How to extract perfect displacement maps.

[rimasson]

I'd like to share my workflow about the creatiàon of displacement maps in 3.1

When you're ready to create displacement maps in Zbrush
1 : Create a cage at the 1rst subdiv level. (Tool - Geometry -cage)
2 : If the cage is OK for you, simply extracty the displacement map.

3 if not, you can tweak it in Zbrush or in another 3d app.

4 : When the tweaking is done, store a morph target and Reproject the cage. (Tool, Geometry, reproject higher subdiv.) The details will be aligned to the new tweaked cage.
5 Go to the 1rst subdiv level, and Switch your morph terget, to display the cage again
6 extract the displacement map.

(generally, iwhen you reproject you geometry using the Reproject higher subdiv tool, you should always reproject a Cage instead of the subdiv level 1 to avoid some sliding on the geometry.)

[Rastaman]

Hi Francois.

I tried your workflow and it works fine.
But I am a little unsure about the quality of your method compared to my ususal way of creating the dispmap in the second-highest subd-level.:confused:

Here is the result with your cage-method out of subd-level-1:

Dispmap_Rimason-style.jpg


Here is my usual result out of the second-highest subd-level:

Dispmap_2-highest_subd.jpg

I didn't try to render both, but I think my usual way leads to more details, don't you think ?

[rimasson]

When you create a displacement map from a higher subdiv level, finer details are always more visible on the maps. It's the equivalent in Photoshop of High pass filter. Low frequency details are on the model rather than on the disp map.
I didn't tried your method either. :) but on the tests i did, i was satisfied with the results.

The point of this post, is that i found a workflow to change to more or less cage and avoiding distortions, or inaccuracy in the displacement map.