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Replacement UV still exploding MY PIPELINE

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey I know that the last thing you want to see is somebody crying help over the exploding uvs problem, and I have looked at the other threads with many people posting solutions. If they worked I wouldn’t be posting or maybe I’m doing something wrong since everyone else with the problem whose solutions worked used what appears to be a different pipeline to get to where they are.

MY SITUATION:
You may have seen my last post about how I had a torso with identical arms using the same UV space. I modeled on the wrong arm and that’s when I made a post about how resym wouldn’t transfer the details on one arm to the other when the mesh was worth 10mil. I reluctantly accepted that going back and switching arm uvs, and re-importing them would solve the issue. Que exploding mesh!

MY PIPELINE:
This is how I made my model and got this far, (note: this is my first actual zbrush model after watching many tutorials) I am using zbrush 3.1 and Max 2009

-Modeled main low poly mesh in max
-Unwrapped and layed out uvs in max (no current overlapping uvs for normal generation)
-My model is made up of multiple models (6 body parts)
-Exported as single .obj (did not touch any settings EXCEPT: accuracy, retain normals, retain smoothing)
-Imported into ZBrush using the “import and crease” plugin (have not touched any of zbrush main settings, if its mucking with anything then it’s still doing it.)
-It creates a single ztool, I create polygroups based on the uv tiles (each body part)
-Split those groups into subtools
-Edit each subtool individually to have the detail I want
-Both arms and the torso are one subtool and use a single uv tile (one arm will remain seperated in tiny form till the normal map is generated)
-WHOOPS wrong arm, resym doesn’t work
-go back to max and switch arm uvs
-export torso only as .obj
-switch morph targets on sub 0 to original mesh shape
-import newly uv’d torso
-switch morph targets MESH EXPLODES

I noticed that the uvs on the currently non-exploding ztool are upside-down but working correctly, don’t know if this is an issue or not.

Seriously I don’t know what to do, I looked at other solutions but it seems to assume I built my model in zbrush first (yech) If you need picks of any particular part let me know.

Thanks

#2

The problem is that when you split the model into SubTools, that changes the point count for each part of the model. This has the effect of changing the point order, which in turn prevents what you want.

Why not export each part individually to begin with? You can then use SubTool Master to import all the OBJ’s at once, which will be assembled into a single model with multiple SubTools. You’ll then be able to reimport any part of you need to change the UV’s.

Alternatively, you would need to export your level 1 torso from ZBrush to Max to make the changes you want, then export that from Max and back to ZBrush.

#3

This is what I love about you guys, there’s somebody helping out so quickly. the reason I exported it all as one object is because (i’m trying to remember…) either I didn’t know about subtool master? or actually more likely they didn’t import “in place” the individual parts would just appear over the top of each other, gotta remember I’m new!

I tried to export the torso out of zbrush but when I bring it into max it has no uv imformation, and completely berks up if I load up the uv arrangement. I hope you’re not telling me that the only way to do this involves re-doing my unwrap for the torso, man that took ages!

and from what I’ve read in other threads even that has no guarantee.

#4

If you export the torso from ZBrush, UV it, import it back to level 1, and then your mesh breaks up when you return to higher levels this is because something in your other app’s import/export settings changed the point order of the model.

#5

I don’t even have to go up a level, it explodes just when i switch back to other morph target. And when you said, “export the torso from ZBrush, UV it” do you mean do it allll over again? or should zbrush retain my uvs when it exports. When I open it in max it comes in as a mesh and has no unwrap. I believe you when you say that the exporter in max could be mucking with it, i just have no idea what is going wrong and what settings would fix it.

It would be nice if Zbrush4 doesn’t have this issue, I find it hard to believe that a program that can recognise uv configurations can’t load up independant changes to it, but I suppose I’m no 3d technical programmer. well I’m better than “that no logic!” guy.

#6

So that’s it? no more ideas? I just have to start from scratch again?

#7

OK, I exported the torso as an .obj from zbrush, and brought it into max.
Because zbrush didn’t (doesn’t at all?) retain UV coordinates when exporting, I used a snapshot to re-do all the uvs for the torso, with the new edits I needed.

Export out of max, seems to work… OH NOES IT EXPLODE WHEN MOVING UP THE LEVELS. A marginal improvement since before it would explode just upon importing, now it only does this when changing subdivision levels. According to your last post Aurick, this points to max screwing up on the exporting. With the only difference above achieved when I turn off optimise vertex/texure coord/normals.

What am I doing wrong? Is there no solution? Doesn’t anybody use max? Can’t these programs number their vertices correctly?