Questions about saving files

[gorillajin]

Hi,

What files do you save as when you export your texture (normal map) from zbrush ro maya?
I’ve been self learning maya and zbrush, and I am kind of confused. A tutorial DVD tells me to save as BMP file, then another dvd tells me to save as TIF file…
What is the difference here?

I also have one more question.
I am about to use photoshop to texture my model, and this is my first time used zbrush to sculpt it. I usually just create a poly model, and use PS to texture the model before I used zbrush.
Now I don’t know how to texture my model…
Is this correct way to do it?

1. Import all the sculpted poly model to maya
2. Create materials and assign them to indivisual peices of the model
3. Assign the normal map(either TIF or BMP files) to those materials as bump map
4. Create PSD network and use photoshop to apply textures and colors.

Please let me know.

Thank you!!!

[Kerwin]

BMP is a windows bitmap file. Not particularly recommended.

TIFF (TIF) is a fairly standard, but old format. In general, you won’t loose any visual data with TIF.

PSD (Photoshop’s native fomat) is handy because it supports layers and channels in a fairly will recognized way. This is a common format and it also preserves visual data.

JPG (JPEG) is a photographic format that affords a great deal of compression, but does subtly degrade the image. Not recommend for moving images between apps because each generation of saving slightly degrades the image.

PNG is Portable Network Graphic, which is a bit more modern than other web formats.

In general, I almost always use PSD’s with Zbrush. TIFF and PNG (Portable Network Graphic) are common fallbacks for me.

For texturing, I texture my UV’d models in zbrush using polypaint. I then convert the polypaint to colormap and export the color map to Photoshop. In Photoshop I will do any remaining tweaking.

[gorillajin]

BMP is a windows bitmap file. Not particularly recommended.

TIFF (TIF) is a fairly standard, but old format. In general, you won’t loose any visual data with TIF.

PSD (Photoshop’s native fomat) is handy because it supports layers and channels in a fairly will recognized way. This is a common format and it also preserves visual data.

JPG (JPEG) is a photographic format that affords a great deal of compression, but does subtly degrade the image. Not recommend for moving images between apps because each generation of saving slightly degrades the image.

PNG is Portable Network Graphic, which is a bit more modern than other web formats.

In general, I almost always use PSD’s with Zbrush. TIFF and PNG (Portable Network Graphic) are common fallbacks for me.

For texturing, I texture my UV’d models in zbrush using polypaint. I then convert the polypaint to colormap and export the color map to Photoshop. In Photoshop I will do any remaining tweaking.

Thank you so much for the reply.
I haven’t used poly paint in zbrush, and I keep hearing about it.
So usually psd file is way to save…
Thanks again.