well in case this has been posted by now im sorry for opening this thread, but last time i checked there was no pipeline thread which fitted my needs and thus i create this one, my problem was more or less that the old pipelines i found resulted in facetted textures
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create your basemodel (zbrush or elseweyr, if elseweyr make sure you use perfect quadrats/squares if possible, more than 4 corners result in real problems and less than 4 make sculpting too nasty as do heavily distorted squares)
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sculpt your model model in zbrush
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export model from zbrush on a low subD level (for example 1 or 2)
-your modeller (3dmax, blender, etc) of choice obviously cant handle multi million polygon models aswell as zbrush -
select all vertices and weld them (0,05 is a good radius in 3dmax)
- very important, else your textures will appear facetted after zbrush creates them
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UVmap your model in the way you like (peltmapping probably)
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export model as *.obj (quads, rotate activated)
-also save it so you can use it as your low poly model later on -
open the zbrush tool you sculpted on
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go to its subD level you exported from
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import the model you mapped and exported as *.obj in step 6
-this will become the lowest subD level of your tool
-ignore the error message about changed topology, you welded its vertices and hence it changed but its of no concern but actually a good sign -
stay in that lowest subD level and create displacement and normal maps, etc
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save the created maps (normal, displacement, AO, etc) and apply them to your mapped low poly in your renderer/realtime engine of choice
voilà…
you now have a model which is well mapped, has neat maps and wont be facetted in your renderer
appendix:
cheap example render with step 4 (welded)
cheap example render without step 4 (not welded)
some realtime engines (like games) require neatly mapped models as not to display flickering textures or other errors and wont work in harmony with zbrush generated AO tiles, furthermore allows a well mapped model the textures to be edited in photoshop for example after they were created in zbrush, custom mapping also gives you more control on how the textures will look in the end (borders, fixing of errors, etc)
3dmax however does render zbrush generated AOtiles quite well
cheap example render in 3dmax with AOtiles instead of custom mapping
hence if you simply want to make a nice render in max you can let zbrush create the mapping for you and save all those steps above in most cases