ZBrushCentral

Street Fighter ( WIP ) Need Help and guidance.

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Hi to all great sculptors out here …

I am aspiring Character artist… very fascinated about the low poly game art… and now trying my hands on my very first game character…
I have recently completed this sculpt… ( there must be so much space to improve, so please let me know )
.
[_Uncovered.jpg]_Retopology_Mesh.jpg

I need to have normals baked on to it…

My confusion is regarding “NORMAL MAP Generation” ?
How do you guys do it… let me tell you my situation

>> I sculpted a mesh in ZBrush ( Now I have a High poly sculpted mesh with me )
>> I did retopology using Topogun - Now I have a low poly mesh as well with me…
>> I took it in Max, unwrap it and created symmetry. - Now I have a full low poly body of the character
>> now for normal map I am using X Normals ( please tell me, if there is any other way, which is more efficient. )

Whenever I hit Generate maps I am getting a map completely Blank, Why is it happening ? is there any special option which is to be considered before hitting generate maps button ? I am so depressed..

please help.

Also, please pay your kind attention to each and every step I have done or doing… also let me know, If the work flow I am following is okey or not. please do comment and criticize.
as I am creating a game model for the first time. and doing topology for the first time… I want move in the right direction from the first step itself.

Thanks and Regards
Shikhar

Attachments

_Covered.jpg

_Front.jpg

_Back.jpg

#2

The model looks very cool. I really like the uneven abs. One thing though if that if you’re doing this for a game, things like long hair or a head band will want to be modeled straight so they can be rigged with the right physics.

As for the Xnormal process, this video should help. Chance are, you probably missed one step. And no, there isn’t a more efficient way of baking normal maps I can think of.

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

#3

hey Thanks, thank you so much Tyrone70… its the first comment I got here and enough to inspire me, Its really a helpful info for me, that u shared… but I am doing a pretty same thing which he showed there in the video… but still I am getting a map which is very disturbing… I am getting this

[Xnormal.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘206836’,‘render-to_texture.jpg’,1,0))

which is pretty satisfying. why is this so ? is this a ’ CAGE ’ thing which is creating a difference ?

Attachments

render-to_texture.jpg

#4

in xnormal your ray distance is set too high. use the ray distance calculator (in the tools section of xnormal), or build a cage. for this model the ray distance calculator should suffice, your ‘low poly’ is pretty high poly, so it shouldn’t have much deviation from the sculpt. if you find that you’re getting those weird projections around the fingers after using the ray distance calculator, you can either use a cage, or project a second normal map with shorter ray distance and then fix it in photoshop manually (sometimes a lot faster, but definitely a personal preference).

anyway… hope that helps.

#5

export a high poly body WITHOUT the clothes and burn those normals onto a low poly body. Then take the accessories you have a make a separate normal map for those. merge them in photoshop.

also, this page is a blessing when it comes to normal maps:

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=show&redirect=Normal+Map

#6

To Eldee.S - Thanks a ton Brother… it produced a pretty good result… But what is happening there exactly ? I mean, What I did is… I Clicked on ’ Ray Distance calculator ’ then my Low res mesh got selected and I hit ’ GO ’ then it started calculating… and gave some values against the file name which is something like (fmin:0.000 ; fmax:0.927 ;rmin: 0.000; rmax: 110). and at the bottom some calculation is going on(which I think is a never ending process)… then I had to hit ’ STOP '.
after that I clicked on generate maps… and got a pretty nice looking map.
Is that what I supposed to do ? Or I missed something ? Did I suppose to use those values somewhere ?

  • and how and when to use cage ? suppose I have to make a really low resolution mesh out of this, which obviously will have a lot of deviation from the hires mesh, then what should be the approach ? is this the situation where a CAGE comes into picture… Please explain, I need to make each and every aspect of the work flow clear to me… please.

To Tyrone70 - Thank you budy… its really wonderful , I must go through it… thanks a Lot.

#7

Making a cage can really help, make a duplicate of your lowres mesh in zbrush,
and inflat it until it covers your higres model, and thats it! Then put it into the
cage slot on xnormal. Make sure to average normals on both the highres and
lowres when importing it into xnormal. Load high res, set average normals. Load
Low res, set average normals, set cage. Set up your 2048 map name and what
not and you should be good to go.

Xnormal is just an awesome tool!

#8

TO SadamHu - Wow , its a new thing to me , Thanks a Lot brother… I am definitely going to use it , and will let you know about it…

and please also clerify my first doubt regarding ray distance calculator … as Eldee.S suggested me, it worked but what I want to know is, did I suppose to do the same That I did ( as I mentioned above ), Or I missed something. ?

#9

In max you might want to key frame both the low poly and high poly. On frame 1 have the mesh assembled. In the next key frame explode the elements out so that there is no overlap between the multiple parts of the mesh. When creating the normal map its much easier to get a cleaner normal bake from an exploded mesh. However for a AO map its easier to get a decent AO from a assembled mesh.

http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodesk-3ds-max/how-to-bake-a-flawless-normal-map-in-3ds-max/

That shows the process quite well. Its not an organic object with hard surfaces, so he uses smoothing groups which I don’t quite understand that well yet.

#10

actually, you can create a cage in xnormal. there is a viewer that lets u view ur highpoly and ur lopoly with a “cage” function that you just click and drag to expand the lopoly. when ur done, it asks u if u want to save out the cage. you save it, and it automatically plugs ur cage in as ur lo poly and voila!

#11

Hey you guys made it possible, thank u all… I am now able to get a pretty good looking Normal map… it was something to do with The mesh intersection and rays… had to play with the values, now got it correct to a satisfying level. Ray distance calculator was a real help ( Thanks eldee.S ).

To Womball - Its a great tutorial brother, Technique is really good. Should give it a try… thank u so much

To Sarakawa - Thank u for posting Sarakawa… I already tried it but whenever I go to the 3d viewer I am not able to see my model there, I even put a base texture in its specified slot, in case its not showing it coz of the absence of some texture… but still cant see it…

and now regarding AO.

In XNOrmal should I bring a Plane as a base with my High Poly Mesh in XNormal while calculating ?
or is it just the samples that has to do with the map’s quality ?

#12

hello friends… as you can see how my model is , and his accessories also… I am confused as to how should I lay out his uvs ? should I keep his body in separate uv set and other things in separate one ? or (as I often see) should I keep everything in a single uv set and later will be having a single texture map for everything i.e for the entire model ? please guide, as i want to have an impressive game model… its My first one.

  • Love and regards.
#13

Depends on what you are doing? Is this a game model or animation model. If it is a game model it also depends on the engine you are using, because uv pages are limited to character models in some engines. Animation you have a little more freedom but you don’t make a t page for every single piece. It mainly has to do with how well memory is going to be handled. Ideally, a page for the head, one for the upper torso, and lower torso works best, and that includes all the gear and stuff on the character. Props usually have their own pages, like guns, swords, glasses, hats, etc.

#14

hello brother ! Thanks for the post… its really a great piece of information, that you shared. but please clarify further, what I can conclude from your post is Like suppose I am creating a 1024 size of texture… so according to you ideally I should make a complete 1024 size of uv set for head only, and hair I will include in this

[1.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘208912’,‘3.jpg’,1,0))

am I rite ? then I will be having three uv sets in total ? please tell me keeping this model as an example.

-love and regards

Attachments

2.jpg

3.jpg

#15

Try to maximize your uv space and fill it in as much as you can, also check your uvs for stretching using a uv grid map. Also try to get a uv grid map with numbers or letters so you can see if your uvs are flipped.

[test.jpg](javascript:zb_insimg(‘209099’,‘test2.jpg’,1,0))

Attachments

test2.jpg

#16

Absolutely Shikhar you have to follow the instructions of 3d Mob.
Use the maximum space of your UV. and apply the numbered checkers to your lowres mesh to check the streaching. And try to make straight the middle line of your uvs which is straight in your lowres (edge) too. As you can see in 3d mob images.

I also use xnormal for generating maps but sometimes I feel max is better than xnormal.
While baking the normal of Hands.
In max you have to adjust the cage manually then you can get the better result.
Even max’s normal is much better than xnormal.
But Xnormal is very fast in generating normals and AO.
And max’s problem is that it can’t afford much highpoly mesh and got crash.

So try to desimate your hires mesh in zbrush and export it in max then import your lowres in max and generate normals in max itself.
it’s the best way to get good normals without having much trouble.

And one more thing if you are not feeling comfortable to uving in max then you must try headus uvlayout
It is very nice tool for unwrapping.

If need any other help feel free to ask.
as you are also in Delhi so can call me as well if you want live help :slight_smile:

Enjoy…

#17

To 3d_Mob - Thank you so much brother for being helpful… I will get it done as you are saying and will soon post it here… please keep checking the thread.

To Digital 3D - Hi Sir ji ! its really nice to see you, and to know that you are from Gurgaon. POst is really helpful, I will do as you people guided me, and will soon post new WIP image. please keep checking the thread… and Please check your Inbox, there is a PM for you.