I have a robot that has been sculpted from multiple subtools (several pieces comprise the leg for example). Is it possible to combine all the tools from the leg into one single piece; retopologize that piece to a single lower res leg; uv map the low res leg, use zmapper to capture the combined subtool, high res mesh, and create one normal map for the low res model?
If that seems long winded and confusing, I retopologize!
That would work. But it’s superfluous with ZBrush 3. You can retopologize the leg and in the process use the Projection feature to copy the details. Then you can make an adaptive skin with all the subdivision levels, go to level 1, UV it and create your normal map. Done!
Or you can retopologize, then use the Tool>SubTool>Project All feature to copy the details from the source model. Then you go to level 1 and create the normal map.
That sounds great, but what if there are lots of gaps, under cuts, and cavities within the combined subtools? For example, if one subtool has been combined over another subtool, and there is a gap or cavity between them. Will that not cause a real conflict when you go to project the details or create a normal map from it? I am trying to make the robot look realistic with gears and tubing created from subtools that have been layered over another subtool, these pices do have a lot of cavities and spaces between them.
I would recommend trying xnormal to create the normals on an object liek what you’re talking about. You can bypass zmappers tri limit of 500k and just export out all of your meshes as high as you want, import them all into xnormal, import the mesh that needs to be baked, and even a bake cage incase you have to bake something crazy.
say go…wait…tada.
anyway, as much as I love zbrush…sometimes you just can’t get a projection to work, or the new mesh that you want to bake the normals to has tons of tri’s and whatnot.
anyway, worth a shot
Try this. Take a morph target of your low res mesh for your leg after you retypo it, > then devide it to the highest sub div that you will use > then drop it to 1 and and morph back to the original > now bump it back to max, delete your old morph and make a new one. Now wile you are projecting your detail back onto your mesh using project all, gaps you have will cause some parts of your mesh to explode. you can now use the morph target to put the exploded parts back into order.
good luck
Thank you aurick, goast666, macgregor_oi. I will give these ideas a try.