Highpoly/low poly workflow and maps

[altab]

Hello ppl. I have a workflow problem/question. I tried googling it up, and searching the forum but with no success with my limited 3d knowledge.

I'm trying to make a low poly model with high poly textures..
Since I'm new to 3d, and I'm using it only because I have to, I tried summing the whole basicis in a couple of steps.. as I understood them.

1) I made a 60k highpoly model
2) Painted it.
3) Exported textures, bumps and normal maps from it.
4) Reopened model in Sculptris (and/or Blender) and turned it into ~1k low poly..
5) Tried to reattach textures/normals/ to low poly but with no luck...
Tried the same thing in Blender, Max ..but with no luck..

Can some1 tell me what it is that I am doing wrong and how I can fix that.
Pls. do not redirect me into using Z Brush, and other modeling tools unless it is absolutely necessary and Sculptris can not in fact do what I need.
Thank you.

[mattakkione]

Hi, i'm new to 3d world too, but as i understand how those things should go, i think your error is because you do low poly with sculptris.
In fact there is a process called retopology which allow to reduce the number of polys while the "structure" of the mesh is similar to the original one.
This thing is very important, i think your error is like if you try to use the same texture of a cylinder, on a pyramid (the structure is too much different so the texture simply doesn't work).
I'm quite sure retopology is what you are looking for and something you cannot avoid....and yes you need another software....i think blender is the one to go for(sculptris simply doesn't have the tools to do that): free and at this link you will have a wonderful guide on how to use retopology tools in blender

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthr...9&page=2&pp=15

Please read it very carefully, this guide is GOLD!

And at this thread you can dig deeeeeeper about retopology/topology and how it works....it's GOLD MINE!!

http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/f...read.php?t=907

Hang in there and show us your progress

(oh, and because i'm n00b in 3d world there is always a chance i could be wrong and sorry 4 my english )

[altab]

Hey, thanks for a quick response!
If I understand correctly retopogoly is changing the overall polycount without loosing the original visual definition.. I tried "decimate" modifier in Blender as well but with no luck.. I'll check out the links you gave me

[mattakkione]

Happy to hepl
And good work!

[mattakkione]

You said:
"...If I understand correctly retopogoly is changing the overall polycount without loosing the original visual definition..."

let's split this up:

-If I understand correctly retopogoly is changing the overall polycount

and this is true

-without loosing the original visual definition

and this is not completely correct, in fact a model retopologized is by far less detailed compared to the original one, in fact is sort of a cage of the original one and share with it just "some" vertex, but this is enough to apply on it some textures from the hires. In fact there are some techniques to retain all the details from the hires model. One of them consist in BAKING the NORMAL MAP of the hires model and apply them on the lowres model. Also look for this because i'm not so skilled to explain how this work in my english-ish

[P3nT4gR4m]

Just out of interest - why would you want to retopology? Is it so that you can make a game character for instance or maybe it makes animation frames render quicker? I keep hearing about retopology but I don't think I need for single frame renders. Maybe I'm wrong?

[RichArt]

Not every application can handle millions of polygons with the ease of Zbrush/sculptris.
That is why you should do retopo. A low poly object which looks like a nillion poly object.
And indeed, if you're planning to animate a character, you will need retopo.

Peace,
Rich_Art.

[Knacki]

Not every application can handle millions of polygons with the ease of Zbrush/sculptris.
That is why you should do retopo. A low poly object which looks like a nillion poly object.
And indeed, if you're planning to animate a character, you will need retopo.

Peace,
Rich_Art.

My system:
XP pro 32-Bit
2,6Ghz Dual core
4GB Ram
8800 GTX 768MB

Software 3ds max 2010

I can animate my frog ( http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=93976 )with over 400.000 tris with no big problems.
It's completely rigged and make fun to let him jump around.
For sure it's not like a lightweight but the workflow is fluently without any waiting times.

[celtic3d]

Have you animated it? Please please post a clip! I was thinking about your frog and how it would be a cool iPhone/iPad app to have it crawl around the screen in response to screen touch, inclinometer and accelerometer input. You could even use the camera to superimpose the animation on the background for some cutting edge Augmented reality. I think it would make it past Steve Jobs' App Police.

[altab]

Hey ppl

Yes, I'm making a game model, but not an animated one. The two things I'm interested the most is

1) Can Sculptris actually do the whole highpoly/lowpoly/uv/texturing etc. thing... or I need to do it in some other software... (to put highpoly textures on a lowpoly model)
2) A friend took a look at my low poly and high poly models, he says my highpoly exported fine with uv coords.. but low poly doesnt have a single cooredinate and that is where the problem might be... So now... I'm confused...

Fer yer pleasure... if any1 can figure this1 out..

http://www.mediafire.com/?cfcqrzr4fijau0r
Za Blender - For Blender = highpoly
Iz Blendera - From Blender = low poly...
+ highpoly textures and maps

[nevbms]

Hi,altab!

I think,I know the answer to your question.

1.No,sculptris cannot(at present time).Yes,you need another app.(I use blender).

2.Your friend was right,the hi_poly was exported with UV data from sculptris,but the lo_ poly had no UV,since your hi_poly UV was exported out of sculptris,I imported the lo_poly back into sculptris enable paint mode,exported it out from paint mode with the UV.(When you want to export the UV information out of sculptris you must export in paint mode,it creates UV data.If you create the lo_poly first in a modeling app., UV unwrap it,and export it,you can use that UV data in sculptris.)

O.K. heres a try at what your asking for,

(pic_1) lo_poly imported into blender,as you can see the model has 421 polys.



(pic_2) hi_poly imported into blender,this model has 29,656 polys.



(pic_3) baked normal map in blender. (both obj's must be on the same layer and share the same space,next select the hi_poly first,then shift select the lo_poly second[both objects selected],in the UV editor create a new image set it's properties[name,resolution],go to the renders options and under the bake tab enable normals,select to active,and finally the tangent buttons leave everything else at default.Now bake!,after baking select the lo_poly and give it a material,under the textures panel,select the image[choose your baked map],under the map image tab enable the normal map button and change the normal space from camera to tangent,in the material panel under the map input tab enable UV,and finally under map to tab disable color[col] and enable normal[nor],the nor and disp sliders control the strength.)Now render the lo_poly with the map apply!



(pic_4) lo_poly render.(421 polys)



(pic_5) lo_poly render with normal map apply.(still 421 polys)



(pic_6) lo_poly render with normal mapping and sub division level at 1.(2,496 polys)



(pic_7) the original hi_poly render.(29,656 polys)




hope that helps!

nevbms

[altab]

Sir, I salute you... that is exactly what I've been trying to do
Since sculptris can't do the job.. the only option for me is Zbrush since Blender turned out to be a bit to compicated for me..
Also, it is weird I guess.. but I exported both high and low from Sculptris and yet.. low poly doesnt have uv... thats weird...

The only thing left to do is to figure out how you did thid!

[Knacki]

I am sure you just did something wrong.
In the options menu there is said something about "uv deformation mode"
and "export vertex normals"

Maybe you can redirect yourself back to sculptris in just testing every option?
Quickly done

[altab]

This is getting ridiculous ..... now I'm getting "no image loaded" msg
I have both selected with lowpoly as main1 and with pinkish outline...
I made a new image...tried googling everything out... and still nothing..
"no image loaded" !!@!@#!!!!!!!!

[altab]

Ok this is even more ridiculous ... I baked it.. don't know exactly what I jst did right now, so I'll have to backtrack... but it has something to do with edit mode and showing yellow wires over a selected region...
I feel like a lab monkey...