Working with Zbrush and Maya

Adrian

Hey guys, this is my very first post so apologies if this is in the wrong section.

Basically this past couple of weeks I've been trying to teach myself 3D modelling - It's going well and I can model all kinds of things in Maya, like houses, spaceships and some basic humans. I'm also learning Zbrush where I can also make some basic busts.

My question is about how to integrate these two programs. I've been watching a lot of youtube videos and many of them seem to skip some of the key points I'm trying to work out.
Do you model in Maya first, then import to Zbrush, then import to Maya again to render? If so, when do you take each step?

Thanks in advance!

CandyStripes05

Everyone has different workflows so how you use Maya and ZBrush is completely up to you.

For example, organic stuff I either work from a simple base mesh that I create in Maya or from ZSpheres in ZBrush. Hard surface stuff I tend to do all in Maya but if I needed a small complex design on a panel or something I would pop it into ZBrush real quick to knock it out. But I have seen people do some crazy hard surface stuff purely in ZBrush... like I said it is all up to you and how comfortable you are with each program, as you get stronger in them your workflow will change and become quicker.

For rendering, it depends what kind of renders you want. If you are aiming for real time renders (game engine) and you are working on a scene I recommend UDK, if it is a simple prop or character I recommend Marmoset Toolbag, and lastly if it is just a bust or WIP I would render it in ZBrush, or Maya's Mental Ray, or whatever suits your needs.

Hope this helped, goodluck !

Alberto Rdrgz

for me it always depends on what im working on, sometimes i start in maya, with a simple block out, sometimes in zbrush if it's something i can start from dynamesh. But at work it's usually maya first.

Adrian

Thanks for your help guys!
At the moment I'm making a spaceship model (original, right?) and I made it all in maya using polygons and putting them together, then extruding or changing as I saw fit.
If I wanted to add some extra detail would I import it into Zbrush just to add small details?
Also, because I want to make a short animation with it, would I then import the detailed Zbrush model back into Maya to animate?

DrunkShaman

Adrian wrote: »

Hey guys, this is my very first post so apologies if this is in the wrong section.

Basically this past couple of weeks I've been trying to teach myself 3D modelling - It's going well and I can model all kinds of things in Maya, like houses, spaceships and some basic humans. I'm also learning Zbrush where I can also make some basic busts.

My question is about how to integrate these two programs. I've been watching a lot of youtube videos and many of them seem to skip some of the key points I'm trying to work out.
Do you model in Maya first, then import to Zbrush, then import to Maya again to render? If so, when do you take each step?

Thanks in advance!

I try to follow this flow:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FrrzRdVCaQ&list=UU1fl48XHsZBMX4-Yea3LbMQ&index=36&feature=plcp"](Part 1) modeling, 3D total Abominable Snowman challenge - YouTube[/ame]

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to tell you the other part. You can actually use this for any modeling tool software not just luxology modo. The idea is the same, block out the mesh, export it as .obj, import that .obj in to zbrush, sculpt, detail, duplicate, decimate.

Now the mesh I decimate I would just import it in to 3dcoat to re-topo since the topology tool really sucks in zbrush. After Re-topo I use the same mesh for high res mesh and low res mesh.

Jeff Parrott

You can use GoZ pretty easily. I do that nowadays a lot of the time.

Equanim

I second the workflow Nitewalkr suggests. The key is to export your model as an .obj between programs. Obj is the default export option in ZBrush but you'll have to turn Maya's .obj plugin on the first time you use it. Within Maya, go to

Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager and make sure objExport.mll is checked in both boxes. (You should only have to do that the first time.)

GoZ does all of this pretty much automatically but make sure you save your Maya scene or ZTool before exporting just to be safe.

Adrian

Nitewalkr wrote: »

I try to follow this flow:

(Part 1) modeling, 3D total Abominable Snowman challenge - YouTube

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to tell you the other part. You can actually use this for any modeling tool software not just luxology modo. The idea is the same, block out the mesh, export it as .obj, import that .obj in to zbrush, sculpt, detail, duplicate, decimate.

Now the mesh I decimate I would just import it in to 3dcoat to re-topo since the topology tool really sucks in zbrush. After Re-topo I use the same mesh for high res mesh and low res mesh.

Thanks, that video is great, althought it still left me with some of the original questions I had. If the guy wanted to animate his Yeti (sans base), would he then go back into Modo (or whatever animating program he uses) and rig then animate his high poly model?

Equanim wrote: »

I second the workflow Nitewalkr suggests. The key is to export your model as an .obj between programs. Obj is the default export option in ZBrush but you'll have to turn Maya's .obj plugin on the first time you use it. Within Maya, go to

Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager and make sure objExport.mll is checked in both boxes. (You should only have to do that the first time.)

GoZ does all of this pretty much automatically but make sure you save your Maya scene or ZTool before exporting just to be safe.

Thanks, I've been playing around with GoZ already

Jeff Parrott wrote: »

You can use GoZ pretty easily. I do that nowadays a lot of the time.

Yeah GoZ is great