ZBrushCentral

High Poly Displacement, Normal, Bump Mapping workflow on Mac/PC

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I have a full body character sculpt that I have divided to level 06 on my MacG5. It is currently at 10Million Polygons. I would like to generate a highly detailed displacement and normal map for my sculpt. When I generate my displacement map using the MD2 Displacement Exporter Pipeline Guide settings, the resulting 4096 map does not seam to capture all the fine pore level detail.

The Mac platform does not currently have a Zmapper plugin, and my PC cannot handle the sculpt at that resolution. I need to know how to generate a fine enough displacement map that perhaps I can then roll into an alpha for use on my PC when using Zmapper.

I need to know the best workflow for this situation.

Best,
Jacques

#2

If you cannot use zmapper then use basic zbrush displacement options.

check out the zscript displacement tutorials in help menu of your software.

or you can simply paint bump maps (extra work) for fine detailing but that can be easily turned into an alpha to be used in your pc.

#3

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I think you may have misunderstood my post. I would like to use Zmapper on my PC for the fine details. In the Zmapper doc, it mentions you can roll your bump map into your normal map upon creation as long as it is loaded into the alpha.

My PC is incapable of subdividing to Level06, around 10M polys. I went to my MacG5, divided & sculpted fine detail. I would now like to use the MD2 displacement exporter to get a fine displacement map. However, when I use the settings in the Zpipeline guide, I end up with a 4k displacement map that doesn’t seem to have picked up all the fine detail work I have done.

My thoughts so far are to create a MD2 displacement map using settings that are modified from the ZPipeline Guide. I need to know what settings could capture all that fine detail.

I hope this clarifies my question for you.

Best,
Jacques

#4

where are you creating the displacement maps in mac or pc ?

I believe you should upgrade you pc ram to 2 gb to support higher subdivision lvls , that will really help.

I will try out zmapper2 and let you know what works best.

#5

i do believe you can create the displacements and then load the displacement and the part it belongs to onto your pc then in zbrush use the displacement on your level one and then use zmapper. I think that would work.

I’ll have to check tho cuz I haven’t used zmapper in a while and forget exactly how it works at the moment.

#6

can you post images of your sculpt and your render so we can see the detail you are missing? md2 is used in production houses everywhere and to date has been able to provide exact detail. When used to create 32 bit maps it is even easier. :slight_smile:

Ryan