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Displacement map from outside of zbrush. Want to import and build normal map.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello fellow Zbrush people. I have a displacement map that was made outside of zbrush. I want to apply it to the hi res mesh inside of Zbrush then make zbrush export a normal map from that result.

How would I go about doing this? I tried the apply displacement map tutorials but this will only display the displacement map and not allow me to generate a normal map from it.

Any help appreciated.

#2

i think it is not possible to project and apply displace maps inside zbrush yet.
But if you just want to convert displace maps to normal maps you can
try Xnormal. It’s free and it converts displace maps to normal maps pretty well.
Greets!

#3

Import the map into the Alpha palette. For best results it should be a 16-bit grayscale PSD. In the tool>Texture Map menu apply a blank texture. (Easiest is just to press the “New Textr” button. In the Tool>Displacement Map menu you need to select the map, set an intensity, and turn Mode on. The catch here is that in 3.5R3 you will see the map displayed as bump rather than displacement. The actual rendering of displacement maps as displacement will be brought back with ZBrush 4.

Now click the Apply DispMap button. This will convert the displaced data into geometry. You’ll suddenly see the model transformed by the displacement. You may need to press Ctrl+Z to undo and change the Intensity setting a few times until you get just the right result.

Once you have your displaced geometry you’ll be able to do whatever else you would like and then create a normal map.

#4

GREAT TIP!
thanks Aurick :wink:

#5

Just one question with this workflow -

Can the displacement Map be Tiled before applying it to the Tool/Model.
The idea behind this is to create a small map, for example for Snake scales, and tile it up the body of the creature if the mapping has been setup correctly beforehand.

#6

applying the disp map as mentioned above works great. The problem occurs if I then do some displacement work IN zbrush ontop of the apply dispmap (from alpha) stage. If I then use “create dispmap” the texture produced is wrong - like a tiny section of the disp smeared. The object has nice uvs made in maya.
Thanks
Stephen
(using zbrush 4)