Pixologic has released ZBrush Compositor, a handy free plugin that connects ZBrush to Adobe’s Substance Painter or Marmoset’s Toolbag for texturing and lighting a sculpt, without the need to set up UVs.

The tool is based on the personal workflow of concept artist and sculptor Pablo Munoz Gomez, and was co-developed by Pixologic creative development manager Joseph Drust.

Texture and light ZBrush meshes without UVs in Substance Painter or Toolbag
ZBrush Compositor generates a series of renders in ZBrush with custom matcaps and settings, then uses these to set up a project in Substance Painter or a scene in Marmoset Toolbag.

Users can then texture or light a ZBrush sculpt in Substance Painter or Toolbag without the need to set up UVs, making it possible to work with meshes created using DynaMesh, Sculptris Pro or FiberMesh.

Marmoset – from whose newsletter we heard about ZBrush Compositor – also lists plugins linking Toolbag to other DCC apps in the Add-on Library on its site, including Blender, Megascans and Substance Designer.

System requirements and availability
ZBrush Compositor is available for ZBrush 2020, Marmoset Toolbag 3 and the standard edition of Substance Painter: it won’t work with the Steam edition. It’s a free download.

Download ZBrush Compositor from Pixologic’s ZBrush resources site

Find tutorials on installing and using ZBrush Compositor Pablo Munoz Gomez’s ZBrushGuides website.

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