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ZSpheres into Maya

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey everyone.

I am thinking about purchasing the Digital Tutors Insect Rigging & Animation DVDs. I have already followed their ZSpheres one to create the insect but before I order the two others I have just one question.

In the rigging DVD i believe you are provided with a basic model of an insect based on what you create in the ZSpheres training. However, seeing as I have created the model entirely in ZBrush I have no base mesh to displace. If I displace the one they give me will it work as they are an almost identical build? If not, how would I go about applying my high resolution mesh from ZBrush onto the low res one they provide for rigging and animation?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Connor

P.S. The links are here:
http://www.digitaltutors.com/store/product.php?productid=3505&cat=0&page=1

http://www.digitaltutors.com/store/product.php?productid=3522&cat=96&page=1

http://www.digitaltutors.com/store/product.php?productid=3523&cat=0&page=1

#2

Good question for the folks at Digital Tutors.

#3

The standard answer goes something like this:

UV map and then Import the mesh for which you have a rig (e.g. the low-res Maya one) into ZB.

(If you didn’t UV your riggable mesh and it doesn’t have good UVs to start with, you can UV it in ZBrush using one of the tiled methods, PUV or GUV, but be sure to export your UV’d model back out as an .obj for use in Maya.)

Append your highres sculpt as a subtool.

Subdivide your low-res mesh to the right level to capture your hires detail.

Use “Project ALL” feature of the subtool pallet to project your details onto riggable mesh. Clean-up where necessary.

Go back to level 1 (you can delete your hires subtool now, your details have been duplicated on your riggable mesh.) Export the maps (ZMapper, Multi-Displacement, or built-ins if you’re on ZB3.12B)

There are number of threads around that go into this in more detail.

Alternate method, us xNormal to create your maps, but this can have disadvantages but may require less sculpting fix-up than the project-all method.

-K