Hi! I want to import meshes back and forth between maya and zbrush but every time I put them in or our of Zbrush, they have moved their position and pivot. It is very frustrating, and makes baking a big hassle because the models no longer align. What can I do to fix this?
Use GoZ for Maya or any Zbrush to Maya Bridge you can find(but the GoZ in zbrush is fine too)… I had that problem with Blender… You can go back and forth from ZBrush to Maya at a button click
Hi @Narv,
Working back and forth between programs when using ZBrush and manual imports requires a specific procedure. Some things to be aware of:
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The recommended process when importing a mesh in ZBrush is to first select the default polymesh 3d star primitive as an import target. This is solely to make certain you have zero values in Tool> Export. The star primitive, unlike the other primitives, has zero values in that menu.
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If importing other meshes designed to fit together with another mesh, the correct procedure is to import the first mesh as described above then import the second mesh as described above and append it to the original mesh. Most scale or position shifts when working between programs are the result of importing a mesh when another tool with non-zero values in that menu is active at the time of import. This causes ZBrush to replace that subtool with the incoming one, and inherit its unique scaling values. This can be useful if you are attempting to replace that subtool with another version of the same mesh, for instance to update UVs. However if a dissimilar tool is active at import this may make the mesh inherit scale/offset values that are not meant for that mesh. This may in turn cause size or position shifts when exporting the mesh.
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The manual import process will auto scale to an approximate XYZ of 2.0 and auto center the model in order to work in ZBrush. If this did not happen the model may be difficult or impossible to work with in the program. What this means is that the model will always look centered and properly sized in ZBrush, even if the model is drastically offset or problematically sized in the original file. If a problem crept into your process at any point, what you might be seeing is the actual offset outside of ZBrush that ZBrush keeps correcting every time you import it.
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It records the values required to restore the tool to the exact size and position in Tool> Export. If you’re seeing non-zero values there for the position sliders, then the incoming tool has been adjusted by that amount because it was off-center by that much.
So the most common cause of this problem is that the mesh was imported into Zbrush at some point with another tool active, and it inherited values that caused a position shift in the exported file. Once that position shift occurred, that is the actual position of the mesh in the file. However it will continue to look the same size and centered in ZBrush because ZBrush is correcting for the offset on every import.
You could use GoZ as someone above suggested. The auto adjustment does not happen with GoZ because it was deemed too problematic in that situation. However, this does mean that it is much easier to import a mesh that won’t work well in ZBrush when using GoZ.
This video describes some of the things that may happen with a problematically sized mesh in ZBrush. In order for global symmetry functions to work, the mesh must be centered in the worldspace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeqX7b5S5AE
If what I’ve gone over here does not help you sort out the issue, please contact Support to investigate.
Thank you! 