170 chapter 5 ■ Texture Painting
how Projection Master works so you will have a better understanding of the mechanics behind
ZBrush texture tools that use projection.
Start Projection Master by clicking its button in the upper left of the screen
or by pressing the G key. The Projection Master window (Figure 5.10) has several options:
Color Specifies that the color information you paint in Projection
Master will be applied to the model when it is picked up. The Shaded
option will “bake” the current surface shading into the model as well as
the color information. Material will bake in the material settings. These
options apply to PolyPaint or UV projection.
Double Sided Projects your painting or sculpting through to the other
side of the model. This is best used on a symmetrical object when you have
snapped to an orthographic side view. Remember that Shift-dragging in the
document window while a tool is in Edit mode will snap it to the closest
orthographic view.
Fade When Fade is turned on, any texture or color painted on the model
will fade as the surface turns away from the surface normal. The effect is
similar to spraying an airbrush directly at a surface; any areas that curve
away get a lighter coat than those facing you. With Fade off, all surfaces get
a solid coverage of the texture or color.
Deformation Applies any sculpting strokes to the mesh. These are projected into the
mesh at pickup and deform the actual geometry. For deformation to function, there
must be enough resolution in the number of polygons to support the level of detail you
are attempting to achieve.
Normalized Takes into account the normal of the surface when projecting sculpted
details. When Normalized is off, all sculpting is projected directly back in ZBrush with
no attention given to the curvature of the underlying surface.
With the model now dropped to the canvas, you may use any of the 2.5D brushes
available under the Tool menu. The difference is that since you used Projection Master to
“drop” the model, you can pick it up again and apply the changes you made. To pick up from
Projection Master, use the G hotkey and click the Pickup Now button.
While Projection Master is still accessible on its own as a plug-in, remember it is mostly
overlooked in favor of ZAppLink by most artists. ZAppLink uses Projection Master in the
background, but it allows you to use Photoshop to paint on your model and then return to
ZBrush, where you can pick up the changes and apply them to the ZTool.What Is Polypainting?
Polypainting is an approach to texturing that lets you color a model by applying a single
RGB value to each polygon vertex. This allows you to texture without the need for UV coor-
dinates. By applying color directly to vertices, you also avoid the need to drop the model to
the canvas while painting. All texturing can be done in Edit mode, and you can freely rotate
around the model.
Because the color is applied to each vertex, this means the resolution of the resulting
texture is directly linked to the number of subdivision levels in the mesh. This means that a
model of several million polygons can have a sharp, clear texture whereas a lower resolution
level will have a softer texture with less detail.Figure 5.10 Projection Master window