188 chapter 5 ■ Texture Painting
- Import or generate UVs for the model. To import UVs from the Tool menu, click the
Import button and import the UV model into the existing ZTool or copy the UVs using
UV Master. If you prefer to use an automatic UV mapping solution at this stage, click
the AUV button to create AUV tiles on the mesh. Make sure your texture resolution
is set to 4096 by clicking the 4096 button under Tool → U V Map. - At this stage we have a model with UVs applied (either imported or generated in ZBrush)
and a texture resolution set to 4096. Step up to the highest subdivision level and Under
To ol → Texture Map, click the New From Polypaint button to convert the polypaint to
UV texture information. - At this stage the texture map will save with the ZTool, but you cannot export the map.
To export, you need to click Clone Txtr so the texture map is accessible from the main
Texture menu. You may now select and export the map from the Texture menu at the
top of the screen.
You have now seen how to bake polypaint data into a single texture map. It is possible
to use multiple UV regions to create several maps from a single polypainted model. If your
UV set is broken across multiple UV regions you will need to extract the color maps using
the Multi Map Exporter plugin covered in Chapter 9, “Normal Maps, Displacement Maps,
Maya, and Decimation Master.”
This process also allows you to transfer textures from one UV set to another by convert-
ing a UV texture map to PolyPaint. To accomplish this, load a ZTool with a texture map,
and convert the texture map to PolyPaint by clicking Tool → PolyPaint → PolyPaint From
Texture while at the highest SubD level. Step down to level 1 and alter your UVs. Set your
texture resolution under the UV Map menu and step back to the highest SubD level. Click
To ol → Texture Map → New From PolyPaint to bake the color information into the new
UV space.ZAppLink Views
ZAppLink allows you to store a ZTool’s position on the canvas for later recall. To do this,
you must store views under the Document → ZAppLink Properties menu. To store a view,
position the model facing the canvas in the center of the screen. Open the main document
window and click the ZAppLink Properties menu to open it. Click the Front button to store
this view. Rotate to the side and click the Right button to store the right-side view. Notice
that ZBrush will automatically store the opposite view for you; in the top view, for instance,
the bottom view is automatically stored. If you need to clear a view, click the Clear button.
If you need to save the views file for later use, click Save Views.
Now when you open ZAppLink, all the views will export as a single document
(Figure 5.54). To work on a single view at a time, Alt-click the layer you want to work on to
hide all other layers. Then turn on the visibility for the shading layer directly above it. When
done, save your image and return to ZBrush. When you return to ZBrush, any changes made
to any of the layers will update on the corresponding side of the ZTool. Click Accept for each
view to keep the texturing information; otherwise, click Cancel.
You can also use ZAppLink views to create a character sheet for your model. A char-
acter sheet shows the model in full rotation using the views you stored. To do this, once you
have stored your preferred views click Document → ZAppLink Properties → Make Character
Sheet. This will export each view to Photoshop and then combine them into a single charac-
ter rotation sheet. This is very helpful when submitting work for critique or approval.