A Beginners Guide : Zbrush to 3DS Max Pipeline.

[mradamw]

Hello!

I am very happy to present you with a guide that I have spent the last two weeks putting together!


Zbrush 3.1 to 3DS Max 2008 Pipeline: A (Very) Rough Guide

Pipeline Banner.jpg

It is a guide demonstrating a very basic, but highly effective, pipeline between Zbrush and 3DS Max. It will show you how to take a model you have created in Zbrush into 3DS Max for the purposes of rendering with MentalRay.

There are 5 Chapters in the guide:

Chapter 1 - Starting in Zbrush
Chapter 2 - Creating UV's using Blender
Chapter 3 - Back to Zbrush to paint and create maps
Chapter 4 - Photoshopping your maps
Chapter 5 - 3DS Max (using MentalRay to render out your model)

I have tried to make this guide as thorough as possible, explaining every step I take and why I took it, as well as attempting to walk you through each program used as if you were new to it. It is a full colour PDF file, 32 pages long and has screenshots to go along with almost every step of the guide. I have tried my best to approach this from a first-time-user's point of view for Blender and Max.

This has taken me a while to put together, so I truly hope you enjoy it and find it useful!

Regards
Adam


To get to the file, right click the provided link and select Save Target As..
PDF Document, 5MB in size.

http://www.box.net/shared/0yvohqcfum

(http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/6/4/1944181/Pipeline%20Guide.pdf)

[Eonsuu]

Very generous of you Adam! I was looking for something similiar to try out a workflow to Max and this might be exactly what I was looking for :-) Good choice to use Blender for UV:s.
At work so can not test the workflow but will be interesting to try it out at home. Lots of pages in the tutorial but I for one really appreciate all the time you put into this tutorial!
Thanks!

[ministerart@hotmail.co.uk]

This is brilliant...absolutely what I need. Thank you.

Im a complete newbie to all things other than z brush. I just started a 3DS Max training course and this compliments it so well.

Never be afraid of posting more of your tutorials..They are wonderful

[lawndart]

Adam, This is fantastic! I have been struggling through any tutorial I could find online and thumbing through books for tips and have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to make good maps from my zbrush models. As you say, there may be better ways of doing it, but this is the first time I've understood it enough to make it work.

Thanks for your time and consideration! Have to go and get busy now....

[poohdinkie]

Seriously man, this is fantastic. I've been struggling as well. MAX 2008 and 2009 users have a lot of unanswered questions and this certainly gets you moving in the right direction. PROPS. Thanks a bunch!

[mradamw]

Eonsuu, ministerart, lawndart and poohdinkie:
its a pleaure guys, glad to be of help in some small way :)

[Chris Spade]

It is saying that the file will not download and is corrupt or something?

Can you repost the PDF?

Thx.

[mradamw]

Hi Chris
Thank you for your message.

Are you right clicking on the link and selecting "Save Target As"?

I just tried now and it works perfectly, and i opened up the PDF from the download and there are no errors. maybe your acrobat isnt up to date?

Adam

[U_L.]

mradamw (http://member.php?u=105214) this pdf of yours A Beginners Guide : Zbrush to 3DS Max Pipeline (http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/6/4/1944181/Pipeline%20Guide.pdf) has been much needed by noobs.
The section using 3DS Max 2008 is fully applicable to 3DS Mac 2009.
Max 2009 has the following enhancements that improve work flow:



Interactive rendering - Autodesk video (http://download.autodesk.com/us/3dsmax/2009demos/07%20Iterative%20Rendering.mov)
Materials and Maps - Autodesk video (http://download.autodesk.com/us/3dsmax/2009demos/04%20Materials%20and%20Maps.mov)
Mapping - Autodesk video (http://download.autodesk.com/us/3dsmax/2009demos/05%20Mapping.mov)

[Clubitz]

Would be very interested in reading this...any chance on getting a link to it?

[mradamw]

hi, yeah the link appears to be broken. ill look around for another place to host the file and will change the adress wen its done :)
by end of today it should be up

[alexis flamand]

Hi !
Too bad for the file, that is just what I was searching for ! :cry:

Please, someone has the PDF and can give an alternative link, pleeeeeaaaaase ?

Alexis

[Squash-n-Stretch]

Yeah, can we get a new link please?

[mradamw]

alexis flamand, Squash-n-Stretch: im so sorry i havent sorted the link out yet guys. saying im pretty busy with work at the moment would be a gross understatement (im sneaking this reply in AT work and its 9.30pm...so im sure you can imagine my pain :P)
when its done ill let you all know.
again, really sorry!!!

[Freak]

well thank you very match for doing this but i cant download the pdf :( is it my problem or is your link down

[mradamw]

freak - please read the comments above. im aware the link is down, but unfortunately im too busy to sort it out at the moment. this weekend ill make time for it. thanks for the post though, nice to see people are interested :)

[Freak]

i did but i just whana to be shure and its allways good to post back and keep the posts alive :)

[Jael]

i'd like 2 read this guide too, so please post some here when link gon be alive again

[mradamw]

sure. will do :)
sorry again.

[cresshead]

looking forward to seeing it...if you need somewhere to host it..throw it my way and i'll push it up on one of my websites..i work for a webhosting company!

steve g

[mradamw]

Ok, ive got a new place hosting the file now, it looks a lot better than the site i was previously using, so i dont think there should be any issues with this :)

Heres the link:
http://www.box.net/shared/0yvohqcfum

Please let me know if it doesnt work :)

Cheers

Adam

ps thanks for the kind offer cresshead :)

[Zangst]

The link works like a charm. Thank you very much for uploading this again!

[Twitchmonkey]

I haven't had a chance to look the guide over, but this sounds like a very nice workflow for me as I have 3ds Max on a different drive and thus it becomes a pain to switch around too much. This way I can just do most of the work on my main drive and switch over for rendering.

[Jael]

thanks alot!
i still want to learn how to quick and easy UV in Max, but now, until i find it out, i can do mapping your way )) thanks again ;)

[mradamw]

glad it works guys :)

twitch - since writing this ive actually changed my methods around quite a bit, but the main processes are still there (i just use zmapper now and the best quality tangent space map, 4096x4096 usually) but i hope you can get some help from it.

cheerios

[kontur]

thanks a lot for this tutorial, much needed.

k.

[ahtiandr]

I still have thosoe nasty seams in max 2009 . I have tried all settings in Zmapper but it just dont want to work for me :evil:

[dustinbrown]

I'm curious Adam, are you using Blender for the UVs because you're not comfortable using max's UV system, or because you feel that Blender is far superior in that department...enough to warrant installing another 3D app on ones system.

[mradamw]

@dustinbrown - to be honest the reason i used Blender (and still do) is the level of support and tuts was better for it :P havent tried the max tools yet as im still getting to grips with that program.

[poohdinkie]

I've switched things up from this process quite a bit too (but it's still a VERY solid guide).

I decided to give UVLayout a spin after watching the help videos on their site:
http://www.uvlayout.com/

Wow....you guys need to try this out if you haven't used it. Actually, just buy it. Trust me. It's rediculously easy to do UVs with this thing. It pretty much makes the seams/cuts where you want, plops them to a UVMap and with a press of a button just flattens the mesh out for you (and looks really cool as it does it). Compared to doing UVs in MAX (or Blender)....well, there is no comparison. It makes the mapping process a 10 minute stress-free step.

And for the record, I love MAX but the UV tool is an overly-complex nest of chaos.

[arunddd]

link u provided is dead

[mradamw]

hi arunddd.

the link on the front page is dead, but if you looked on page 2 there is a new link (http://www.box.net/shared/0yvohqcfum). Unfortunately i can't seem to edit the first post to update the link.

Hope the tutorial helps in some way :)

[aurick]

The link in the first post has been fixed. Thanks. :)

[mradamw]

thanks so much aurick!
please can you also remove the text saying right click and select Save As, cos now you can just click the link and you will be directed to the host site (right clicking wont work).

thanks again for updating it :)

[raddy668]

could you please reupload it somewhere? id really love to see it but the link doesnt work...

[mradamw]

Hi raddy668.

Sorry about that. I have just looked into it and i am being told i am out of bandwidth from box.net

which seems odd to me as i log in once a month to keep it active so i guess the only other reason is more people than i thought (and who are thanking me) are downloading the tutorial. to be honest i dont have the free time to look around for the third time for decent hosting, so if you give me your email address i will email the tut to you (the curse of being in web development means NO free time...hence no zbrush posts in 3 months.)

savage.

[raddy668]

id be very happy if you could send it to me :)

my email is raddy668(at)seznam.cz

thx very much :)

[Krillin3230]

I tried to send you an email through the forum but it says you are not accepting emails.

I'd like to get a copy of this tutorial as well please :)

trunks209@gmail.com

[RomesFu]

lol sorry for the dramatics but if you could see the pile of hair next to my chair from trying to render out pictures for my portfolio you would understand! After the last couple months of scowering the www i have found only a few places that could help me and they all wanted my money:confused: . Being freshly out of college that is some thing i don't even remember looks like. please if you could email me this guide and just any thing as far as tuts you have on zbrush, i am self teaching myself the program so anything helps.

thanks you so much for this tutorial and all the trouble to help get it out to thoes of us that need it.

romezfu@yahoo.com

:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Igoreshkin]

Can someone send thise to me:volkovi@bk.ru???I'll try to upload somewhere else.PLEASE

[Igoreshkin]

Many Thanks to Adam Whitcroft!!!

Here links:
http://letitbit.net/download/11a564431730/Pipeline-Guide.pdf.html
http://depositfiles.com/en/files/wh6adkygx
http://rapidshare.com/files/159316352/Pipeline_Guide.pdf.html
PS.I uploaded from thise site:

http://multi-up.com/30626/ (http://multi-up.com/30626/)

[michaelws]

Thumbs up to UV Layout. Incredible program...

Thanks for this guide!

[Tristikov]

Thank you for this wonderful tutorial! At the moment I'm only working in Zbrush, but I'm very keen to try out Blender once my model is ready to apply texture to!

[mradamw]

im not the pedantic type...but really...this file has been tracked to 4363 downlods and hardly anyone is saying thank you! im a highly disturbed by the manners of the people downloading this file!!!! please have some common courtesy and say thanks!!! if this continues i will remove the file!

[cresshead]

yeah a 'thank you' doesn't cost anything..so just to be sure

thank you very much for your hard work and your own time you put aside to helping people with creating this tutorial

steve g

[michaelws]

I think you hit upon a basic flaw in human nature...one that causes the same feeling in neighbors,factions within countries and among nations...so few thanks for the gracious efforts of individuals that contribute freely out of a kindness that comes from the heart.

I guess I too am guilty of that, even here...as my thanks was so quickly stated a few posts back and I seemed to be more appreciative of UV Layout than I was of your offering. For this I am sorry. So I am not slamming others here as I too share this failing.

We are all to eager to post our disappointments and suspicions, but nowhere near as eager to take the time to express appreciation for those. like yourself who give to us without asking for anything in return.

I apologize and hopefully, this will be a lesson to me also and will maybe serve as a tool I can use to remind me, in the future, to take the time to let others know how grateful I am for their contributions.

I ask your forgiveness...and that you not take from this experience a heart hardened against the desire to help others freely and anonymously. That would be a shame indeed...upon all of us who have benefited from your taking the time to help us through some of the obstacles in learning this program.

thank you for the contributions and for the expression of your disappointment in the response. I will not forget this.

[Teeto]

I know quite a few ever have the time to say thanks after getting stuff for free, and to tell the truth, I got your download yesterday, and have come back to say thank you a million times...I hate laying out UVs, and your PDF was a real saviour, cos afetr completely modelying, i could step back and lay them out by following step by steps gotten through you... you truky are a saviuor of the Forty something thousand who didn't bother to say thanks....atleast I came back to say so.

thanks once again...

NB: How many times have I said thanks... lost count actually...LOL...Thanks again.

If there ever are useful stuff like this in the future, pls send me alinnk ASAT cos combing this forum can sometimes be a pain in the ass.

[Clubitz]

Well, I am thankful. I came here last year when the link was broken. I was sad to see that the information was still out of reach.

Finally I am able to give this another go. I had no idea this was back up. So a big THANK YOU, Adam.

[velleca55]

MRADAMW ... thanks a lot for the condivision of your work ...

[Teeto]

Hey,
I got your PDF and thanked you alot for it. I read through the tutorial like a bible, and followed each step, but got stuck at the point where after selecting your edges,I'm supposed to click the tab where edit mode is, and select UV Face select.The problem is that UV Face select is not among those options. I am using Blender 2.48, and downloaded both open source and .exe just to be sure. They both say i need to install Python. Could this be the reason why UV face select doesn't show up??

I'm in dera need of your reply.
Thanks again.
Teeto.

[CGicore]

Thank you for sharing this Guide. Really amazing and really very kind of you. :)

[fatwind]

thankyou very much :tu:

[jaggudada]

this is my first post and first download .. so thankyou :D for everything

[Teeto]

hey dear,
I wrote about a week ago, expecting a reply, but got none. I've not been able to UV select face after marking my seams, simply cos that option doesn't show in the dialog where Edit Mode is found. Please help as soon as you can, cos I'm in dear need of it.

thanks again.

Teeto.

[mradamw]

hello everyone! thanks for...well...all the thanks! my faith in humanity has been somewhat restored :) i apologise for having to make that post complaining about it, but i was just a tad upset that 2 weeks of work had gone unnoticed. anyhoo...

teeto - im so sorry i havent been able to get back to you! work is pretty much the only thing i have time for in my life at the moment. my blender version is 2.45 (so you actually have a more recent version than i do!). Let me try and understand your problem.
1) have you laid out your seams?
2) are you at the step where you need to go into UV Face, select all of your faces to unwrap?

if so, please see the attached screengrab. maybe it will help you out a little. if you are still stuck, please feel free to email me on
mradamw@gmail.com and i will do what i can to help you out :)

i think soon i will post a tutorial on using the VERY powerful unrwapping features in 3dsmax (which i initially thought was alot more complicated than blender, but it turns out its almost easier!). if anyone is keen, please let me know and i will put something together

cheerios

[Teeto]

That's exactly the spot where I am...UV Face select just isn't among the list!!! I've pulled my hair out everyday since I got your pipeline.Could i be doing anything wrong???

Here's what I do step by step:

1. I import an obj mesh and uncheck all the buttons you said before I hit import.

2. I then select an edge, hit Ctrl + E and select Select Edge loop from the pop-up..

3. The hit Ctrl + E again and select Mark Seams...from the pop-up and the edges change from yellow to orange. I repeat this for other edges, and then comes the next step.

4. I click on the tab so I could go from edit mode to UV select mode, but that funcetion just isnt there!!!!

Could I have done something wrong along the way??

Could it be that the function just isnt available in ver 2.48? Please get this version and try it out...I l;ove your pipeline and am a major fan of yours already..Pls help me out!!!

[mradamw]

hey teeto

ok i got the new version, installed it and played around, and i think i have the answer for you.

1) create seams as you have been doing
2) when all of your seams are in, you can either hit "A" on the keyboard to select all of the faces, or chose Select > Select/Deselect All (picture 1)
3) Instead of going then to UV Face Select, you can skip that and go straight onto the lower half of the screen, selecting UV/Image Editor (picture 2), hitting U on the keyboard and selecting unwrap.

Does that help at all??

[CGicore]

Thank you so much for the tutorial. I used 3ds max 2009 and it worked like a charm with your tutorial. Step by step, very clear. Thank you really very much for putting it in such a easy to read tutorial.

I created a head in Zbrush, just with a simple primitive sphere, then move here and there, once I got the right shape, I went to a semi lower geometry and then exported it into modo for the UV layout. I didn't use Blender. Once I got the basic UV done, export it again and back to ZB for sculpting and the rest you know already. ;)

See attachment. Again, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[mradamw]

hey cgicore! glad you found it useful :) thanks for sharing your image with me, i would say you nailed the process! thanks for the support!

[Jonu]

Thank you very much, this is just what I needed. I am having problems with exploding mesh, when I import uvmap.obj back in to zbrush. Tips anyone???

[Teeto]

Hey!!!

I got your feedback, and it helped!!! in short, it solved my problems...I still get a few explosions but re-do the UVeying, and it works. Thanks alot.Would upload my progress soon okay?? Thanks a million.

[CGicore]

Just make sure that you don't have any overlapped UVs or it won't work. Plus, it explodes because the vertices were all re-organized. They need to be intact when you export from zbrush to 3ds max (e.g.), then back to zbrush.

[manusito]

hey thanks a lot for your work, i'll give it a try :)

btw, is there any guide to remove the seams in max 2k9 just like the guide with the MEL script for maya? i still get those damned seams every now and then....

thanks guys for your help, it's a pleasure to read those guides and stuff you share :tu:

[mradamw]

hey manusito - im afraid i cant be of much help there...maybe someone with a bit more experience will be able to answer that for you (just wanted to put my 2 cents in so you dont think i dont care about this thread and your questions :)
sorry about not being able to help out bro.

[manusito]

it's alright ;) thanks anyway and keep the good work!!

[KillahPriest]

hello everyone! thanks for...well...all the thanks! my faith in humanity has been somewhat restored :) i apologise for having to make that post complaining about it, but i was just a tad upset that 2 weeks of work had gone unnoticed. anyhoo...

teeto - im so sorry i havent been able to get back to you! work is pretty much the only thing i have time for in my life at the moment. my blender version is 2.45 (so you actually have a more recent version than i do!). Let me try and understand your problem.
1) have you laid out your seams?
2) are you at the step where you need to go into UV Face, select all of your faces to unwrap?

if so, please see the attached screengrab. maybe it will help you out a little. if you are still stuck, please feel free to email me on
mradamw@gmail.com and i will do what i can to help you out :)

i think soon i will post a tutorial on using the VERY powerful unrwapping features in 3dsmax (which i initially thought was alot more complicated than blender, but it turns out its almost easier!). if anyone is keen, please let me know and i will put something together

cheeriosI think me (and many others :lol:) would really appreciate an easy to understand 3dsmax UV tutorial like the one you made here.

[CGicore]

I'm actually looking forward if this tutorial will work with Max 2010.
It works flawless with 2009 as I already tested and posted the results in the previous page.
Anyone who's running max 2010 ?

[AddiesDaddy]

just wanted to put my two cents in and say thanks as well.

[jammin1967]

hey mradamw -thanks for all your help on this subject and your coments reminding me about the powerfull UV unwrapping features in Max. I really enjoy being able to paint on my mesh (more or less) through zbrush but I just cannot tolerate the convoluted texture maps that result.

So it's back to Max for now -If you ever wrote a tutorial on UV mapping in Max, I would certainly love to read it :D

[Teeto]

I had tried and tried, and finally, I have a success!!!!
Thanks for every help you've given.

I have some questions though
1. Can the cavity maps generated in your proceedure be used as a bump map?
We generated two maps...Displacement and Normal maps. Why wasn't the displacemen map used?? Could I apply in in the displacement maps under the maps rollout??

In all, here's what i got. There were some artefacts around the neck area...Dunno where they came from.

Thanks once again okay??
Pig Hero Front.jpg Pig Hero Front.jpg

[Teeto]

Another view to show the problem area around neck properly
Pig Hero.jpg Pig Hero.jpg

[scottleroc]

Hey Teeto

Displacement map problems are sometimes caused by
1. triangles in your mesh
2. overlaping uv's

Sometimes this causes problems when the mesh gets tesselated by the subdivisional approximation, at least it does in maya.

Keep going, displacement maps are painful so I feel your pain.

S

[jaggudada]

WHAT about the 1001+16 map..
u haven't inserting it in the materials like normal and tex maps..
whats the use of 1001+16 map??

and u have created a normal map in zmapper. and then again in the "multi displacement plugin"

which normal map i have to put? :confused:

[JeremyRobertOrtiz]

Thanks this actully helped. :)

[richellis66]

Just like to say thanks for the tut - it helped me a lot!

[Jaxx]

I've just downloaded your guide and still have to read it but wanted to say thanks in advance for all your efforts. Looking forward to go through it :)

Thanks again.

[Elite]

Thank you! for this beatiful document! is gonna work for me!!! 100% shure

[cdrose]

Thank you :D

[SquidWatch]

This guide was extremely helpful to me!

Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[gordon02380]

Hi there, Im just wondering if anyone is having the same problem as me, I hate to be the only one with whom this doesn't work :(
When I get to the importing back to zbrush part after UV mapping in Max, my mesh explodes :O
Im using the basic UV editor that comes with Max. Just simple box mapping, making sure there are no overlaps. The UV looks clean, and I make sure to reset Xform, collapse the stack, and convert to editable poly before importing back to Zbrush.
The only step I do that differs from you is that Im starting with a retopo'd mesh, and creating an adaptive skin(which is the one I export to max, UV map and reimport). Is there a setting to look out for before "creating" the adaptive skin?

[manusito]

@gordon02380
i guess you're not the only one, it has to do with the vertex order. As someone said (cannot remember now, but credits go to him), in max 2009 you have to import/export twice to avoid that error. That is, import, reUV, export, import again, export again... that worked for me. And if I were you, I would do as few as possible modifications on your mesh or stack in max (of course no new polys whatsoever...). Hope that helps!

[gordon02380]

Unfortunately that hasn't worked for me :/ Thanks for the advice though.

[bradvanreenen]

I hope someone comes out with something like this for 3.5R3...my results from using this tutorial came very close (looked like...the texture was rotated slightly between zbrush export and 3ds max import...???)... but close isn't cutting it unfortunately. :(

[andry2fast]

thank you very much, i just tried to make an obj into 3dsmax and i had difficulties worked on it, especially getting color and material info from zbrush to 3dsmax. i will surely learn from your guide line.GBU. :D

[cdragonz]

thank you very much.. its really helped a noob like me. a millions thy...:D