wow…I don’t have the answer unfortunately to your question, but I just wanted to say that this model and render is very kewl looking. I love the overall physique you gave this guy.
thnx for sharing,
Ron
[email protected]
Is your alpha depth factor set correctly? Also it helps if you apply meshsmooth to your model at level 2, or at least 1.
Even then, sometimes you don’t get all the detail, in which case it might be a good idea to also use a normal or a bump map on top.
Are you using mental ray/maya for rendering?
If you’ve done any HD sculpting, MD3 is not yet capable of grabbing this detail in a Displacement Map… but Pixologic support tells me this functionality will be provided in a future update. Also, it is not yet possible (at least not conveniently or accurately) to capture any HD PolyPainting with the Clr>Txr operation…hopefully this will be addressed as well.
Excellent work by the way =) I aspire to have your skill
Hey guys. I’m using mental ray in maya. I haven’t used hd sculpting as I’m aware of the problem. Does anyone know a working quick code? As when I check my map up close in photoshop its very faceted over and above the fact that its not holding all the detail.
Thanks for the comments guys.
I’ll try whats been mentioned. Thanks 
Your models, each and everyone of them is so wonderful and so soulful I am inspired so very much by your work. You have a great talent. I like the start of this thread with the sea creature he is just wonderful, I know you have so much on your plate but do you think you will ever go back to him and maybe do an update in zb3? I love the mobster fish from little mermaid 2 he made me laugh (yes big , big Disney fan) lol. I really like the witch blade too she is coming along nicely. It is very good to see an artist make a model of her that doesn’t look anorexic and top so big she’ll fall over if in real life. I am just enthralled with this thread. Hope to see more will keep checking, I will never get tired of you putting more and more, and more models and doodles lol, sorry, well no I am not lol. I hope nothing ever stops you from your modeling and drawing you are a master for you are able to take crits and use them to better yourself and your work. I wish I could be helpful but still learning and to say the truth I have learnt more from watching you learn than any other thread. With a very heartfelt thank you.
I can Just say Exllent
Amazing job!!! You attention to detail is amazing!!!
Hey guys thanks for the kind words. Its been difficult lately.
And zbrush isn’t helpin either…I’ve spent the day trying to get a displacement map that works. No success 
I’ve tried all sorts of codes. I’ve tried cages, I’ve tried new uv’s, I’ve tried deleting lower sub divisions. None are giving me the detail I have in my zbrush model.
The model has 7 subdivisions. And in my maps I get flat spots? Whats up with that? The higher in divisions I go to create my map the flat spots start to go. If I use cage my model renders all wonkey.
Please…If anyone knows a way… give a guy a hand here.
Seavannah: Thank you very much for your kind words. It got me through the worst day of my life.
Mistwalker: thanks man
Deception: thank you!!
Anyway…
Here’s a screen grab in zbrush…
Sorry about the complaining 
cheers
Brett Patrick Sinclair
Wish I could help ya out. I’m just a newbie so I’m just looking at all this fabulous work with my jaw on the floor most of the time. I hope you find your solution(s) so you can continue on as you wish to and not have to figure out a different route!!
I love the ape
no crits, just finish it and show us the result! pleeeeease… :lol:
sorry to hear about your recent difficulties, i have very little experience with other apps, good luck, the more experienced guys have posted the best solutions, i hope it works out for you. buy the way your sculpt still looks great even without the details.
I’m not sure, but I think that it may have something to do with the scan distance when you try to generate your displacement map.
Try unifying your model first, then try it again. Maybe the max size of your model has something to do with it.
Do you think you could send us your model? If so, zip it and send it to [email protected]. If it’s more than 2 MB in size, though, you’ll have to upload it someplace and send us the link.
It would also help us if we knew what other 3D package you’re rendering the map in. What are the exact steps that you follow to create the map, too? The more information you can provide, the better we’ll be able to help.
Well, if displacement map is giving you trouble then maybe it d best without it?
My suggestion would be to export the mesh at the highest level of detail you could get away with (level 4-5 i m guessing) and then just use bump/normal maps to get the rest of the detail. In my experience it renders much faster and you get better results too.
If you have to have displacement map though, well, i haven’t had time to try out 3.1, but i m guessing exporting is still similar to the old ways.
- Make sure your model is perfectly uvmapped. If you’re using zbrush way of uv mapping you might have to follow a different approach, which i wouldn’t be able to help you with. So that’s why i m suggesting to just do a uv layout in maya. That way you d be sure to have it work.
In your uv layout make sure there are no uv overlays.
- Export your lvl1/lvl2 mesh into maya (unless you ve already done it in step 1 for uv mapping). Create approximation node in mental ray (subdivisions).
In settings set it to spatial, min/max could be 3/5 to start from but then you could increase it if you’re not getting all the resolution out of the model. Distance at 0.1 to begin with but it could be made smaller later on.
- Generate your displacement map in zbrush. If it’s 16 bit you’re making then have your model at lvl1 and, using the displacement tab in tool pallete set dpSubPix to 2 and DPres to 4096. No smooth uvs and the rest should be at default. Generate one and have a look at it - if alpha depth factor is too big (like 10+ ) i find it best to re-generate it again but this time with adaptive turned on.
Write down your alpha depth factor.
- In maya apply smooth to your model with 2 levels, at default settings. Once you have your displacement node attached and all, in your displacement maps attributes set alpha gain as your alpha depth factor and alpha offset to be a negative half of it. Turn off feature displacement on your mesh and hit render and that should work.
If you used 32 bit displacement then all the steps are the same except that you don’t worry about alpha depth factor and instead put 2.2 into alpha gain and -1.1 into alpha offset.
After all of that you’d still probably won’t be getting all the detail and additionally might get artifacts around your uv seams/poles in your mesh. You could try getting more detail by increasing min/max settings in subdivision approximation node you created for your mesh and lowering 0.1 value to 0.01 ,etc. I never could fully get rid of artifacts produced by poles/seems in the mesh, so thats why i tend to avoid using displacement maps.
Hope this helps.
I’m sure Aurick will solve this, but I will also throw my aid into the ring if you like. Same deal here for what I need, and I can run the work through several systems. Of course I’m just saying that as I’m pretty confident in their abilities at that nut farm. 
Wow!!!
Thanks for the help guys!
RAMWolff: Thanks buddy. I hope I find away too 
Sergio Santos: Haha…Ye I really want to get this one done. Still needs weapons and junk.
threetails: hey buddy. I got my map to 4096 dpsubpix to 2, 3 crashes. I have smooth on, I’ll give yours a shot. Ye once this is finished you’ll know why times are tough for me right now…
-WOODY-: It does seem as though its leaving behind pieces. hmmm…
aurick: Well here goes… My file is 360mb :D. His a big boy I guess and I would gladly let you have a look but I have no hosting site for that. Anyway…
I’m using mental ray for maya. I’ve tried creating with and without cage with these settings:
My max map size is 4096, my dpsubpix is 2, and my border is 8.
Now back in maya I import my lowest model from zbrush or my 2nd level. I apply my map and in alpha I set my alpha gain and half my alpha offset. I used to convert my textures to a .map format but I recently upgraded to vista 32(yes I know, I need vista 64 actually) and the .map doesn’t seem to work now? I also have tried the approx editor for mental ray. But that was at the beginning of the year. haha.
Now I’ve tried auv tiles as well as an automatic map in maya. maya’s auto map seems better as It has less faceting. I guess what I’m finding is that when I create my displacement on the lowest level it leaves out the detail on level 7, It flattens it off( the nipples for example). Also I have noticed seems on my model. which is odd as I know in zbrush 2 it seemed fine to have either auv or layed out uv’s. After that its render, tweak…render, tweak…render, tweak. crash. haha. Thanks for the help I really appreciate it
Fess: Hey man :D, At the moment I think your way sounds great. haha. But I’d really like to know how to get that detail out. Cause some day I may need to animate a character and you can’t animate a lvl 4 character. YIKES!
By dpres do you mean maxmapsize?
- Generate your displacement map in zbrush. If it’s 16 bit you’re making then have your model at lvl1 and, using the displacement tab in tool pallete set dpSubPix to 2 and DPres to 4096. No smooth uvs and the rest should be at default. Generate one and have a look at it - if alpha depth factor is too big (like 10+ ) i find it best to re-generate it again but this time with adaptive turned on.
Write down your alpha depth factor.
Excuse my stupidity here…where do I find my alpha depth factor value?
Damn artifacts 
Thanks for your help
Jason Belec: Haha. Man its the morning here and already I need a drink. This stuff is nerve wrecking! Haha. Good to see you in here my friend
Sheesh…Thats a lot. I hope I get something today to post up.
Thanks all for your help
cheers
Brett Patrick Sinclair
here is…
nothing is stupid:D
Andreseloy
all right so I tried a few things. Seems the smooth off works. But I decided to try what Fess mentioned. Just so I can start to move forward on this.
andreseloy: haha. Thanks buddy. I asked now I know
Here’s a new render. No sss. No displacement just high res model with bump, no fancy shaders yet…
Any crits would be welcomed.
Thanks guys…
Brett Patrick Sinclair
Hi,
That workflow that i posted was meant for 16 bit displacement exporter at the bottom of tool pallete. That one only does 16 bit maps and you don’t really get many options.
If you’re using 3.1’s exporter, try the following code for 32 bit displacement maps: DE-LBEK-EAEAEA-R32
That’s what i used in zbrush 2 to get my 32 bit displacement maps - exporters in 2 and 3.1 look identical, so i m guessing it would work.
If you’re using 32 bit maps then you don’t need to worry about alpha depth factor and just use 2.2 for alpha gain and -1.1 for alpha offset in maya’s image atributes (at least that was the case before).
Then in maya, in mental ray subdivision approximation editor,to get similar levels of detail you d need to set length to about 0.01 (which is very ram intensive and would very likely result in mental ray renderer crash, if you don’t get those already) - as well as set minimum and maximum subdivisions to 4-6 or higher. That is on top of having a level 2 smooth applied to your model.
A compromise could be if you use a displacement map to give you 4-5 levels of detail and the rest be achieved through a bump map (or even better, normal map - those render better and produce better results). That could mean a difference in render times from 20+ minutes per frame to only 5 or less minutes.
But sometimes you get artifacts due to using a displacement map regardless. Which is partly why i prefer not to, when i can.
As far as animating the creature goes, i m sure you d be able to create a proxy from level 1 to level 4 and animate level 1, while all of the animation still working for level4. Level 4 could be on another layer, hidden until you render it.
Your render looks good btw - bump map seems rather strong though.
Also, i don’t know if you know it, but using Lancroz filter type in render globals and low filter values for your textures (0.1-0.5) would also give you crisper detail.
Hey Fess,
Thanks for all your help. Its really appreciated. I didn’t know about the filter types. I’ll try them out. Also thanks for the quick code. Your the man