Normal Baking/Creation in Mudbox (from Max)

Saidin311

I've been searching the net for a good tutorial on how to bake textures from Mud Box. I'm building a set of steps ala Cholden's UE3 thread.

I've got my mesh built in Max, and I can import it into Mudbox. I got about 25% through some sculpting (new to the proggy) and I realized I haven't unwrapped anything so thats going to cause some issues I'm sure.

Do I have to unwrap the high poly before I export/import into Mudbox?

Neox

nope, only your lowpoly has to be unwrapped. however you can still import uvs for your basemesh later

cholden

I box map my high detail mesh for diffuse baking. It usually doesn't matter if it's before or after mud, but generally I save it as a last step before baking normal, diffuse and lighting map

A little more technical info here, but this doesn't use the diffuse baking technique
http://chrisholden.net/tutor/cover_tutor01.htm

EarthQuake

Honestly I wouldn't use mudbox for baking normals, it just lacks too many features that programs such as Xnormal have. And unlike max, its pretty easy to export very high-poly meshes(5 million or more) in obj format and render them out in Xnormal with this latest version.

http://www.xnormal.net

Saidin311

[ QUOTE ]
I box map my high detail mesh for diffuse baking. It usually doesn't matter if it's before or after mud, but generally I save it as a last step before baking normal, diffuse and lighting map

A little more technical info here, but this doesn't use the diffuse baking technique
http://chrisholden.net/tutor/cover_tutor01.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

Trying to bring the high poly model into max chugs my computer so much I can barely navigate to use the Max tools for baking diffuse etc.

I think I'm confused at the steps. I was following your little progress on your other thread. I did the layout, I modeled the Brick, I laid out the stairs. Then I took it into mudbox (thankfully this program is soo much easier to use than zbrush).

And thats basically where I am right now. I downloaded xNormal but it seems there is quite a bit of learning for that the documentation is sparse at best and there doesn't seem to be a definitive resource for this workflow.

I don't want to sound like I'm not understanding, but it seems theres a step in here I just don't get. Working in max with this million poly mesh just doesn't seem right?

Mark Dygert

It sounds like might have made the mistake of sub dividing too many times without pushing the current layer to its fullest? Chances are you could have done the same sculpt with less?

None the less, if you're stuck using Max, set your viewport to wireframe and expand that one viewport so it only has to update one view not 3-4. Then import your high poly mesh, select the mesh then right click it and go to "object properties" and set it to "Display as Box". It will make it hard to adjust the control cage if it defaults to ugly, like it normally does. You should be able to reset it under the "cage Rollout" in the "projection modifier" that gets added to your low poly object. Then push it out slighting away from your low poly mesh.

Saidin311

Well that would be a whole new bag of tricks then wouldn't it!

Since I'm brand new to mudbox I was sculpting and when things started to go 'poly' on me when I was doing some finer details I upped the sub divide (shift-D). No doubt I was pushing poly limits for seemingly a small amount of detail I was looking for. How do I 'push the current layer to its fullest'? Or are tricks like that just learned through experience of sculpting?

The next question I would have is whenever I'm baking textures in Max I'm always getting the low poly object intefering with the high poly texture bake. For example, if I'm baking AO I would set up lights (or use a sunlight) but if the low poly mesh was over top of ANY of the high then it would cover up some of that object and create a shadow.

Same with the diffuse, I think this will be much better explained with screenshots. So be back in a few!

Mark Dygert

You can select your low poly object go down to element in the edit poly modifier and select all and hide the mesh, then without deselecting it, render out the maps again. Or don't use mental ray and just use a sky light and scanline render to get some AO?

About sculpting, Mudbox is kind of limited in this area, but if you're working on just one piece break it off and sub-d just that one piece. Be careful when you do this as it cuts the mesh and you won't be able to weld those sections again and any sub-d done around that new seam will cause issues. Normally its good to freeze the area around those types of cuts so it doesn't create holes.

TWilson

Has anyone mentioned polycruncher for max?

http://www.mootools.com/plugins/us/index.asp

Reduces polycount drastically while keeping all the detail.

Forgive me for not reading previous posts if this is off topic or already said...
Dont bother generating maps in mudbox. Use a standalone application or max or maya. I use maya and it works fine. I just generated one with all kinds of uv seams over organic areas and there is no visible seam in the normal map now. I suppose a lot of people use zmapper too.