I’ve watched a lot of tutorials and searched for it - but i still don’t know how i can do it. In this case i’ve drew a sphere and modified it with EraserBrush and BumpBrush. I want to rotate and edit it in 3D, but there’s no “Make PolyMesh 3D” or “Edit” button active.
Please help, i think it’s very easy but i’m confused with all these tools. Here’s the image:
http://imageshack.us/f/685/problem2v.jpg/
Hya Seek!
You have run into something that boggled my mind for quite a while. You are in 2.5D not 3D.
2.5D is very cool and while it is possible to turn what you have created into a 3D object I think you need to start a little further back.
When you want to work in 3D you need to first remember to do a few things.
Do this:
- Make your sphere.
- At the top of your window hit the EDIT button.
- Now hit “Make PolyMesh3d” in the tool pallet.
This willl be the process more or less for all 3D objects you make from scratch in Zbrush.
As long as you do not hit the edit button or the letter T on the keyboard your sphere will be 3D BUT you need to use the brushes on the left hand side of your window, not the ones in the Tool Pallet on the right, those are 2.5D (mostly).
Now… heres an interesting thing, the sphere you are currently editing can also be used as a 2.5D brush and with that you can create some outrageously interesting stuff and have an insanely good time making your own eyes pop out.
All you have to do is hit the EDIT button, and if you notice you are no longer in 3D, you are now in 2.5D, in a sense your sphere or what is left of it is now doomed to 2.5D forever, but that is ok, its still neat.
Look again on the left, just under brushes you will see Stroke, select Dots in there and scribble on the canvas a bit.
Cool huh?
2.5D is a VERY cool thing but if I am correct you want 3D right now so do this:
- Make sure Edit mode is still off.
- Hit Control N.
- Everything should go blank.
- Now do this again:
- Make your sphere.
- At the top of your window hit the EDIT button.
- Now hit “Make PolyMesh3d” in the tool pallet.
You now have a 3D Sphere again and can go back to sculpting.
I am an avid 2.5D junky so when you get curious about it again let me know I can show you more things like how to make your 2.5D paintings on 3D objects and how to make them into endlessly repeating pasterns.
One last thing, dont let EDIT mode drive you crazy, I did for a while and it held me back.
Cheers!
Mealea
Ps: there is one thing you could do if you seriously want that picture in 3d, and that is turn it into an alpha and then turn the alpha into a 3D object.
At the bottom of the Alpha Pallet on the right you will see “Grab Doc” and “Make 3D” if you use them in that order the thing you made will be 3D but it might disappoint you.
Many thanks, now i understand 
Haha, done some psychedelic things with this method 
Cool, i’ve just thought that if 2.5D have Z information then we can turn it 3D. I’m making a 3D models and putting it into game engine for fun (much easier and more interesting with ZBrush than e.g. 3DSMax) - so i generally prefer 3D meshes. But that’s my first encounter with 2.5D and i see that it can be quite enjoying
Ahh!
its the Z that you get, look at the bottom of my post:
“Ps: there is one thing you could do if you seriously want that picture in 3d, and that is turn it into an alpha and then turn the alpha into a 3D object.
At the bottom of the Alpha Pallet on the right you will see “Grab Doc” and “Make 3D” if you use them in that order the thing you made will be 3D but it might disappoint you.”
Basically what you do is draw in 3.5D then hit the “Grab Doc” button in the alpha pallet (this also make cool brush alphas) and then hit the “Make 3d” Button also in the Alpha Pallet.
Once you do that you have a thing in the tool menu that is a 3D glob of what ever you were working on.
Oddly I have also seen the whole canvas do this color and all but I dont know how it happened.
The resulting object is very low rez and is not a very good representation of what you made in the first place, I think this is fixable but Im not sure where. Some place there is a setting for the size of image Alpha grabs create.
Ok found it!
In the Alpha Menu at the top hit the “Make 3D” button
This opens up a pallet where you can adjust things like resolution and Z depth and stuff.
MRes and MDep, I am guessing here that is Max Res and Max Depth respectively.
DO NOT start with a resolution of 2048, if you do you will find that you have gotten your computers attention and it will be a long time before it lets go.
Zbrush is very very very busy at the moment… hehehehe… like I said, dont start with 2048.