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[Beginner] How do I export 8mil points model to Maya from Zbrush

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello,

I was wondering how I could export my 8million points model to Maya with out losing so much detail.

Somewhere along the lines I lost my subdivision levels and only have two now, lowest one being 1.9million. I’ve tried reconstructing my subdivisions, but Zbrush is unable to because of triangles in the model. I’ve tried using decimation master/Zremesher to reduce the point/polygonal count, however I lose a lot of details in my character, especially the ears/lips, since they require more polygons.

Can anyone recommend what I can do for the export?

Thanks!
-CGHut

Edit: 28/02/14

  • I’m completely new to Zbrush, so I don’t know every feature, this is my first project.
  • I’m new to Maya too, this is my 3rd project with it. Again, don’t know of most features :stuck_out_tongue:
  • The model will be used for animation in Maya, I need to cut up the model aswell to make it look like she’s being assembled.

Pics of model in Zbrush/Maya:
http://puu.sh/7b37D/03ee353325.jpg - Face [Front]
http://puu.sh/7b3bB/cd8cb91736.jpg - Face [Side]. Need to retain nose/lips/ear details.
http://puu.sh/7b2vf/01415eabe3.jpg - Full Body. Body detail seems to not be affected to much in DM.
http://puu.sh/7dkAX/cc35aec25f.jpg - In Maya with a 50k poly model (after decimation). Practising rigging for now, but notice the polygons, they’re quite a mess, it would be quite hard to cut her up for the assembly scene.

#2

You’re missing some information that we’d need to help you.
What do you need the model inside of Maya for?

#3

Have you tried masking areas you don’t want affected by the DM or ZRemesher?

#4

Oh, sorry about that! I need the character for animation, so I’ll be rigging it in Maya.

I’ve tried masking the important regions, Zremesher really warped the polygons around it, so I couldn’t use that. I don’t think I’ve tried it with DM! I’ll give it a go. One problem with DM is that it makes all the polygons in to tris, and in Maya I’ll be cutting the character (cyborg/android) up and animating it to look like it’s being built. It’s a little hard to cut up tris, since they aren’t really uniformed (well in my case atleast). Is there a way to DM and then make the polygons uniformed and possibly in to quads?

Thanks !

Edit: I’ve linked some pictures of my model in Zbrush/Maya in the original post.

#5

what about making a low rez version of the current model?

make a duplicate, then decimate and zremesh it to get a good and clean low poly mesh. give it UVs, subdivide to about the same poly count as the original, then project the detail from the original mesh to the low poly one.

#6

So… If I got that straight, I can make a copy and then decimate/Zremesh it (which would end up with the model losing detail), then subdividing it till I get about the same poly count and projecting the original model’s details on to the copy? Would this detail projection make it exactly the same?

After the projection would I still be able to lower the division levels? allowing me to make a low poly model for animation and using normal maps to give it detail in Maya?

@_@ Sorry, I’m a little confused about it all at the moment.

  1. Decimating clone: http://puu.sh/7duTx/c672c4fb3a.jpg (to 20k)
  2. Zremeshing, and poly painting features: http://puu.sh/7duW1/da3e43f4e8.jpg (Settings: http://puu.sh/7dv1A/8ebeb9efaf.png )
  3. girlish scream IT’S THE SLUDGE MONSTORR: http://puu.sh/7duYD/384d028922.jpg

Do I need to mess with settings or did I do something wrong? ._. Though I have to say the remeshed poly flow is very nice and clean, as you said :smiley:

#7

yes you have it straight.

how accurate the projected details turn out to be varies from mesh to mesh, but it’s often very accurate. explore the “project all” settings to get the best result. your mesh doesn’t look to complicated, you should get good results.

afterward you will have all the subdivision levels to move up and down through. so you can use the high subdiv for maps and export the lowest for rigging.

in the subtool palette, click on “duplicate”. a copy of the model will appear directly underneath the original.
click on the eye ball icon of the original to make it invisible.
then select the duplicate and go to work on remeshing.
when you are ready to project, make the original mesh visible by clicking on it’s eye icon again.

click on project all.

make the original invisible again and inspect the results. if its not good enough, undo, change the slider settings and try again.

hope that helps.

#8

not sure why it’s turning out like that. i would remesh it without any paint settings, see what happens.

you have to mess around with that work flow until you hit it right.

#9

Ah, thank you very much Zeddie! : D I’ll give that a go, but I seem to be getting problems with remeshing. I added on to the post by me you just replied to, I think you might’ve missed it, so I’ll repost it here:

  1. Decimating clone: http://puu.sh/7duTx/c672c4fb3a.jpg (to 20k)
  2. Zremeshing, and poly painting features: http://puu.sh/7duW1/da3e43f4e8.jpg (Settings:http://puu.sh/7dv1A/8ebeb9efaf.png )
  3. girlish scream IT’S THE SLUDGE MONSTORR: http://puu.sh/7duYD/384d028922.jpg

Do I need to mess with settings or did I do something wrong? ._. Though I have to say the remeshed poly flow is very nice and clean, as you said :smiley:

#10

Woops, never mind my last post then. I’ll retry it with no paint.

Edit: http://puu.sh/7dwjR/cf0a8b7d43.jpg no paint didn’t help D: Looks like I need to play with the remesher settings.

Edit2: I seem to be getting somewhere, I hid the head section, and froze borders, this allows me to keep the edge flow nice for the body, meaning only the head would be bothersome for the assembly animation :smiley:

Edit 3: It’s kind of working, still has it’s issues: http://puu.sh/7dwBS/cdddd68687.jpg and http://puu.sh/7dwCV/af57af20ca.jpg

#11

“holes” sometimes are a pain in the projection process. but you should be able to fiddle with it.

remesh as best as possible, forget about the mouth and ears at this point. just get a decent size mesh.

then when you’re ready to project, set blur to zero and click project.

then where ever the mesh isn’t right, like around the ears and mouth, use the move brush to push the geo in those areas closer to the original’s detail and project again. keep doing that, using move and smooth brushes and it’ll get closer and closer with each projection.

#12

I see, I’ll definitely give this a go! Thanks a lot Zeddie, much appreciated! I have to head out right now, so I’ll come back in some hours and give it a try. Thanks again!

#13

Hey Zeddie,

Figured I’d do an update about the whole thing. I managed to get it working : D I have an 80k poly model in Maya now. I probably won’t be doing so much animation, so it should be fine.

It seems like my ZRemesher was giving me holes and some other issues because my symmetry was on o.o That was surprising. The projection stuff/normal mapping all worked out by the looks of things :smiley:

Only the face polys was left as an unresolved issue: http://puu.sh/7eDZy/4ddc5e69dc.png

http://puu.sh/7eE10/8f90126f94.jpg

Thanks to everyone who tried helping! Special thanks to Zeddie :smiley: