ZBrushCentral

Zbrush 3.12 + Normal Maps + Maya 8.5 + OSX

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi! Just recently migrated from PC Zbrush to Mac Zbrush! Anyways, in Windows I was use to making normal maps under Zmapper, but I noticed there is no Zmapper available (as far as my searching is going) for Zbrush 3.12 under OSX. I did a few searches and noticed you can make normal maps on the tool menu, using UV Map and Normal Map tab… however, after comparing the Normal map created under OSX and the one I made under Zmapper on Windows, I noticed the map is flipped/rotated. Now I’m not sure if I’m doing this right, so call me a noob… but does anyone know a proper workflow for making normal maps in Zbrush 3.12 for Maya 8.5 on OSX? Thanks!

#2

Preferences–>Importexport–>NormalMapFlipVert

Maybe that’ll do the trick for you?

#3

Thanks, that did the trick. However, I’ve run into another problem.

Here is the “Good” normal map made in Windows, under ZMapper:

Here is the “Bad” normal map under Zbrush in OSX. It is less crisp, and has artifacts in the middle of the map:

Is there a way to increase the quality of the map and/or get rid of the artifacts?

I have the UV Map settings at 4096, and Normal Map settings of Tangent and SmoothUV.

Thanks!

#4

Welcome to the ZBrush for Mac OSX displacement hell club

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=64630

#5

Interesting, thanks for pointing me to that thread… so I’m guessing it’s also happening for displacement AND normal maps? Yikes… good thing I have Bootcamp for the time being, until it gets fixed /me hopes.

#6

Your Mac ZB license won’t allow you to run ZB under Windows. So unless you have a second license you’re stuck like the rest of us.

I’m sure the developers are working hard to resolve the problems.

#7

same kinda happened with version 3 for pc. no Dis and norml exporter
So everybody jumped on xnormal or their own 3d appli

if you don’t wanna go back to pc (doh) you could try Blender to try to make your maps

#8

Schweet, thanks for the tip!

#9

Acrtuaslly, this is, technically, incorrect. The EULA allows you to have another installation of zBrush, so you could have one under bootcamp and one under OSX. You just can’t run them at the same time, which I believe is technically impossible, unless you are running Parallels or VmWare with a bootcamp partition. In which case, you can only run one installation of zBrush at a time.

neilford