ZBrushCentral

Zbrush to Maya for animation

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

i’m very new, so please excuse any ignorance.

so imported a simple basemesh and subdivided it a few times. I then sculpted in some minor details (a bulge here, a divet there), but when i export it as an MA the mesh is unwieldy with way too many polys. Going to a lesser subdivision loses these details in Zbrush.

anyway of exporting out less heavy model to Maya or even keeping the edge loops, while still retaining the details?
the purpose is to rig and animate the model.
any advice on exporting out for animation would be greatly appreciated, Thank you!

#2

Exporting the hi-res version of the mess is not what you want to do.

What you want to do is create and export a normal map, or displacement map. If you don’t know what the difference is, a normal map is similar to a bump map, but instead of just darkening/lighting a surface like a bump map, a normal map bends the normals based on the map, so the shading on the fake details will respond to light changes. Displacements on the other hand actually subdivide and move the geometry during render time, which in a sense is adding that hi res back in but is less intensive then the full hi res model by far. The advantage of the displacement map is it actually moves the geometry where the normal does not. This can matter if there is significant detail around the silhouette of your model.

here are some links to get you started. (note that not all the docs are updated for version 4, Zmapper no longer exists, so if you read something that talks about that find something else)

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Normal_Maps
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Displacement_Maps