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Manniquin/Zphere FBX skeleton Output

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Zsphere /Mannequins should output FBX bones. Same ones that it uses to build Zspheres and Mannequins should be output as bone chains for Maya rigging. Huge time saver no matter how the model is sculpted. Should be especially so with Mannequins and custom Mannequins.

This feature is immediately apparent many years by Artist, who are Zbrushers and animators/riggers. It would save a lot of time building rig in Maya especially if we had the Sphere or Mannequin centeroids or bone converted to bone chains. We can reorient the skeleton axis ourselves if need be and throw and HIK rig on it (names not necessary). This would work for spider rigs as well as other creatures. I can already see a skeleton bone chain when making Zpheres/Mannequins, why not export them via FBX plugin option?

#2

This is an idea I had thought might be good - I will take a look and see if this can be added.

-Marcus

#3

It would be so amazing!! Thank you so much. If the bone were exportable and matched the connection points of the geometry. The geometry doesn’t have to export with the FBX skeleton because the geometry will probably be edited or sculpted later. Doesn’t have to be skinned or weighted bind. It may be use for parenting robot parts.

The skeleton would be froze from the Mannequin or Zsphere at a current state and exported. Standard orientation down the x-axis would be nice, like one axis pointing to the next joint. However, if it needed to be unparented and reoriented it would still be very useful in lieu of building a matching skeleton from scratch.

I’m interested in Manequins, whether they are standard or custom. To venture to say export Zphere as geometry would be nice but an unnecessary stretch. Mannequins are ready made proxy and can directly be made into Proxy or Pre-Vis characters.

With that said, you guys are simply otherworldy amazing! Zbrush is just simply stupendous!

This custom Zsphere/Mannequin robot workflow is Ultramazing!! I could have a robot built and animated with custom mocap from out robotic lab in a half a day.Roughly lol.

#4

BTW, I would be happy to beta-test if needed. I have done so for many other apps over many years. Thanks again.

#5

Here’s another Mannequin sample I did over 6 years ago. The goal was using Zsphere Mannequin for fast creature proxy animation rigs. I would still need to sculpt the mess but the Idea was to use the Mannequin geo for the proxy and FBX bone skeleton. Meaning, I’m using Zbrush to design rigs and more about the rig than the actual monster sculpt. This would be a whole other level of usefulness for a ZB animation pipeline.
Having a matching joint would be ultra expedient. So even when using HIK long neck vertebrae creatures. A multi-Chain neck can be tested before committing to a creature sculpt. Once I decide upon an animation rig I like, I can come back an do final sculpt.
My workflow was to see how fast I can sculpt and rig a creature with surface detail and mocap data.
Zsketch is also phenomenal for muscular detail on a Zsphere animation rigged creature.

AVT Mannequin Creatures
AVT Mannequin Creatures1920×1200 90.1 KB

#6

Here’s a superfast creature I did with Zsketch, another very useful tool to quick draft out a creature concept and performance with Houdini collisions.

I still have to rig these in Maya but it’s a redundant task in the process considering the Zsphere proportions and the sculpt shape are the same.

So I use mannequines for robot mech and Zsketch for Oraganics.

This Spider Rig was Zsphere. I can’t imagine doing it with any other modeling method. I get the feel I want from Zsphere. I think I said Fast over 10x times in the video. But then I have to build a rig from scratch. It’s hard to imagine how much faster it would be if I could export the same joints used in Zpheres as joints in Maya. My name would be ZFlashGordon. ZLightening. :wink:

#7

Just trying to get creature concepts to simulation in Houdini for destruction as fast as possible. Even with scripts building a skeleton is tedious and redundant IMHO. There’s a lot of stages for generalist and anything that can be shaved down or optimized would saved time and energy. Zbrush has been a huge solution for many workflows.

#8

Can you notify me if and when this happens. I’m literally having dreams in my sleep about this. I have been checking all the videos in the new release and haven’t found it. :wink:

I think it would be a time saver if I just look on the feature list of upgrades instead of watching hours of live video on Youtube. :slight_smile:

#9

Thanks for sharing all the videos and your work. They look great! I think this should be possible but I’ve not had much of a chance to look at it yet with all the work for the summit and so on. I’ll certainly be in touch as soon as I have something for you to try.

#10

Thank You are really appreciate it. Anything you can do to move this part of the process forward would be huge. Much Success with the Summit.

#11

This seems really cool, any update on this?

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