PolyPainting from the canvas in Zbrush

Painting a model in Zbrush? If it is from reference, you might not know that there is an alternative method to using Zbrush’s projection feature, and that is PolyPainting. Spotlight is a projection texting system that allows you to paint from a source onto a model in 3D. It’s a great way to quickly transfer a lot of texture information from your reference over to your model.

…an alternative to using spotlight to sample colours from a concept and using them to paint your model in Zbrush

If you are only using Spotlight to only sample colors from your reference, it becomes a bit cumbersome with too many clicks involved. Spotlight was created as a projection system, and it wasn’t meant to work as a method to sample colors off a reference to paint manually on your own.

Character Artist and Generalist Francis-Xavier Martins (PolyJunky) shows us that we can use the PolyPainting system in Zbrush to paint from the canvas instead. This is done by using an image plane for the reference work. You can then sample colors directly off the image plane and paint those colors on the model. PolyPainting has certain advantages in Zbrush. The resolution and UV’s don’t need to be defined ahead of time, which can be liberating when you are painting. Nice tip!

1 comment

  1. Anthony

    Hello, Mr. Banks I have a question have anybody heard from Stuart Christensen, he use to do Maya tutorials all the time and I have not heard anything from him in 2 years. I check is website deepfriedectoplasm , their is no activity their also. I hope everything is ok. Thanks

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