Requesting a complete tutorial from 3dsmax to zbrush to xNormal

kasigawa

Hello everyone. I was wondering if there was an in-depth written or video tutorial on an asset pipeline from 3dsmax to zbrush (including xNormal). I found some video tutorials on digital tutors but have no access to them because of having to pay for a monthly subscription (also a demo account doesn’t let me see them). I am on a shoestring budget. Sadly, I can’t even pay for a monthly subscription at the moment or for even a while because everything is so tight. Eventually, I’m looking to get a job in the game industry. My portfolio looks terrible and I was wondering if I can find a way to make a solid workflow pipeline using programs I am most familiar with so I can practice it repeatedly and grow efficient and comfortable at a work flow process that will allow me to harness and improve my skills and be able to get out there in the industry and make a better life for myself.

 

A good overview tutorial of the pipeline I found is from Syncviews on this forum page, but it’s nothing in detail. You can find the page here if it’ll help anyone: http://polycount.com/discussion/69181/max-zbrush-workflow Moving on, I was wondering if anyone could present me with a complete written or video tutorial that describes this pipeline in great detail. More specifically, including when and how to make the diffuse map and maybe other maps required by game production. I will be eternally grateful if anyone can help me out. Thank you

lorenzo_di_pietro

Last year I watched this Introduction to ZBrush (the subscription is not mandatory, you can purchase a digital copy of the course). In this series, the instructor starts talking about the topology optimization in Max of a high poly asset (a catapult) in order to sculpt it properly in ZBrush, then sculpts and paints 3 components of the main asset (1 wood piece, 1 metal piece, 1 rock) in ZBrush, and finally imports the high poly and the low poly versions of the components in xNormal to bake some maps (vertex colors, normal, ambient occlusion).

In my opinion, the ZBrush and the xNormal parts are solid, but keep in mind that:

- this is not a complete step by step process: some parts are missing, such as the low poly creation of the wood and metal pieces, the smoothing groups phase, and the unwrapping process;

- the course is not PBR oriented, so you'll not find an explanation of roughness or metallic map.

Another resource, that this time involves Mudbox instead of ZBrush but is free, is this.

Hope this helps, good luck

kasigawa

Thank you for the reply. I will look for this. I found some tutorials on this but nothing complete and solid. I believe i'm going to have to spend the time to test and see if I can make a workflow tutorial on my own by testing and taking what others have compete. Hopefully after I finish with this complete in-depth tutorial others can benefit from it if they are max users like I am.