls you use, it is not posible to cut in a round or rect shape. then you try to paint on the mesh, you need to line up with the seams so that if you recover the ball, the pattern you paint will be seamless as a whole. painting on uvmap is much the same,so that's why someone posted a colored uvmap for dld. it aim't easy to make a good paint in 2D, mayve in future 3D map which is composed of 3dpixels.