HD Geometry Exporting To Maya 2014

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Hi all.

I’m gona come right out and say it just like everyone else. IM A NUBE >>> that aside I am taking a class in collage for Zbrush… The teachers that teach Zbrush 3 of them are stumped… They use it in the real world industry (movie companies) and have been teaching it for a long time. … along with teaching and using Maya from its creation. And are gods at it… But leave it to me to stump even the sculpting god….

I am really stuck. Usually I find the answer to my question but this one is tricky.
I am using Maya 2014 student version and rendering with Arnold. And I am using Zbrush 4R6 P2.

I created a base mesh in Maya. Exported it to Zbrush and divided my mesh 4 times. My sculpt was not where I wanted it to go so I ed ( sorry I know it’s not a word) it to 3 times. .I needed it for the finest parts around his mouth

I followed Zbrush tutorial for the vector displacement map preferences for Maya. I have my settings for the vector map export set. And my UV set to 2048. According to the HD geometry guide tutorial (that I followed) said HD was supposed to bake with the export. I exported the vector as an .EXR file and received an almost black image but if I mess with the saturation it is there. So I left it alone and used it as ZBrush exported it.

I reimported the new .obj from Zbrush that came with the vector map.
I did the settings that Arnold needs. Plane gray shader with just the displacement values for a vector. And ran the gambit of scale values. Among other various failures…

I am coming up with 2 choices. 1) pure goo head… or 2) nothing. No in between.

Would appreciate someone’s help.

I have been searching for about 5 days now all over this forum and the net searching for a clue… but to no avail…

Please help a desperate student with a final due in 1 week ….

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[system]

If you have HD Geometry in your Zbrush seen and it’s not working in Maya 2014 with an Arnold Render like me here is what I found……

Take the current geometry and the HD you created, crank all the way up. If you have a texture already this will take care of the texture also…

-delete current UV
-apply new UV with geometry and HD geometry all the way up
(make sure it has the seams you want otherwise you will have to start over to get it to work with your texture…. That if you’re like me baked it in with no way to re-due it the exact way you were happy with)
-created texture .psd and save it
-then export as .obj highest level

-reimport the .obj you just created into a brand new file in Zbrush. (if you don’t it seems to see the old one’s info and won’t work) (tried that several times)
_reapply the texture that you had before exactly… Otherwise it will not fit.
-reconstruct mesh watch out if you reconstruct to far back texture will split. Just undo tell it goes away.

(These are the best conditions I find worked best for my export to Maya 2014 and Arnold)
I gave both ways to create the Maps Vector and Disp. For my image it worked out a lot better for a Displacement map than a Vector. but here are the settings that worked.

Vector scale 1.5 world

Displacement scale 1.5 world

-create vector
_preference> import /export >vector displacement map>change flip and switch to 7
-geometry to lowest sDiv
_export Vector Displacement map VD32 on only (this gives you world space)everything else off
-create and export vd your map

or

-create dispMap
-geometry to lowest sDiv
_export Displacement Map Flip V, 32Bit clicked. All other off. Click on box for alpha (I don’t know why but it’s the only way to get MID to come up) MID down to 0. Click back on alpha box and get rid of alpha.
everything else off
-create and export map

_import .obj to maya
-adjust Shape> Arnold > type >catclark>iterations to one less than your top geometry was ZBrush (do not go the same or it gets bloaty)
UV smoothing >linear
Displacement Attributes>check auto bump.
Leave the rest alone

-attach your vector/displacement to your displacement map>Vector/Displacement will require space to world. You will have to adjust scale up or down to your liking…

At least if you are like me… These are points to get you started….