Need to understand Maya/Zbrush workflow

[system]

Hi,

I have hard time understanding how you move seamlessly from Maya to Zbrush and back and forth. This is about what i understood, i’ll give it steps by steps please let me know where iam wrong:

1- Start basic mesh in Maya (poly pushing and pulling as always)

2- Bring the lower resolution mesh in zbrush

Question: do you map UV in lower mesh before moving to zbrush?

3- Do all scultping in Zbrush. At this point you have multi-divisions.

4- Export the lower division OBJ file back to Maya

Question: means you forget the first maya mesh you imported in zbrush?

Question: is this where in the pipeline that you do UVs back in Maya?

5- Export displacement map from Zbrush (i’ll texture the old school way in photoshop later)

6- In Maya apply displacement map on lower div OBJ.

Thanks in advance for your, i hope, many inputs so i can see the differents approaches and workflows.

[sarakawa]

That looks right to me. I’ve never done displacement but the pipeline is the same for normal maps so I figure it works the same. Yes, u forget about the first basemesh. I’m guessing for displacement, you don’t necessarily have to retopologize? For game characters, after sculpting, you export a subdivision level that maya can handle to retopo and get what will be your actual in-game mesh. And yes, this retopologized mesh is what you would UV. Then you can just bake out your normal maps, displacement, whatever, using your zbrush high poly and your newly retopologized low poly. Of course, for displacement, I guess you dont need to retopologize…never done it so not clear on this though.

[system]

“after sculpting, you export a subdivision level that maya can handle…”

Thanks Sarakawa,

I presumed it always had to be the lowest sub, but i like when you say level that maya can handle. Gives more insight as to the why of the choice. Thanks

[mokthemagicman]

1- Start basic mesh in Maya (poly pushing and pulling as always)

Yep.

2- Bring the lower resolution mesh in zbrush

Not yet. Best to do all your UV layout and unfolding/UV cutting etc. in Maya FIRST before bringing it into Zbrush. That way after you do poly painting and creating bump and Displacment maps later in Zbrush you will have nice layed out maps for Maya.

Question: do you map UV in lower mesh before moving to zbrush?

YES. Make sure your export from Maya to OBJ has all the options turned off on it on the export options.

3- Do all scultping in Zbrush. At this point you have multi-divisions.

Yes, but export out your lowest or second to last low sub D model back to Maya. This also depends on how dense the model is at that point and how much detail you need. Is it for a video game, animation, or single render? It all depends on what the end result is going to be for the project.

UV’s should still be layed out correctly as well. Export out your Normal, bump, displacement and whatever else at this point. If you are creating a color texture map make sure the model is at it’s highest sub D level. Don’t forget to vertically flip the textures or Bumpmaps, displacement etc. that you bring into Maya or they will be upside-down! You can flip them in Photoshop too if you forget to do it in Zbrush.

4- Export the lower division OBJ file back to Maya

YEP (if needed) See below.

Question: means you forget the first maya mesh you imported in zbrush?

Yes, unless your project already has a model ready to go with an animation rig and it just needed textures and detail added to the model in Maya. Then you would just need to export out the maps. Forget exporting the obj.

Question: is this where in the pipeline that you do UVs back in Maya?

Like I said earlier. Do all your UV layout before you first leave Maya to Zbrush. You shouldn’t have to layout UV’s again if you already did it the first time. Be carful not ruin your UV’s in Zbrush by remapping UV’s in the UV Map button area of Zbrush.

5- Export displacement map from Zbrush (i’ll texture the old school way in photoshop later)

Yep. If you use Zbrush 1.3 you can use Zapplink plugin for Photoshop and it works wonders for creating texture maps at the correct angles you need on your model by using that plugin.

6- In Maya apply displacement map on lower div OBJ.

Yep. Make sure that the model is the correct scale im Maya when doing displacements. I scale up the model a bit if the displacemnets are not working correctly.

Hope that helps.
Mok-

[system]

Mok, thanks a lot. Very helpful.

“Best to do all your UV layout and unfolding/UV cutting etc. in Maya FIRST before bringing it into Zbrush”

Say for example i wanted to create a human head. I just do rough nose and lips (say just a volume of polygons as placeholder to shape later in Zbrush). If i lay my UVs at this point but later in workflow i do refine the nose and lips in zbrush will the UV still be ok or will i need to adjust?

Do i export maps using Zapplink on highest sub or lowest or 2nd to lowest?

[mokthemagicman]

They will be okay unless you make huge changes to the mesh. Let’s say you make the nose really big in Zbrush and then polypaint it. If you didn’t have a large area UVed out in Maya for the nose than the texture area in the UV’s might be too small for now LARGE nose you just created. Also you textures might distort a bit if you make big changes to the mesh. As far as coverage you should be fine.

What I do is if I make major changes, before I create maps or Polypaint I export out from Zbrush the low subD mesh (as an OBJ) and open it in Maya.

Make sure you save the old Zbrush tool mesh so you can use the details for projection to your model you exported at a low subD level.

Then I will go back into the UV editor in Maya and make adjustments if it needs them. Then you can re-import the new obj tool into Zbrush and append the old detailed zbrush model. Add subD levels to the same level as your older detailed model. Bring over the details by reprojecting. Your model now has better UV’s and all the detail you created from the older mesh.

You don’t export out files in Zapplink. You save them from Photoshop. Zapplink is just a tool to be able to position your model in different camera angles that you can send to photoshop in layers so you can position your textures easier. Hard to explain in text format. Check out some examples of how it works here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcsYWqhxV2M

And here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT3gZ64K7BA

[system]

I would like to show you guys the example iam working on. Look at the image i attach here. This is the most design i can do in Maya so, after i miror, i’ll bring it in zbrush were the real modeling will take place.

So far no ear, no eyes, no nose, not any facial feature yet. I’ll add these in Zbrush. I’ll do UV mapping as adviced, but looking the way the final mesh is going to be different what kind of problems should i anticipate by now?

Attachments