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please describe your workflow in great detail first.

All Unknown artist had to do was assign AUV tiles to his mesh at lowest sub d in zbrush and recreate a new displacement map and then export that new low sub d to max. So His problem was his UVs

DarkEdge: If I’m going to make that tutorial,I’ll post it on these forums so other people can see it too… :rolleyes:

Okay,cool,it's been two weeks now since I started learning this "ZBrush to MAX" process and I can't say that I've gone much farther with my researches. Anyways,I've got some more questions and problems now.I pretty much learned how to use AUV tiles in ZBrush and get some good results in MAX (I should thank Eric for that.Thanks a lot man :D ) but the thing is,the results aren't as good as I actually want them to be... I've been experimenting with that method for last two days and the results were kind of different.I'm going to post some images to illustrate that. Experiment #1: I used sub level 2 to generate the displacement map (don't worry,I export the same level :p ) without "Cage".Rendered with default scanline renderer with "Displace" modifier on top of "Turbosmooth" (render iterations set to 4). The result: [[img]http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3344/auvnocageheadsk3.th.jpg[/img]](http://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?image=auvnocageheadsk3.jpg) [[img]http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/57/auvnocagefullfrontgq3.th.jpg[/img]](http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=auvnocagefullfrontgq3.jpg) [[img]http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8173/auvnocagefullsidefv6.th.jpg[/img]](http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=auvnocagefullsidefv6.jpg) What I really like about this method is that almost all the details are there (take a look at the eyes) and there are alsmot no artifacts around the eyes.I used 16 bit map,so I think the results could be even better if I used 32 bit instead. But here comes the bad part of the test: [[img]http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8735/auvnocagehandvz3.th.jpg[/img]](http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=auvnocagehandvz3.jpg) [[img]http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6549/auvnocagefullbackeh9.th.jpg[/img]](http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=auvnocagefullbackeh9.jpg) Take a closer look at his claws.See those artifacts? I know how it could be fixed actually,but I'll talk about it a bit later. Now look at his back. The good thing is that there are no artifacts now. Wohoo... And the bad thing is that some parts of the model don't look like they should be. Not only the top of his shoulder-blades is slightly chopped off,but they also are kind of bulky and have no details on them (I'm talking of the lower part now). Those spikes should look a bit thinner too,but this not a big deal actually. Oh,and there should be some small veins around the spine,but I think this is due to the 16 bit map... Or is it not?... About the claws.The reason of their current look is the difference between the highest and lowest sub levels.It's too big.Pressing "Cage" before creating a dispacement map should fix the problem,but in my case - it doesn't work. This is due to the "Pinch" brush that I've used on his face (the line that connects his ears and mouth).Everytime I render the model in MAX with this new displacement,I get quite large artifacts coming of that line.Not everywhere,though,just where it bends (not far from mouth,check the first image).I could try and smooth this erea,but I really don't want it too look "soft" :confused: These are just my thoughts,though,so correct me if I'm wrong. Experiment #2: Same map,same sub level exported,but this time I used Mental Ray so there is no "Displace" modifier,the displacement map is added on a material. "ZBrush to MAX Pipline" method... Okay,the results were pretty much the same.Pretty much,yeah... Here comes the back shot: [[img]http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/3242/auvnocagefullbackmrdx1.th.jpg[/img]](http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=auvnocagefullbackmrdx1.jpg)

Okay now,I don’t know what the hell is going on there and how to fix all this rubbish,but I’ve tried all defferent types of settings and none of them made the back look better.Well,maybe just a little bit…
So using MR as a renderer is still a mystery to me.

Experiment #3:
Similiar to test #1,but this time I used sub level 3,since “Cage” doesn’t work for me.
The results were quite good.Most of the details,fexed claws etc etc. Let’s rotate the model,shall we?..

The shoulder-blades aren’t chopped off now,but the overlook of them is even worse than in my first experiment. How come? The model itself has 26k polys and it’s very close the highest sub level (not the amount of polys,but the look of the model),so there is even no need to press “Cage”. And still there are problems: the spikes are even “bulkier” and there are less details on both them and shoulder-blades…

I’m getting so tired of all this stuff that I just want to quit all this displaement bussiness and continue what I was doing - enjoing the sculpting process in ZBrush…

you can do it!
after being immersed into it for as long as you have…there is no one better than you to write this out. ride the wave brother!
take a break…and then paddle back out.
eddie would do it. :slight_smile:

unknown artist,

could you please give more detail on what import and export tools you are getting the bug with in Blender?

I’m fairly positive you are not using dxf - since that is a cad format :slight_smile: So my guess is you are actually using some other format.

Since it is a bit off topic please email instead

LetterRip AT gmail dot com

and I will have someone look at it… (best would be if you could provide the file that you import into blender…).

Thanks,

LetterRip

Hello there,LetterRip. Since there isn’t much happening in the thread now, I don’t think a bit more “off topic” will do any harm :slight_smile:
Unfortunately you are wrong,I am using DXF format to import the model in Blender.My guess is,there isn’t anything wrong with Blender itself,no bugs,it’s just that after unwrapping there is too much free space in that “unwrap square” (sorry,don’t know how it’s called) and that’s why I get such results in MAX…I might be wrong,though…

Could you try exporting a format that is meant for meshes? OBJ, 3DS, Collada, or LWO are all formats that are commonly used for mesh data interchange, using DXF is rather bizarre and a format that is poorly supported in Blender (there is a new script this coming release with improved DXF support, but still far from ‘great’ - even if Blender had superb dxf support I’d still question whether it would be a good idea of using dxf for anything but CAD data exchange)…

LetterRip