zbrush or photoshop for texturing

flaremage007

hey everyone

I was trying to learn texturing and i am having a bit of difficulties. I want to make cartoony and clean textures on my models. I was wondering if its best to use Photoshop to texture or should i use zbrush polypaint to directly paint onto the model. This has been confusing me for a long time. I have heard people say to texture using photoshop but its so difficult to know what you are texturing and its hard to get the detail exactly where you want whereas in zbrush you are able to put textures exactly where you want.

Also where did you guys start to learn texturing, there is so much to learn and i dont know where to start.

Tell me what you guys think

Thanks.

Twotents

I've been wondering something similar, though when it comes to photoshop you should have a good idea of your UV placement when you are unwrapping a model, If you lay out your UV's in a fairly logical order you should be able to place the details where you want them. I'd suggest start off with some simple primitives and some poly modeled ones unwrap them till you bleed from the eyes and then move onto texturing in photoshop.

That being said zBrush does have its pro's too but you get much better layer control and layer blending in photoshop.

I guess it all depends on how you want to develop your own workflow, some people prefer polypainting others prefer the more "traditional" methods in photoshop

Hope I've given you some insight sort of answered my own question too

cryrid

Use whatever works best for you. If you're good at using Polypaint and can achieve the look you want with it, go for it. If you're accustomed to working in layers or using certain blending modes that photoshop provides, use that instead. I personally use a solid mix of both on most models (usually I start with polypaint to lay in the ground work, and between that and other baked maps, I'm left with a pretty good start for polishing it off in photoshop)

jin76

ok thanks for the replies. I was polypainting with zbrush and i came across a problem. My models are mostly made up of many different pieces ( as most models are), but have been uv mapped onto a single map. when i hit export map in zbrush, it only exports the map of the one sub tool that i have currently selected. Then even though originally the model was UV mapped onto one map, I end up with like 10 maps for a single model which is a huge problem for me. Is there a way to export the maps of a model into a single map just like the way it was UVed? or am I gonna have to bring all the maps into Photoshop to put together.

Thanks in advance.

cryrid

This is where MME comes into play:

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Multi_Map_Exporter#Create_All_Maps

flaremage007

hey thanks for the replies guys its really helping. I was looking at mudbox, now what do you guys think of texturing in mudbox vs texturing in zbrush?

deolol

Im actuallly curious about this too, i've seen people fully paint in zbrush, like if they were painting in photoshop but it seems to lack the tools to do stuff like sharp highlights and smaller details to make it stylised.

Does anyone have links to people polypainting? Thanks,

cptSwing

I don't think we're at a point where we can fully do away with PS. I use a combination of Mudbox and PS.

dirigible

3D painting is gives you limited tools (compared to photoshop) but much better control over those tools, since you are actually painting on the model, not on a UV-sheet. So it's a tradeoff.

As far as I know, mudbox and 3dcoat are the two competing choices for 'best' 3d-paint programs. Zbrush really isn't that good (at 3d painting), but a lot of people prefer to just do everything in one program, if they can. And if they aren't trying to do anything complicated, zbrush is good enough.

Like cptSwing said, using a combination of both 3dpainting and photoshop is probably the way to go if you want ultimate control. I personally am at a point where 90% of my texturing is done from baking maps and altering them in various ways. That, combined with careful UV-planning, allows me to do everything I need to in photoshop. If I was working on a different project - one with hand-painted textures, for instance, then 90% of my texturing would probably be done in a 3d-painting program.

tristamus

Consider Mudbox and 3DCoat. These two tools are renowned for their amazing 3d painting capabilities. I use them personally and highly recommend them.

Benton

3D Coat is amazing because you can press a button and open up the UV or the 3D view in Photoshop and do stuff right on the model or UV map.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5XI5dGnZY"]3D-Coat - Direct Pixel Paint - Photoshop Projection - YouTube[/ame]

dirigible

Alright, Benton, that's pretty badass. I've seen similar things before, but the fact that it's integrated into the program is pretty glorious.

Bek

You can do a similar thing with Zbrush + Zapplink plugin I believe.