ZBrushCentral

Rigging a uv'ed model with Zpheres wipes my uvs

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all, first time poster to the forum;)

I have a sculpted model with subdivisions that is final detailed and uv’ed. I’ve exported it and baked it for high-res to low-res game work, and it works great.

Now, I’ve decided to try to pose the same model using a zsphere rig. I’ve done this a couple times to get the hang of it, and each time I’ve noticed that my carefully laid out uvs get wiped out when I do this.

Two Questions result from this problem:

  1. How do I rig a single subtool model with zspheres and keep the uv information?
  2. How do I then export the newly posed low-res model?

I will be most appreciative of any help!
Thanks

#2

Welcome to ZBC! :slight_smile:

ZSphere rigging actually works with a clone of your model. That’s why the UVs are lost. All you need to do is copy and paste the UVs to the low res version of your posed mesh. To do that:

  1. When you’ve finished posing your model, set the Tool>Adaptive Skin>Density slider to 1. This makes sure that the posed mesh will be the same level as your original low res mesh.
  2. Press A to preview the mesh, then press Tool>Adaptive Skin>Make Adaptive Skin. This will create a new mesh in the Tool palette. Its name will start with Skin_.
  3. Select your original model in the Tool palette, make sure you are at subdivision 1 and then press Zplugin>UV Master>Copy UVs to copy the UVs.
  4. Select the posed mesh (its name beginning Skin_) in the Tool palette and press Zplugin>UV Master>Paste UVs to paste the UVs.

You can now export the posed mesh as an OBJ using Tool>Export. The UVs will be included and you can apply your maps in whichever app you are importing to.

HTH,

#3

Thanks for the great info, this got me allllmost there!

Just when I thought I was done and this was going to do the trick however, it seems like I’ve got additional problems and questions.

  1. The posed and exported model now has clean uvs in layout, however when I apply my texture maps it looks like each face of the model is improperly mapped and somehow they aren’t respecting the uv layout.

  2. When I’ve got my adaptive skin preview set to a higher density (in my case, 6), shouldn’t I be seeing the high res sculpted information, even if this is a clone of my original model?

Thanks for the help so far!