Say you paint on a model. You spend a considerable amount of time painting and then you stop to update the model in a external program. The core model hasnt moved just limbs have been added. Is there a way to substitute the model without losing what was painted previously.?
I know you can impost a mesh but it has to have the exact same points.
You would have to ensure that the parts of the model which the two versions have in common share the exact same UV’s.
So if you have a body that you’ve started texturing, and you add arms you would make sure that the body part of the new model has the exact same UV’s as the armless version has. That way, you can load the new version into ZBrush as a completely separate model, but the texture that you’ve already created will wrap onto it successfully.
Obviously, it’s going to be trickier if the body has used all of the available UV space, leaving no room for the arms. In that case, you may want to consider the method of transferring textures that KenB teaches in this thread.
Oh, I havent UV and painted color info. Ive just deformed it in ZB
In that case, the only option is to UV the mesh (leaving room for the rest of the model when you add it) and then create a displacement map. Add the rest of your mesh, UV it (being sure that the parts corresponding to the original model have identical UV’s as before). You will then be able to apply the displacement map back onto the new model and convert it to geometry using the Apply Displacement Map feature.
I dont understand the part where you said add the rest of the mesh. If I deselect the model im workin on to load another its 2d. Sorry to be a pain but can you have more detailed steps.
I was talking about adding them in your modeling package like you’d talked about in the first place. You would then import that model into ZBrush as a new tool (it can’t overwrite your existing one because of the different points) and apply the displacement map to it (provided that the UV’s for the pre-existing parts of the model are unchanged).
Understood.