Help With Exporting Maps and Model to Max

codexehow · November 10, 2012, 7:52pm

Hey guys,

Thanks for any help you can give me.

I’m trying to make model for a game for the first time. I’m starting in Zbrush, creating a low-poly base mesh. Then I’ll subdivide and add details. After that, I’ll create my maps and UVs with the relevant plugins. Finally, I’ll export the model at the lowest subdivision level as a .obj.

Is this the correct/best workflow? When I divide, do I have to do so with smoothing turned off, or does it matter?

Do I still have to flip my UV map in Paint, or has this been resolved?

Thanks so much!

Cryrid · November 10, 2012, 8:07pm

It’s a workflow; there are many, and whether or not one is best will depend on the individual artist and the specific asset and it’s goal.

For the most part, I personally prefer exporting the sculpt (decimated) with polypaint, and then baking the maps in a program like xnormal. That way you can have two models (a high res sculpt and the final low poly mesh) without trying to force them to be the same mesh, and you can deal with your vertex normals/smoothing groups, tangent basis, etc.

codexehow · November 10, 2012, 8:10pm

Thanks Cryrid.

I’m checking Xnormal out.

I’m curious…how do you export your model with polypaint intact? This is basically what I need to do…with maps that I can plug into Max.

Cryrid · November 10, 2012, 8:21pm

It’s as simple as exporting the sculpt from zbrush with polypaint turned on/displayed. Whether or not the program being used to import the obj is able to read the vertex color is a different issue. XNormal can for sure, and I think Max can as well (although I could be confusing it with Maya).

codexehow · November 10, 2012, 8:24pm

Thanks again. I’ll try in all 3.

codexehow · November 10, 2012, 8:32pm

So Decimation master is okay for game models? I had heard that the resultant triangles would cause problems.

Thanks anyone for your answer.

Cryrid · November 10, 2012, 8:36pm

I wouldn’t recommend it for creating the final game mesh. I just use it to crunch down the highres sculpt prior to export so that I’m not exporting a 1+GB OBJ file. It makes it easier to load the file into another program that has to bake that information over to the low poly mesh.