Well I have been at ZB sculpting for a couple of months now and have enjoyed every second of the learning curves and the discovery of another technique of modeling.
The only frustration that still lingers for me is UV Mapping.
My pipeline for work is
Maya (initial modeling) > Zbrush (scult) > Maya (render)
it works great for me, all except the laying out of the UV Maps. Right now it seems like I have to constantly throttle my initial modeling down because I cannot UV Map them correctly.
Is there a way around UV Mapping?
Is there a way to automatically lay out UV Maps out in Zbrush for rendering in Maya?
If there is not a easier way to deal with UV’s, would anyone mind giving me a good place to learn more about correct procedures to laying out UV’s?
you have to unwrap your mesh inside maya if you want a readable UV layout. GUV and AUV are more often than not, not the best way to go.
You can download Roadkill and use blenders “pelt” mapping tool if you’re not very good at UVs yet.
pretty simple program, has a direct plug for maya. Takes all of 15min to learn. and does a great job.
you can’t export out your UV layout inside of Zbrush. All OJB’s keep their UV coordinates so if you import that OBJ in maya you can see it’s UVs and edit them if you choose. Doing that in reverse works as well. If you export an OBJ out of Maya with the UV’s layed out then Zbrush will remember and create your normals and color maps based off those UVs
Awsome thanks for the great advise I’ll check Roadkill and Blender out ASAP.
I do have a question about Blender though, do you just import your .obj into blender and begin your unwrapping process? Does it have basically the same tool set that Maya accompanies like Relax Uv’s and such?
I don’t use blender, so i can’t tell you for sure if it has the same set up as maya. I am assuming it does, or something very similar (all 3d apps are near the same when it comes to UV’s)
roadkill uses a totally different set up than Maya (i think). I use max and xsi, so i could be wrong. I use it mainly as a quick ‘pelt’ unwrap of my UV’s then do any specific corrections or changes inside max or xsi. You can actually get away with only using roadkill, it has the same stuff that max and xsi have, but the ‘pelt’ systems are well beyond. the only reason I use xsi and max is because I am more comfortable inside those apps than roadkill.
I always unwrap my mesh after sculpting - just use Unfold 3d, go back to zbrush to update the uvs and make your maps works like charm and doesn’t blow up;)
the UI is a bit difficult to get your head round without a tutorial on it i recomend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43jSnRREIU to get you started on how to select your layout
for blender import it as you normally would file>import>wavefront(.obj)
press tab to go into edit mode (look at the large dropdown in the centre of the veiw port)
press “alt”+“tab” and select edges
use “alt”+“shift”+“right click” to select edgeloops or “shift”+“right click” for single selection when you have a seam selected press “control”+“e” ( the edge tools menu) press mark as seam on the options or clear seam to clear them. press a to select all your mesh
if your using 2.45 or below
Now when you have selected the seams go into UV mode in the big drop down press “a” and then go into the UV menu and click unwrap
2.46 release candidates or SVN builds
Press u click unwrap
thats your uv’s unwrapped as you’ve done the entire object there is no scaling issue across your mesh and very rarely any need to edit them (my opinion dont take it as gospal) as belnder takes it into account size and relaxes automaticly.
If you want to check them on the same dropdown you use for the buttons menu in that vid you select the UV/image editor to see your UV’s. On the image menu in that UV window click new enter the image size and the UV test grid option. Now in a 3d veiwport press “alt”+“z” and you will go to the textured viewport mode.
to export a .obj file>export>wavefront(.obj) in the export menu that pops up after selecting your file location and file name you will get a menu askin what you want the file to contain click high quality normals and materials as you wont need them and press the ok button.
edit:
to import your UV’s to zbrush when you have your scultped mesh on its lowest level do an import .obj as you normaly would it will add in the UV data
works like charm and doesn’t blow up;)