ZBrushCentral

Normal map error!

I am sculpting this mesh in zbrush and after exporting the normal map I noticed its warped why is this happening?

zbrush sculpt

maya render

Uv Map

exported normal map

Attachments

ZBrush Document.jpg

shot.jpg

Untitled-1.jpg

Belt Metal-NM_u0_v0.jpg

For most programs, you need to flip textures and maps vertically when going between them and ZBrush. You can do this in ZBrush using Texture >> Flip V or you can do it via whatever other method you wish.

You also may need to invert the y-channel of the normal map image (typically the green channel). For the best results, you should bake the map in Maya (or a baker which has a synced tangent basis with your renderer), and you’ll probably want your UV borders to be set as hard edges

As you can see the UVs align and the texture is not flipped but warped and flowing into the underside of my mesh.

I flipped the green channel and thank you so much! It looks a lot better now! :smiley:
But still my issue with the warping of normal map is not gone…
Untitle.jpg

remove your diffuse color information so we can see the normal map.

Are you using the GoZ for Maya? Usually this works perfect to me.
Have you checked if both, color and normal maps, match perfectly in a 2D editor?

stuff2.jpgstuff.jpg
these are the zbrush bump material shots
stuff4.jpgstuff3.jpg
These are the maya shots…

No I am not using GoZ for this… Its just the export of the maps…
I checked both maps don’t align in photoshop if thats what you mean by 2d editor…

This is a projection problem methinks… No clue otherwise…

So if they don´t align this could be the problem, and the solution. Just make the NM match the difuse one and check in Maya.

that looks like a smoothing error during sculpting. Your UVs are smoothed but your mesh isn’t, which is why the 2 don’t line up.

What does your lowest SubD level look like in Zbrush, wireframe I mean?
What does your wireframe look like on your highest subD level?

I don’t mind aligning the maps in photoshop but I was hoping to be able to get it fixed during export rather than export and edit each map I get…

The mesh I have used in maya is the SubD 1 of the mesh in Zbrush.
I dont Smooth UVs as its caused me problems before… I got a shot of the UV polygroups. As you can see the design doesn’t flow into the UV region of the bottom plane…

next.jpg

I recreated the problem with an edited cube.
test.jpgThe Zbrush polygroups with UVs.
Test ItemCompare.jpg
The texture maps normal at 50% on diffuse.
Test ItemError.jpg
The errors in the texture map. As you can see in the red circles the diffuse and normal map don’t align.
Error.jpg
The maya viewport.
The black and the normal map don’t align.

I still recommend baking in Maya/Xnormal in order to ensure a synced tangent basis, and setting your UV borders to match hard edges on the model.

I´ve been having some similar results and i found may be you should turn off the SmoothUV button while creating the Normal Map.
Here are my settings working fine

NormalMap Settings.jpg

Hope this helps