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UV'ing multiple subtools on one map

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all,

Well, I had to break down and ask the question since I can’t seem to find answers anywhere. I’m hoping someone can help me!

I’m new to Zbrush and trying to figure out the right polypainting/UV/generate maps workflow.

What I want to do is make ONE UV map for all my subtools WITHOUT having to merge them together first (too many polys for one subtool). The multimap exporter plugin seems to imply that this is possible. It says (about it’s ‘merge maps’ function): “the exported maps will be merged into a single map for all subtools where the UVs occupy the same UV space.”

How do I get all my subtool UV’s to occupy the same UV space?

Thanks

#2

They should occupy the same space by default if you unwrap them in zbrush.

You’ll basically want the UV islands within the same texture space (such as the default 0:1 space; anything outside that range would be put onto a different texture), but you dont actually want the islands overlapping each other within that area. Hopefully this image serves as a good example: you can see the UVs are all within the same 0:1 square space, but the islands are in different areas so that they’re not overlapping once merged:

UV Master should let you do this. When you use UVMaster: Flatten, you should see a the UVs along with a grid representing the 0:1 space. You can use masking and transpose to scale, rotate, and translate the islands around (just be sure to unflatten it once you’re done!). Repeat this for each subtool, and then run MultiMap Exporter to bake the maps and merge them together.

#3

Ok, I thought I understood this, but clearly I don’t. I’m tearing my eyes out trying to figure this out.

Bear with me on this explanation:

-I’m trying to UV my hi-res model with UV master. It has 5 subtools
-All the UV’s need to be on the same map
-Each subtool has too many polys to merge with any other subtool

Question 1
So far I’ve tried UV’ing each part separately by “working on clone”, making the map, and copying and pasting it over to the subtool. It works on one, and then the second one UV’s properly but the original model is nowhere to be found for copying and pasting. Why does my original model disappear?

Question 2
Also, how the heck are you supposed to move/scale/rotate the islands to optimize your map space if you can only see one flattened Subtool at a time?

Thanks so much for the previous reply, it definitely answered some questions.

#4

Also, how the heck are you supposed to move/scale/rotate the islands to optimize your map space if you can only see one flattened Subtool at a time?

I’ve since learned that UV Master readjusts the UV islands to fit the scale, so you’ll have to merge the subtools together first.

Of course, that would be a problem if you say they have too many polygons to merge. If you can duplicate them, drop to the lowest subdivision level, merge and unwrap those, it might work. Otherwise, you may need to unwrap them individually, and then edit the UVs externally : /

#5

Too many polygons to merge unfortunately and I’m trying to avoid downgrading them to preserve the polypainting.

I’ll keep plugging away at this as long as I can stand it. Thanks for the help.