I have a Maya model comprised of several separate elements, and would like to keep it separated once it’s all imported into ZBrush- I’m guessing as individual Subtools. I’ve saved these different elements as individual .obj’s, but ZBrush won’t allow me to import in the multiple .obj’s- it only allows one, each time showing up in the Subtool menu. When I import in another .obj, the previous .obj vanishes, replaced by the new .obj. I’ve clicked on “Append” but it doesn’t do anything. What am I overlooking, or is there a way of importing in a complex Maya model and separating the individual pieces within ZBrush for better texture control, etc. I’m using ZBrush 3.5 on Mac
Hi Ted, you can now use the Subtool Master it works great for this. I followed along with the intro tutorials and found them lacking when it comes to the loading of multiple objects. I had asked the same question almost word for word and got the same one line answer. Here is what I found if you select the star shape in the Tool 3D meshes GUI and draw it into the scene then go to Subtool Menu and click on append you can then import your object. Your object is now in the 3D Mesh GUI . From there you can keep on importing this way till they all appear in the 3D mesh menue .For me it gets quit complicated trying to get stuff to work due to being raised on other packages that just do straight ahead importing.
Hi TedG
Multi append plugin is the way to go for ZB 3.5, but you really should do yourself a favor and upgrade to ZB4.
In ZB4 Goz will allow you to send your model directly from within Maya to Zbrush.
My workflow is to “group” all the geometry which makes up my model under one group node, then simply select this group node (don’t need to select individual geo nodes) and hit Goz.
This will bring your entire model into Zbrush, each seperate piece of geo will be assigned to a subtool.
Very fast and clean, the only issues you may face can be fixed by clearing your Goz cache folder, under the Preferences menu in Zbrush
Preferences>Goz>clear cache files
One thing I would like to see changed is, Goz will assign a geometry to any empty nodes or “nulls” when you bring a model in this way.
Cheers
im not sure if this is correct procedure, but once i import an obj… i hit clone then import the next then hit clone. it keeps your objs in your tool menu. then you can just append all of them at the same time.
Thank you Ashley,
I have ZB4 and hit GOZ within Maya, but my model opened in Maya with all the separate pieces within one Subtool- I’m unable to isolate pieces that are close to each other
preferences.goZ.import as subtools.
Thank you,
I followed your directions, but the Maya model is still coming in as one Subtool. When I save the Maya file as an .obj, it becomes one PolyMesh. I’m sure I’m overlooking something…