ZBrushCentral

Whats happening with my Geometry?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have been using Zbrush alot recently and it has been working fine until Saturday. I am creating some displacement maps from an .OBJ I import from 3dsMax.

When I bring in the OBJ it looks like picture 1 I obviously increase the subdivisions to sculpt and when I am ready to Create my D.map with MD3 I lower the subdivisons back to 1 but my original mesh changes when I do so, it looks like picture 2 This is causing some kind of problem when I use the Displacement Map in Mental Ray in 3ds Max, Its like the D.map is changing geometry that it shouldnt do. The detail that I sculpt is okay but it exaggerates all the other geometry in the skull and also makes a mess at the UV seams. (pic 3)

Picture 4 is what the geometry should look like at the nose and jawbone

I think Zbrush is creating the displacement map from a mesh with slightly different vertices (pic.2) than the one I originally imported (pic.1) with conflicts with the UVmap created in Max

the problem obviously lies in Zbrush and creating the subdivsions
Any suggestions?
(I am certain that the displacement settings are fine as they worked for a couple of weeks prior)

Attachments

skull1.jpg

skull2.jpg

skullmental.jpg

mental2.jpg

#2

Subdividing a model changes the lower subdivision levels. This in turn affects how the displacement map is generated. You have two options:

Either:

  1. If you don’t need to maintain the original mesh in Max, export your lowest level mesh as an OBJ from ZBrush and import into Max. Use this mesh to render with a displacement map.

Or:

  1. If you need to keep your mesh unchanged in Max follow these steps:
    (1) Go to the lowest level of your ZBrush mesh.
    (2) Store a Morph Target.
    (3) Re-import your original mesh from Max.
    (4) Generate your displacement map.
    (5) Switch the Morph Target before going back up subdivision levels should you wish to transfer polypainting to texture.
#3

Thanks for the reply I will give both a go