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How to export a texture to Lightwave?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I am sorry if this has been handled elsewhere, but I’ve searched extensively but have’nt found what I’m looking for yet.

I’ve been doing Steve Warner’s tutorial ‘From LW to ZBrush to LW’ for displacement mapping, and I have had NO problems whatsoever doing so.
It works great so thank you Steve :+1: !
Also the threads on this topic in the forums were very helpful.

What I’m trying to learn now is to create a simple texture for an object created in Lightwave, paint it in ZBrush, and render it in Lightwave.
This should be easier than the displacement mapping I guess?

I’ve tried doing it following Steve Warner’s tutorial without doing the parts for displacement mapping, but have had no result.

Do I have to create UVs in Lightwave for this?
That is not necessary for the displacement mapping, so I guess I can create the UV map right here in ZBrush?

I am not really asking here to tell me how to do it (though if you could, it would be appreciated of course), but where I can find a tutorial or some step by step explanation for doing this.

Thanks in advance!

#2

you have two way :

  1. build uv on lw (if you need to edit heavely texture by photoshop or similar software, to have a more confortable topology of uv.
  2. click on guv of zbrush, build a good resolution texture (by needings of texture) paint it.

next step

a) export texture
b) export obj format of tools
c) load original lwo in modeler, open zwave plugin (check flay.com if you don’t know where is it this free and useful plugin) it allow you to copy uv map from obj exported from zbrush to original lwo obj, it’ svery useful be cause you preserve on original lwo the vertex map like weight and morph map, and every other info.
d) load in a generic 2d application the texture, and filp on Y axis, and save it
e) load and apply on lw obj.

this for painted texture, for distortion and displacement plugin you must follow the step of Steve W.
have a nice work

#3

Thank you very much madrenderman :+1: !

I had read about zwave-plugin yesterday, but all the info in the different threads was a bit much to get all at once.

I needed a bit of “putting it all together” and I’m going to try your step by step right now.

#4

Hi,

It works !
Well, I have done not all nacessary steps yet, like flipping the map I guess, but with the ZWave plugin I’ve done what did not work yesterday.

When I was reading about ZWave, I thought it was only necessary when you already had a mapped LWO object, which was not my case.

Anyway, now I know how to proceed and I guess all other necessary info has already been posted, and is in the Practical Guide.

Thank you for getting me on the right track madrenderman :+1: .

Attachments

3.jpg

#5

Here are the steps I took to create the next result:

  • made an LWO object
  • exported it as OBJ
  • imported the OBJ in Z2
  • applied GUVtiles (Tool : Texture : GUVtiles)
  • apllied Texture : New (1024x1024, which is standard I think, so you could skip this step if you want the map to have a resolution of 1024x1024)
  • painted the OBJ with Projection Master
  • applied FlipV (Texture : FlipV)
  • exported the texture as Bitmap (Texture : Export)
    (Btw: can I use Lynx3d’s tiff16bps plugin in LW’s Modeler, or only in lw’s Layout?)
  • exported the zbrushed OBJ
  • in Modeler, ran the ZWave plugin
  • assigned the OBJ-UVTetureMap and the image-bitmap to the color channel of the LWO object

And here’s the result.
I guess I still need to experiment with the subdivision levels in ZBrush with regard to the texture maps.
The fact that the stripes are discontinuous, is due to how I painted the stripes with Projection Master, but there seems to be resolution problem somehow.

Attachments

3b.jpg

#6

Well, I’ve got the basics all down now I think.

As to Lynx3d’s tiff16bps plugin, I guess I’ve answered my own question, because this time I exported the map as tif and added the plugin in Modeler, and it worked. (Now: I do’nt know if it would have worked without the plugin, I only know that the plugin is necessary in Layout for displacement maps.)

This time I also went to a higher subdivision level after storing a morph target, like is explained in the images of the ZWave plugin (which I had just found), and I guess the result is as I expected.

So now it’s time to experiment and experiment and …

Thanks for the help !

Attachments

4_render.jpg