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How to add texture from a photograph or 3d scan?

ZBrush Usage Questions
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#1

Hi Everyone,

I have some high resolution 2d photographs of a rusty metal surface. I also have some 3d scans of this rusty metal surface.

Does anyone know of a video tutorial (or written tutorial) that would show me how to apply the texture from these photographs and/or 3d scans to a sculpture I made in Zbrush?

The goal is to get the texture of the sculpture to look identical to the texture of this rusty metal surface. Ideally anyone viewing the final export should not be able to tell that the sculpture was made using computer software like Zbrush, it should look to the viewer as if the sculpture was physically made out of rusty metal (aside from color, though it would be nice if the color of the rusty metal surface was included too)

Thanks in advance!

#2

Hello @010NYC

You can apply color images as polypaint using Spotlight, and you can even displace the surface (sculpt surface detail) based on on them as well if ZAdd is enabled.

However color images aren’t always interchangeable with images you want to use to create bumps or displacement. The latter requires light/dark values, and a color image doesn’t always represent the desired elevation accurately. It may require some deliberate work in an image editor to get the images to create detail in the way you want.

The ultimate look of your model will come down to your expertise with whatever software you are using to view/render it. If you are going to be rendering only in ZBrush (or Keyshot), Polypaint is probably all you need. If you plan on exporting this model for external render, there are a number of concepts you will need to understand both in ZBrush, and in your target application.

“How do I create textures” is a simple question about a very broad subject. I wouldn’t expect to find a single tutorial that covers everything (any more than I can do here), but there are many tutorials available for the individual parts.

In Zbrush, you will need to understand:

  1. Subdivision levels
  2. Zremesher.
  3. UV mapping
  4. Polypaint (if using color textures)
  5. Normal Maps
  6. Displacement Maps
  7. Creating Textures for Export
  8. Map Export

Additionally, you should understand and be comfortable with Detail projection. This will be useful to transfer the high poly detail from one mesh to another. For example, this would be used if you wanted to transfer the high poly detail from one mesh, to a re-meshed version of that mesh with a low poly base and multiple levels of subdivision for use in a texture export process.

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