help with export issue in zbrush

stickadtroja

so i'm new to zbrush and for the last few days i've been sculpting my highpoly-mesh for normal map purposes. i use xNormal for this and i tried once with a unfinished highpoly, with good results.

but now that i have a somewhat more detailed mesh the normalmap that comes out looks wack. as i try to figure out why i discover that somehow the oreintation of my new highpolymesh is different from the old one. if i export everyting to maya i see that it is rotated in some weird way. and the worst part is that i can't find any way in zbrush to fix this. i checked transform;info and those numbers doens't match between the the two meshes. i tried changing it so it would be the same but that doesn't help. the only thing that improve the normal map a little bit is putting both meshes in the sameplace in the tool;preview window. but this is really frustrating since it's really hard to align it with precision and it shows on the normal map.

what should i do? it's very annoying since i can't use my newly-sculpted, awsomelooking mesh to bake a normal map.

kodde

Also curious about why this happens and how to fix it.
Anyone?

Thanks.

cryrid

Should only happen if you rotate the mesh in zbrush with transpose or a deformation. Would be easier to export it and just match the low-poly to it's new orientation (as long as you didn't scale it, they should still share the same bounding box?).

Neavah

you have earlier iterations where it works?
(Assuming the newer versions you've only been adding higher frequency details, not changing your lowest subd) you could always try export/importing the lowest subd model that works into the one that has weird values. ... (similar process to importing uvs) I image that could work....? I would try it out...

importing uvs (minus creating uvs):
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-184443.html

Hope you get it figured out

PolyHertz

preferences > importexport > eFlip ?

stickadtroja

thanks for all suggenstions but i think the problem lays in me messing around in the preview window. it seems logical since the high poly is rotated and such. so i kind of fixed the problem, and now i have a nice normal map. but it is still weird. what happens if i accidently touch the preview window in the future? do i have to import the lowpoly i based it on and change it's position? there should be a way to reset the x,y,z's for the tool that you have in zbrush. does anybody know a way?

cryrid

Dragging the red cross in the preview window will change the model's center. There's a store and restore button on the preview window, perhaps store it before you make any changes. Personally I'd just avoid opening the preview subpalette altogether; I don't think it has much use now that the document seems to update instantly to deforms and other modifiers.