ZBrushCentral

Looking for a texturing solution

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all,
I am currently recreating wigs for a client in in Maya. These wigs must closely represent their actual product. After a hand full of process attempts our team is on the edge of a solution; however, we have come upon a hiccup.

Our latest attempt involves the digitizing software FOTO 3D from Strata 3D. The software creates a great jumping off point by creating a mesh and texture derived from a series of 360 degree incremental photographs. For our purposes the mesh has to be edited after it is created and some UV clean up has to take place as well (quite a lot if depending on the wig).

Issues arise when we have to edit the texture. Because the model and texture are created through mathematical procedures, the texture layout isn’t very intuitive, as it would be if it were being done by the human hand. The software is truly best suited for digitizing something that you have no plans on editing aside from some minor mesh cleanup or tweaks.

MY QUESTION (I know, finally :))
Is there a means to recreate a texture (The whole map and UV layout) based on the model? Does anyone know of a workflow, perhaps in ZBrush, that allows you to bring your pre-textured model and recreate the color map and UV layout so that they are more manageable?

#2

Here’s a basic workflow:

  1. Load model into ZBrush and apply the texture map.
  2. Subdivide if necessary so that mesh is dense enough to hold color information in polypainting [vertex color].
  3. Transfer map color to vertices using Tool>Polypaint>Polypaint from Texture.
  4. Create new UVs at subdivision level 1. You may be able to use UV Master plugin in ZBrush or create elsewhere and import.
  5. At the highest subdivision level, transfer color from vertices to new map using Tool>Texture Map>New from Polypaint.