SmoothGroupImport for Max with ZBrush (Mac version available 11-20-08)

thomas_bijoy · July 3, 2019, 4:18pm

Is it possible to make this work with Z Mapper when you import an arbitary Mesh wiith Smoohting Groups ?

system · July 3, 2019, 4:20pm

First of off thank you Marcus for the great work!

Hi Thomas, I also have been looking into the zmapper issue,

Here is what I found…
If you are using object space normal maps you will have no problem with zmapper.

If you are using tangent space normals maps zmapper will not have the correct smoothing groups by default.

Zmapper is however able to use polygroups as smoothing groups, maybe in the future Marcus could automatically load smoothing groups as polygroups.

For now I found the following work around…

Assign a multimaterial to the object.
You need a set of polygroups that matches your smoothing groups perfectly. One way to achieve this is to assign a material ID in max that matches your smoothing group ID. So if a face has smoothing group 1 assigned it will have material ID 1 assigned.

Then export your obj out of max.

In zbrush make sure under preferences->ImportExport->Import Mat as groups is on.
Import your obj using Import & Crease, and make sure your polygroups are loading by hitting “Frame”
In zmapper load a tangent space preset and under Expert Pass 1 set …On group seam… off (all the way to the left). You should now see the polygroups are acting like smoothing groups in max.

thomas_bijoy · July 3, 2019, 4:21pm

Thanks lukashi ! I tried the workflow suggested by you and it works great !

It also works when you use the Simple Import in case you would use an arbitary mesh.
Import & Crease it seams does not import a mesh with a different polycount ???

( PS : You need to assign a MultiSub Material as well to make the export from max work in step 1. In case someone else wants to try it : )

system · July 3, 2019, 4:22pm

Cool glad it worked Thomas! Ive been using this to make some in game models at work, its a pretty fun process.

I edited my above steps to match you multimaterial step.

Luminous_Anubis · July 3, 2019, 4:23pm

When I export a mesh in Maya and import with your plug I get this error:

“FAILED to crease error=(-1) edges in smoothing group n1”

I am using these settings in my OBJ export

Default file extensions turned on

Groups On
Smoothing On

everything else off

I am importing a mesh with multiple pieces so I can break down the separate objects into subtools, could this be causing a problem?

Thanks for all your hard work!

Steve

Luminous_Anubis · July 3, 2019, 4:24pm

I tried applying different materials to two different areas of a test mesh with two smoothing groups and while it imported and correctly split the two materials in to the correct subtools it did not retain any of the smooth information…

It would be a life saver if I could get this to work!

Has anyone had any success using Maya and this plugin?

marcus_civis · July 3, 2019, 4:24pm

Luminous,

I thought that it was possible to export smoothing groups from Maya but I’m afraid I don’t have the program and so I can’t tell you how to do it. It is important that they are ‘smoothing groups’ rather than regular ‘groups’ because the plugin uses the Max OBJ tag for smoothing groups. The plugin doesn’t affect regular groups so the two can be imported together.

I’m puzzled by the error message you are getting though because any meshes without smoothing groups should throw up a different message. Can you try exporting a simple cube with two smoothing groups and see if that works? I’ll take a look at the OBJ if you want to post it here.

Luminous_Anubis · July 3, 2019, 4:24pm

Hi Marcus

Here is a simple .obj mesh from Maya 8.5 with two smoothing groups you can mess around with. I will export it with the same settings as before.

I hope this helps in finding a solution to exporting .obj’s from Maya with smoothing groups into ZBrush. Any help is very much appreciated

marcus_civis · July 4, 2019, 6:47pm

Luminous,

I had no trouble in importing this using the plugin. It creased the 3 smoothing groups without problems, as you can see from the attached image. There’s nothing wrong with your export options from Maya.

Did you try importing this mesh and have problems? If you can import this OK then there must be some non-standard polys or some other factor in your original mesh which the plugin can’t cope with.

Attachments

Luminous_Anubis · July 3, 2019, 4:24pm

Thanks for your help marcus, it is working now. The originol character mesh I am trying to work with is still getting the error, but I will be testing some things with it to try and get it to import correctly. Thanks again!

Luminous_Anubis · July 3, 2019, 4:24pm

Got it…the problem was polygon faces with more than 4 sides. Ran a clean-up and problem solved…Thanks!

system · July 3, 2019, 5:23pm

it’s really a very excellent plugin for hi-poly creaters and all zbrushers.
It changed the history that ZB are not suit to build non-organic polygons.
thank you again,marcas,a talent man!

dustbin1_uk · July 3, 2019, 5:31pm

Thanks for yet another wonderful plugin!

Does anyone know if this works with Blender 3D smoothing?

system · July 3, 2019, 5:32pm

Seriously, for this, I could kiss you right on the lips.

I’m working on a low poly cartoony tank, and ive spent days trying to get a reliable way to smooth it all out, but keeping quite a few important creases, without resorting to mangling all my uv’s, making poly groups, and creasing all the polygroups, which STILL seemes to cause issues.

You’ve saved my project with this and i BEG you to let me know if there are ever any advancemets made to this. I usualy steer away from plugins, i like to work in a standard environment because im on a lot of different computers, but this im keeping with me.

marcus_civis · July 3, 2019, 5:32pm

Thanks for the comments guys.

dustbin1_uk,

I’m not familiar with Blender but if the smoothing info is exported in an OBJ then I may be able to add this in. (If you could post or send me an OBJ I’ll take a look.)

dangermousenz,

I’m glad you found the plugin so useful. If you have any ideas for enhancements do let me know.

dustbin1_uk · July 3, 2019, 5:32pm

Wow! that’s great Marcus.

Blender is totally free (though I’m sure you know that) and I would love to see Pixologic consider it a worthy partner to Zbrush.

I understand that most people (well the pro’s anyways ) have Maya, 3DS Max, XSI, ect… but Blender really is becoming a worthy application. And for us poor people who spent our hard earned cash on ZBrush (it was worth every penny!!), it’s great to have something that works nearly as well as some of the comercial studio packages.

Anyways, what will do? a poly sphere with smooth surface turned on?

Please PM me or post what you would like here and I’ll be happy to supply.

dustbin1_uk · July 4, 2019, 7:43am

OK sussed it attached is a zip with the obj file in.

I exported this out and imported it again into Blender, there is a smooth groups option on import, if you select that it will import it with smoothing applied.

Not sure if that’s the same as what Maya does.

Other than that Blender makes use of Subsurf and edge creasing.

And here is what it should look like with and without smoothing:

Thanks Marcus, you the man.

dustbin1_uk · July 3, 2019, 5:32pm

Suddenly I don’t think this is the same thing as what maya does. I just downloaded the buckle.zip and imported it to blender and it’s not smoothing the same way as on your title image there.

system · July 3, 2019, 5:32pm

Well, I actually do have a few ideas, a few simple, a few not so simple, but I feel awful critiquing something free and that’s already so useful. But, you asked, so here they are, but please don’t take this to mean I don’t already think this plugin is amazing!

Firstly, when using creases in zBrush you select a crease level right, the amount of subdivisions before that crease gets smoothed. Well, in zbrush it defaults to 15, but i almost exclusively use 2, 3, or 4. Your plugin takes the level from what was last used in zBrush, but to change it in zbrush you first need to make a new mesh, even if it’s blank, set the subdivisions, then use your plugin. It would be so nice if when running the plugin you could choose in that dialogue which level you would like.

Secondly, I don’t know if this is a bug, or a limitation on obj’s, but when using a LOT of creased edges, some of them get missed. I’m building a cartoony tank where I’d ideally want all the polygroups imported as one in zBrush so I can just smear mud and stuff all over it, then use the polygroups to single out pieces as I need. Unfortunately when I do this with you’r plugin, it seems to pick poly groups almost at random on which the creased edges are applied. At the moment I’m importing small groups at a time and using subtools (which is a bit of a pain) but it works. I can supply you with my tank obj if you’d like.

Third, I do know a bit about smoothing groups and stuff, and I’m pretty sure this would be impossible, but SO cool. I mentioned earlier the crease levels. if there were some way to incorporate different crease levels in the same object that would rock my world. I know zBrush supports it, if you crease the old fashioned way by hiding poly’s and creasing the edges manually, every set can have a different crease level. but creasing in maya is either hard or smooth. So like I said, maybe impossible, but I can dream right?

Anyway, you did ask

system · July 3, 2019, 5:32pm

Also, it doesnt appear to be creasing border edges