lm

Thanks, Aminuts and Lemonnado.http://www.larrymccusker.com/cheers.gifThat was what I was missing. I had been doing it with the displacement maps but missed that step with the textures.

Is there some kind of guide online or in a book that describes the basics of UVs , smoothing groups, and polygroups? What is involved technically as opposed to how to apply them in a program. I think a basic knowledge of that would help in troubleshooting.

Thanks again to Scratchy, Upham, and Pmcclory.http://www.larrymccusker.com/cheers.gif

Now off to further learning with the Scratchy and Upham tutorials.http://www.larrymccusker.com/drive.gif

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"Haircut" Movie Trailer Featuring ZBrush Gear Primitive

lm

I happened on another thread where Lemonnado answers someone's question and in so doing answered this question as well. The books are 3D Math and the advanced Renderman manual. No doubt more info online as well.

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"Haircut" Movie Trailer Featuring ZBrush Gear Primitive

upham

Im
The help guide in Max has an excelent documentation that shows you exactly what smooth groups are. (look under "Viewing and Changing Smoothing")

Polygroups are from the family of wavefront OBJ format, which are mainly used in ZBrush, Maya, XSI & even Milkshape & Wings 3d. Max can do .OBJ format but does not keep the grouping.

A good tutorial about applying UV mapping can be found in the tutorial mentioned in my web page by Logan Foster: Material ID Unwrapping

No quick & easy answer to your problem. You've got some study in front of you.
Upham

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lemonnado

Yep, smoothing groups, uv's, texture projection, subdivisions, all good fun (eyes roling back in head). Also look at the excellent and priceless new ZMapper Documentation first. Then look at the QuickLinks. There is a lot about texturing. And then refere to the external sources. Actually.... get a book about CG Math first and read up on vector math and the like. Then the rest will be easy to follow up on. If you are out of the math loop for a while, as I am, then you have to put the puzzle pieces into place using the aforementioned information fragments.

Cheers
Lemo

lm

Thanks, Upham and Lemonnado. I've started checking out your suggestions.

I think people who know that info have an edge in certain aspects of 3D so I'll have to become one of those people. It won't happen overnight but it'll happen!

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"Haircut" Movie Trailer Featuring ZBrush Gear Primitive

Nahuel

I have followed step by step the whole exelent material that here has been exposed. I have not had problems with the Displacement but when I try with Normal Map, I cannot illuminate it in 3D Studio.
How a model it is illuminated with normal map?? Why the model seems to have its own shadows?.... ??

Thanks a lot

Adam_Stewart

Does anybody know anything about a format called .map . It was mentioned to me by somebody over at the Vray forum. It allows you to export your displacement map with scale and alpha intensity embedded. The theory - well as I understand it is your setting always remain the same in your Vray displacement map. And your imported .map does the rest - it sounds too good to be true - as anybody heard know anything about it ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Wandrey

Whats about Import from MAX.
Have made two Spheres little different dimensions, cut the inner one with boolen Substract and than substract on one side a cylinder and a cube on the other side of the hollow sphere. Export it to .obj (param. see picture). On Import into Zbrush 2 I get a hollow sphere where the outward skin seems transparent. What's wrong with my Import?

dfrenett

Hi Wandrey,

Booleans in max have always given me "interesting" results. They usually end up making pretty dirty meshes.

I would suggest not using them, but in an effort to try to solve your current problem, it looks like the normals have been reversed.

You can add an "Edit Normals" modifier in max to have a quick look at your normals, I would assume they would be pretty crazy.

Also, have you tried the xform modifier in max? I always use this on any object I am about to export, as it really cleans up the normals.

One other thing to suggest, maybe try turning off the "normals" check box on export from max.

Adam_Stewart

Booleans are a creature unto themselves. You could achieve the same thing with a lathe - if all else fails you can probably do that. You could also try to flip the normals in Zbrush. Tool > Display Properties > Flip. It will do the same thing as a normal modifier in 3ds. Things get a little strange when you are bringing it back into max. You will probably want to unflip it before you export.
You can also try the import options Preferences > Import Export > here you have a bunch of options to play with - from this point you're on you're own. I am not quite sure which one of these will flip your mesh, but I would do a couple of tests.
My experiece with Zbrush led me to a mutiple testing philosophy. Basically I would bring things backwards and forwards lots of times at various stages of modelling, making sure things where working as I expected - especially when it comes to displacements maps You don't want to put in hours of work, without testing things back 3ds I've had a few nasty surprizes that way.

Good Luck

ludikastyle

The normals are flipped for sure, anyway try to collapse the modifier stack and convert to an editable mesh before exporting to obj, it might even work.

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Jaylerd

Hello all. I'm new here, but have been browsing for a few months learning how to make normals work in 3ds Max. But I've hit a bit of a snag. Here's how I make the normals.

Export OBJ from max
import, subdivide, and detail in zBrush (i may or may not make a morph target depending on my goal)
goto subdividion 1, click GUV Tiles, and create normal
export tool / object and reopen in max

(i do exactly what was suggested in the first reply to this thread)

currently I am modelling a female character in Max with clothing. Her clothes are simply copies of the body mesh, cut and extruded to look like clothes. Using this method, I get perfectly fitting clothing and my Character Studio rig perfectly manipulates all of the "cloth" and her body without geometry passing through each other.

Ok, here's my problem: when I import an object in zBrush, I make a morph target (to preserve the original geomtry) and carry on. When I import it back into max and apply the normal, it looks good. HOWEVER! The geomtry is still slightly edited (i'm guessing because zBrush doesn't like some of my cuts?), and as a result, my character's body and clothing geometry intersect and the integrity of my rig falls apart.

I guess what my question is is really this: is there a way to create a normal map for a 3ds max piece of mesh WITHOUT having to import an object from zBrush? Can I just make a map in zBrush and apply it to an already existing piece of geometry without having to import a similar (though very slightly modified) object from zBrush? Thanks in advance and I hope someone out there knows what the hell i'm talking about ... brevity isn't a strong suit of mine.

Wandrey

Good hints, I'll give them a try, thanks.

aminuts

jaylerd....

in zb subd and do your detailing then go back to subd 1 and reimport your original mesh at that level then create the map.....don't go up in levels or you will smooth it and slightly change it.......just reimport and create the map.

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