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HELP! Exporting ZBrush models to Maya with textures intact?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi everyone,

I have a question to a problem I am having with exporting obj documents to Maya.

I am working for a game developer and have up until recently been producing simple 2.5 D artwork using z brush for a scrolling platformer. It is very straight forward and doesn’t require a lot of technical know how.
Unfortunately it was requested of me that I produce some gold coins that will later be animated by a programmer.

I foolishly rendered the first coin at 2 million poly’s and crashed everything, the second attempt was fine but (and here is my problem)…When I exported to Maya all I had was a wire frame without a texture attached.

I know,… I know… I am a noob to all this 3D stuff, and this is got to be a simple thing. I need to know how to apply a texture/skin/ UV or whatever to this coin so I can export it to Maya so that they can animate it.

I have looked all over youtube and here but I am not sure if what they are telling me is precise to my question, so I am asking specifically here. Can anyone help me, I am kind of on a tight schedule…

Thanks a million

ETA: I should also mention that i am not using Maya on my computer. All obj documents are sent to another country where they are finalized and animated. So it is not as simple as using GoZ or anything like that. I just don’t know what problems there will be until someone on the other end tells me there is a problem.

#2

i’m a noob, also, but have you used the texture map drop down on the right under the Tool window thingy? I know I had probs at first, but if you click texture on it will allow you to apply a texture, then when you export it, it’ll export a text.tif file. not sure if that helps…

#3

Thanks for the reply,

Yeah I went to the texture map tray, and I applied a texture, I made sure it was there by checking in the UV master. Once I confirmed it I pasted it in place and then sent it to my coworker as an obj and it didn’t work; however, I have noticed another file of the same name but it is an .mtl file. Is that the texture?

#4

i noticed that file also when i exported from maya, the obj came with a mtl… not sure what its for, but it might be in the export preferences as a separate file for the texture, uv, etc. cuz i’m having problems with getting my uv’s into zbrush (the next post up was me asking and got an answer that i have to try tomorrow). so maybe its in the export choices.

#5

i have applied image textures to objects i created with zbrush and would love to animate them with Maya. i can successfully export and then import the obj file into Maya but it shows up without the texture(image) applied. i did try creating a texture map of the texture within zbrush but it still didn’t work. as you can tell i am surely a beginner in this field and would appreciate any hints you all may have
thanks
Jerry

#6

Hey,

This worked for me in the pinch i was in when i created this thread.
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/61/858499

Basically you get the Obj which has no problem going over to maya, but appears there as a wire frame only. When you apply a texture map in Zbrush and save it as an OBJ you get two files that you have to export. The original obj and the the mtl file…Which I am assuming means material…I have no idea. I just know it worked when the mtl file was applied to the obj in Maya. The link above if i remember correctly actually explains that a little.

Bare in mind i am new to zbrush and only used it for the project I was doing so I discovered that out of desperation. I have no doubt that it is not only the complicated way, but also the most inefficient way possible considering I’m a noob. I know there are some Zbrush gods on here who could undoubtedly tell you an easier way. But i thought I would offer an answer quickly so that you could at least mess around and maybe discover a possible answer…

I don’t know how helpful it is, but I tried. LOL
Like I said it worked for me in my pinch. I completely over looked the mtl file, which by the way goes to the same directory as the obj. So wherever you save the obj look also for the mtl.