Max/Zbrush Workflow.......Please Help!!
Hey guys, I'm newly registered to the forum but I've snagged plenty of help out of the archives over the past several months. I'm an engineer and recently started dabbling in the world of 3d character design and find that I do many things very well but I believe I've confused myself on the proper workflow.
This is what I currently have in mind:
1) Base model in max
2) Export to zbrush for sculpting detail
3) retopologize in topogun
4) Export back to zbrush and project high poly on to new low poly.
This is about where it goes south.....
Do I create UV's for all of my subtools individually or do I do it for the entire character at one time? Should I do UV's before retopologizing? when am I supposed to bake the maps? Am I doing this wrong from the start?
I understand that this is a lot and I've google and researched many different ways but I haven't found a clean and concise answer. I guess what I'm looking for is a bulleted order of operations from start to finish. Any help you guys can give me would be most helpful. Thanks in advance.
This is what I currently have in mind:
1) Base model in max
2) Export to zbrush for sculpting detail
3) retopologize in topogun
4) Export back to zbrush and project high poly on to new low poly.
This is about where it goes south.....
Do I create UV's for all of my subtools individually or do I do it for the entire character at one time? Should I do UV's before retopologizing? when am I supposed to bake the maps? Am I doing this wrong from the start?
I understand that this is a lot and I've google and researched many different ways but I haven't found a clean and concise answer. I guess what I'm looking for is a bulleted order of operations from start to finish. Any help you guys can give me would be most helpful. Thanks in advance.
Replies
2) Export to Zbrush if using Max/Maya
3) Sculpt Model using multiple subdivision levels. Increase Subdiv levels slowly to ensure your mesh doesn't become "blobby" with detail.
4) Retopologise in a variety of programs; via exporting to maya/max/topogun/3Dcoat or even in zbrush retoplogy itself.
5) UVW the LOW poly, you can UV in parts or all 1 character, depending on whether you want multiple maps; however its best to do multiple maps; i.e. face, hands, some clothing on 1 map, whilst accessories on another
6) Use Xnormal for Baking, Import the high and low and bake your Normal, AO, Cavity etc. This detail will then be processed to your UVW map; I.E. the normals from your head will be displayed on the section of your low poly UVW head.
Hope this helps.
Baking is also known as "projecting" its the same thing, your projecting the detailing or baking them from the high poly to the low poly UVW Map. This map is then applied to the low poly model.
This stuff is so awesome.
The normal map has to go in the "bump" slot, using a "normal bump" which uses the actual normal map.
I would use AO as a base to create my Diffuse map painted in Photoshop or whatever
and apply that in the diffuse slot.
do some simple scenes to learn about your 3d app.
learn about UVs, and textures. diffuse, specular, gloss, etc and how they effect eachother.
Read up on what bump and normalmaps are and try a few bakes etc and get them to work on a simple lowpoly mesh.
Try baking ambient occlusion maps.
Once youv got all these basic things nailed, you can combine them, and gradually figure out a fast workflow when applied to one project.
less headache, better grip on foundation skills - only downside is it will maybe take a bit longer...but in the long run, it will benefit you more.
Edit, oh and if your using max, the max help is really good for the basic stuff and its right there, id recommend going through the getting started tutorials, and further along, for any specific feature or function, use the help and search to understand how it works and how to use it. Google if max help cant get you the info.
It's unfortunate because it will be a bit slower but I'm naturally a perfectionist so in time it'll all shake out. I appreciate the input.