Thanks everyone!
Derzuzala: I use Multi Displacement 2 to export displacement maps from ZBrush, with a mesh of a few thousand polys as the base mesh. In 3DSMax, I use a turbosmooth modifier with 1 or 2 render iterations and a VRayDisplacement modifier with 2D displacement (because 3D just made a mess). I find it helpful to import a small part of the highest level geometry from ZBrush to Max to compare to the displaced mesh when I’m tweaking the values. Also, I make sure there is no filtering on the displacement map file.
I’m still trying to get my head around rendering displacement well, but so far I’ve found there is no sure fire method to get it each model looking good; and there is always loads of trial and error involved. Hope this helps!
Longsight: This is what I did to make the chainmail:
- Model a simple NURBS surface (shown in red) in the place where the chainmail is going to be.
- Duplicate the surface and flatten the CVs into a plane.
- Make a blendshape out of the second surface with the first surface as its target.
- Arrange the rings in the second plane (ie interlocked, but basically flat).
- Use a wrap deformer to wrap the rings to the second surface.
- Ramp up the blendshape deformer to shift the rings into the space of the original surface. (ie where you want them to be)
- Tweak the wrap envelope to eliminate the dodgy bits and voila!
texuring:) . Cheers
