ZBrushCentral

Projection Master & Texture Resolution - Does Pixol to Pixel Ratio Matter?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all,

When using Photoshop for texturing via Zapplink/Projection Master, does texture map size matter or does document size matter?

So say I’m texturing a head, & my image that i want projected onto the model is 2k in Photoshop. Should my document size also be set to 2k or only my texture map size matters?

Does my polygon count matter in this case at all? That is, would I need to bump up the polygon count to roughly 4 million to match the 2k image, even though I’ve already assigned a texture map?

I’ve read a few threads discussing the pixol to pixel ratio, but am still confused if this applies to Projection Master as well or only to Polypainting / Spotlight.

Thanks for your time.

#3

Hi, thanks for replying.

So if I use Photoshop to paint textures via Projection Master, all i need to do is ensure that the final texture / uv map size (assigned in ZBrush) is about equal to the resolution of the texture (in Photoshop) that is to be projected?

Reading those older posts made it seem that even for this workflow, one would require a pretty high mesh density. Thanks for clarifying that it isn’t the case though.

Much appreciated!!

#4

Hello @DebendraRoy

In the most general sense, the higher the resolution of your mesh and polypaint detail, the higher the resolution of the texture needed to capture that detail. Detail can be limited by either the mesh resolution OR a texture resolution that is not high enough to capture the detail. Both can result in a blurry or pixelated texture.

However, there are other factors–for instance how your UVs are laid out, and how much of the image map is dedicated to a particular section of UVs. Poorly laid out UVs can reduce the detail potential of an image map. You may need an even larger texture map depending on how much of it is being efficiently used.

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#5

@Spyndel Thanks for taking the time!

Yes, I will indeed keep those aspects about resolution & uvs in mind.

What confused the heck out of me was some old posts on this topic that seemed to suggest that no matter what, when texturing in ZBrush, the vertex count will always matter. (Even if painting through Zapplink & Photoshop).

Some of the most popular character texturing tutorials seem to always bring in texturing.xyz textures & Mari into the picture. That got me thinking about what the workflow would be like in ZBrush. Since the textures are extremely high res, I thought it’s a no-go for Polypainting / Spotlight.

Hence my search for whether the Zapplink process is different. But this method seems to be pretty old school nowadays, since I hardly came across any recent tutorials (?)

Anyway, thanks to you both for taking the time. Cheers!

#6

So just seeking a clarification on this subject.

When I use Projection Master to paint on a texture map that’s been assigned to a UVed model in ZBrush (as opposed to vertex painting), I’m unable to use Spotlight Projection.

I can paint just fine with a Standard Brush set to RGB mode. But Spotlight will not affect the texture map.

Is that how it is supposed to be, & not something I’m doing incorrectly? Thanks.

#7

Yes, that’s how it is. Spotlight is for polypainting the model while it is in 3D Edit mode. Projection Master uses a 2.5D version of the model.

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#8

Thanks for clarifying @marcus_civis.

Also, since I have your attention, I went through that old thread discussing the correct way to estimate the Pixol to Pixel ratio (by Aurick, iinm). That was very confusing for me. I also discovered you had made a script/plugin for the same.

What I wanted to ask is, is there any new way of estimating the ratio that is a bit simpler?

Thanks for your time.