So I've been tinkering with my ZBrush UI, never really bothered to customize it but I finally did and it's awesome, I love how flexible everything is. Anyone else uses a custom UI? I'd love to see how workflow changed the UI for you guys.

I change mine around a lot. Even now I'm thinking of making a few more changes. Here's two I've stuck with more often.

I've been thinking of messing around with my UI lately... Does anyone have any small tutorials or guides on it? I don't really know where to start.

http://pointpusher.blogspot.com/2010...custom-ui.html

It might be very slightly different in R2. Basically go to Preferences: Config: Enable Customize.

From there, hold ctrl+alt and you can drag anything around (buttons, sliders, etc). Drag things from the palettes onto the UI to place them, and if you want to remove them, drag them onto the document instead. Once you're done, toggle off enable customize and then save it (preferences: config: save ui). Save it in your ZStartup\UserInterfaceLayouts folder. To switch UIs, there are arrows in the top-right of the screen

Originally Posted by cryrid

I change mine around a lot. Even now I'm thinking of making a few more changes. Here's two I've stuck with more often.

Wow, this one is particularly awesome! How do you make those small swatches? And the rainbow strip, what is that? :O

Custom buttons that use .psd images as a background.

[VarDef,buttonPath,""]

[ISubPalette,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI"]

[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Swatches","Color Swatch",
	[VarSet,buttonPath,"Color:Main Color"]
	[If,[IExists,buttonPath],
		[IPress,buttonPath]
	]
	,,78 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\swatches.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button

[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Strokes","Brush Strokes",
	,,78 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\strokes.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button

[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Options","Brush Options",
	,,105 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\options.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button


[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Brushes","Brushes",
	,,534 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\brushes.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button

[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Alpha","Alpha and Texture",
	,,155 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\alpha.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button

[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Masking","Masking Brushes",
	,,78 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\masking.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button

[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Selection","Selection Brushes",
	,,78 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\selection.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button

[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:Clipping Brushes","Clipping Brushes",
	,,122 /*width*/,, "CryridUI\clipping.psd"/*image*/, /*height*/]
//end button


[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:QuickColor","Quick Colors",
	,,1575 /*width*/,,  "CryridUI\color1575_12.psd"/*image*/, 12 /*height*/]
//end button


[IButton,"ZPlugin:Cryrid UI:SkinColor","Skin Colors",
	,,76 /*width*/,,  "CryridUI\skin.psd"/*image*/, 38 /*height*/]
//end button

I don't have them set to do anything, they're just for show (though the I can use the color picker to grab the colors from the swatches).

Oh, cool, gotta try something with that sometime. I assume you could map action to these custom buttons through scripting as well?

Hmm. Thanks for the info Cryid. I set up a basic custom UI a week or so ago with the brushes I use most on the bottom but I'm having a problem. When I re-open ZBrush the brushes that I had to load through Lightbox aren't on my UI. I have to re-load them and place them back onto my UI which is annoying. How can I have it so those brushes are always there when I open it?

Originally Posted by Zipfinator

Hmm. Thanks for the info Cryid. I set up a basic custom UI a week or so ago with the brushes I use most on the bottom but I'm having a problem. When I re-open ZBrush the brushes that I had to load through Lightbox aren't on my UI. I have to re-load them and place them back onto my UI which is annoying. How can I have it so those brushes are always there when I open it?

Yeah, same thing happened to me, it's annoying as hell. You have to copy the brush files you want available at startup from the ZBrush 4R2\ZBrushes folder to the ZBrush 4R2\ZData\BrushPresets folder.

Okay thanks Felipe!

I just make sure everything you want to load during startup is in the zstartup/ directory (so ZBrush 4R2\ZStartup\BrushPresets for brushes)

felipefrango i love your UI would you share it ?

I've been using cryrid's for a while
http://www.moddb.com/downloads/zbrus...om-ui/#2392346

if you guys could upload your custom UI's for other people to share, that would be awesome.

if you have nowhere to host the files please let me know and i'll be more than happy to provide.

Sure, I'll be glad to help, I'll upload it when I get home. But as it's been said, it uses some non default brushes and materials and it'll look broken if they're not in the right folders, but from that image you can tell where stuff is supposed to be or just fill in the gaps with other stuff.

so include the brushes in the upload. make a zip file that contains the proper directories and those files, unzipping them properly will put them in the correct places.

Hmm, that's smart. It does use 3rd party brushes like the Selwy Cloth Brushes, Orb's crack brush and the Mahcut Hard Surface brushes, as well as materials that I found around the web and don't even know if they're free anymore. Would that be a problem?

Just copy your zstartup folder (probably minus the plugins, unless you have ones that don't ship with R2)

Well, my concern is actually the redistribution of 3rd party brushes and materials without consent, I'll see what I can do when I'm out of work.

Everything I have I was given for free:

http://cryrid.com/3d/temp/zbrush/res...id_UI_Z4R2.rar

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5691557/ZStartup.zip

As cryrid suggested, just extract this zip file into the ZBrush instalation folder and merge/overwrite as wanted. It includes materials and brushes, the UI file (felipefrango.cfg) and hotkeys (which will probably overwrite the hotkeys there, so beware).

The only changes to the default hotkey system that I can remember is numbers 1 through 8 select brushes I use the most (which are then not present in the bottom shelf) and 9/0 select preview/flat render, I find it useful to quickly check on the silhouette of the model ad then switch back.

love the idea for making this a thread,
give me some great ideas next time i get back into zbrush

great thread idea

Nice Cryrid!

I have a quick question is it possible to edit a cfg. file saved out of Zbrush? I've tried openning the file in a couple of editors but they all seem to have encoding issues .

I have no idea, never tried to do it, but what is it that wou wanna change? Can't you just load the UI and move things around?