Zbrush process for updating geometry?

kenman2626 · August 06, 2015, 06:20:50 PM

I've posted in other forums about this and nobody can help, hopefully someone at the official forums can

I think I've essentially tried everything. I've setup a character with cool materials etc but I need to make a change to one of the subtools.

If I do it via Zbrush bridge (shift+r) it updates my geometry but all my materials are lost. There is no option to retain them when doing it this way.

If I do it via importing .obj for the specific subtool it places it in the centre at the base. I feel like I've tried every setting but yes even ticking to keep original location and size doesn't work.

I really really really want to love this new software but if I can't easily update geo then for me it's not going to be very useful for my needs.

TpwUK · August 07, 2015, 01:03:27 AM

Keep your model open in KeyShot and Update via Zbrush. I don't know the bridge as i have never tested it (Pixologic wouldn't gimme a trial copy to test with

!), so if you can't update via the bridge then with your model still in KS do the following ...

Export as OBJ from ZB
Select Import with Keyshot - and select the updated OBJ
Then when the Importers Dialog is displayed select
Update Geometry option - Remove the tick from "Adjust camera to Look at Geometry" (only if you want to keep your current view)
Click "Retain Materials" under the Materials and Structure section of the importer

Hopefully that will work for you

Martin

kenman2626 · August 07, 2015, 04:00:46 AM

Thanks for getting back to me!

I tried those instructions. 1) It still places my obj (the lantern) away from the character. 2) I have no option in this dialogue to retain materials (I still have Keyshot 5.0, is this a very new feature? I've seen it in other dialogues but not this one.)

btw, you can get a 45 day trial of zbrush bridge if you were interested. I find it a bit buggy, if I use it twice in a row it freezes my PC so I have to close both programs and reopen every time I 'bridge'. This could just be my character having a polycount of 25million odd.

TpwUK · August 07, 2015, 05:13:42 AM

I just checked with v5 OBJ importer, and Retain Materials gets removed from the dialog options as soon as you click update geometry. As a possible work-around, I would Add to scene so you can can tick Retain Materials, then after it's been ticked, change to Update Geometry mode and see if that retains the setting.

As for the positioning I have no idea there for the moment, I am guessing that if you are exporting it as a selection then it's ZB setting the point of origin local to the object rather than the scene. Try exporting the whole ZB scene as individual OBJ parts and then import the lantern.obj only into the KS scene.

As for crashing, my personal opinion would be to say that's more likely to be 32bit ZBrush. I had an old copy that got very flakey at 15 million polygons

Martin

kenman2626 · August 07, 2015, 05:40:08 PM

I've exported all pieces as objs, placing a lantern into my already made scene still places it incorrectly. So I'm trying a new scene, this time without using zbrush bridge, but there seems to be no way of importing a full model with subtools?

I can import a character that I merged all together in zbrush and exported as a .obj but then that's all one piece in keyshot. I also tried importing all my separately exported .objs but you can only do one at a time. I tried it but it was taking minutes per piece and even then I think it was not placing them correctly.

Running out of ideas now.

TpwUK · August 08, 2015, 12:31:12 AM

QuoteI've exported all pieces as objs, placing a lantern into my already made scene still places it incorrectly. So I'm trying a new scene, this time without using zbrush bridge, but there seems to be no way of importing a full model with subtools?

If you are importing it with Center and Snap to Ground then the part will be centred to KeyShots point of origin

QuoteI can import a character that I merged all together in zbrush and exported as a .obj but then that's all one piece in keyshot. I also tried importing all my separately exported .objs but you can only do one at a time. I tried it but it was taking minutes per piece and even then I think it was not placing them correctly.

I have not seen the version of KeyShot used in the ZB Bridge, but these pictures should help you. When importing OBJ's you can keep the parts if you tell KS to do so. Image one is for your first OBJ file, then image two is the settings you want for all other parts (OBJ files) to be added to the scene. It can take time doing things this way I know, but it works. The good news is that KS6 supports Python Scripting so you will be able to drum a script up to import all your parts just by running the script. You may well still need to take a coffee break whilst waiting for the import session to complete

Martin

Martin

kenman2626 · August 08, 2015, 06:51:46 AM

Did a quick test before heading out for the day. I ended up with a TONNE of parts when exporting my .obj (of the character merged into 1 subtool). I'm guessing this is because I had subtools with multiple polygroups, so I'd need to go through each subtool making sure it only has one polygroup per subtool before merging?

TpwUK · August 08, 2015, 07:09:37 AM

I don't know ZB that well, so can't really comment ... However it does sound about right

Martin

kenman2626 · August 08, 2015, 04:08:38 PM

Ok, I think I've got this working now. For future reference, for myself and others;

1) When model is finished in zbrush, use subtool master to export all the subtools at once. Beofre doing this make sure that each subtool only has 1 polygroup.

2) Merge your model together and save out as a .obj and import into keyshot using the dialogue options from the first image above.

3) If you want to update a subtool, best way I can find is to select and delete it in keyshot and then import individual .obj as 'Add to scene' using the second image (above) options. This worked for me.

kenman2626 · August 08, 2015, 04:19:10 PM

Now, if you've already setup materials and lighting into a scene and want to bring in your new model things get a bit more tricky. I opened up my keyshot scene, them imported my merged obj with retained materials. It kept the materials in the scene but it doesn't apply them to the latest model (so I had 2 characters in scene in different positions. Old one with correct materials, new one with default). If I delete the old model it deletes all the materials, so I had to drop and drag the materials I made onto the correct parts of the new model before deleting the old one.

It' s a bit crazy, hopefully won't have to do it again if I use the method in the post above from the start.

Anyway, HUGE thanks to tpwUK for being patient with me and supplying images of the dialogues and the info. Think I'm good to start working on this again.