Hi everybody. I am currently working on my degree project and zbrush is becoming a substantial part of my workflow. I have a question concerning subtool export from zbrush into Maya and how that will affect animation on a character. After modeling and texturing a character along with clothing and armor in zbrush, would I export everything as a group or would I use subtool master to combine everything into one object? Furthermore, after importing into Maya and rigging, do I have to paint weights on the character and accessories separately, or as a whole? Would there be texture issues? Pretty lengthy, but I really need help in this area as time is of the essence and I want to be aware of any issues. I would appreciate all the help I can get. Thanks!
First, how many poly’s are your current subtools? If they total more than 400kish tris, your not going to get very far in maya. The program will chug. I wont even start on how frustrating trying to skin that would be. Your best bet would be to take your high rez sculpts, construct a lower poly version and generate and apply either a displacement map or a normal map. You could export all your subtools at a lower subd, one in which Maya can handle them all together, and use that as your low poly version, but they will probably need some tweaks to look optimal. Not to mention you will probably need to re-loop the joints for proper deformation. Have you already textured the sculpt? If so, you may actually need to use the lower subd meshes. Unless of course you dont mind texturing it again. Personally, Maya is the absolute last program i would choose to skin anything. Horrid is the word i would choose to describe it for skinning. You can skin the objects seperately or together. If you have not skinned before, i would highly suggest doing a trial run or two on a stripped down version. Skinning is an art unto itself and the proper animation and deformation of the character is absolutley tied to the skinning. The only texture problems you may have after its skinned is strecthing of the actual mesh which will distort the texture. If you have enough loops and proper weights, this shouldnt be a problem though.