280 chapter 8 ■ ZBrush Movies and Photoshop Composites
ZBrush projects will store many settings, including the object’s position on the canvas
so you can always return to the exact same orientation. By storing a project, you can return
to the exact same file at any time and render new layers if needed.- Click File → Save As. Make sure you have your character positioned correctly, your
document sized, and your perspective settings correct. ZBrush will save a single ZPR
file that includes all this data. This file also contains your ZTool, so you will only need
to keep track of a single file.
To make sure ZBrush loads your custom document settings each time the project is
loaded, disable the WSize button under the document window. WSize will automati-
cally resize the document to the window size, canceling out your stored document size.
Turn off the WSize button and save this setting by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I or choosing
Preferences → Config → Store Config.- The first render pass you’ll export is the Basic Material shader. This will give you a
nice general color pass with some shading applied. Click the AAHalf button on the
right side of the screen to antialias the document. Under the document menu,
click Export. Save this render pass as BasicMaterialColor.psd in PSD (Photoshop)
format. You can also turn off polypaint by opening Tool → Polypaint and deselect-
ing the Colorize option. the Colorize button under Tool → Polypaint. This will allow
you to render a second basic material pass with no color information. This technique
can sometimes be useful for helping to deepen the shadows in Photoshop. Export this
image as BasicMatNoColor.psd. - The next pass will involve flat color—just the color as painted on the surface with no
shading information. This render pass is often useful as an Overlay layer in Photoshop
to help accentuate and deepen the color information. It can also be useful to help cre-
ate translucent effects. Experimentation with different blending modes in conjunction
with different render passes will open many possibilities. From the Material palette,
select Flat Color.
If you have filled an object with a material, the only way to change materials is to fill it
with another. The default behavior of the ZTool displaying the currently selected material
is overwritten. To revert back to this behavior, fill the object with the Flat Color material.
From then on, whatever material is selected will be the one displaying on the character.- To fill the head with this material, select the Standard
brush and turn on M at the top of the screen. Make sure
RGB is off (Figure 8.24). Then open the main Color
menu and click the FillObject button (Figure 8.25).
Repeat this fill for each subtool and export the docu-
ment as flatcolor.psd (Figure 8.26).
Figure 8.24 To fill an object with a material,
make sure M is the only modifier on at the top
of the screen.