Maya/ZBrush workflow, extremely hard normals

acreativebox

Hey yall!

I recently got a chance to sculpt in ZBrush so I'm currently exporting models from Maya to later on sculpt them in ZBrush. On the left is the model in Maya with a wireframe and on the right is the subdivided model in ZBrush with around 3.3 million points. Why are the normals so horribly hard? I have deliberately unchecked the "smt"-option in ZBrush because that distorts the model too much but is there any way to smoothen these hard edges? I just want a soft and round pillar



Thank you for your time and help!

Marine

You've a few options
You could use crease in maya for the hard edges before bringing it in to zbrush, think you need to use zapplink for that.
You could bevel the edges in maya and reproject to get a consistent mesh
Store a morph target at level 0, smooth it a couple of times, drop back to level 0 and restore morph target.

Moonshank

I think the reason your getting that is because you have unchecked the "smt" option. I'm going to take a guess, the distortion that your talking about is because you haven't made this object with the smoothing on in maya. Press the "3" key while in maya and it will show you a sub divided example of your model, form there add in supporting edges to get the right form of the model. Then export that to zbrush.

WarrenM

Moonshank has the right of it. You'lll have to import the model with control edges if you want it to subdivide nicely in ZBrush.

Another option you COULD try it so subdivide it once with smoothing off, then turn it ON and subd a few more times. That doesn't give ideal results but ... might be usable.

Moonshank

That method is a bit of a hack I wouldn't recommend doing it but it will work. If your going to do it do it right.

Also make sure that the model has no border edges as it will start to shrink when you sub D the model. I can't quite see from the angle but it doesn't look like you have capped the top of the pillar.

acreativebox

Viewed the model in Maya with smoothing on, looks like this so that seems alright *confused*



WarrenM: I tried your last fix and that ended up pretty much the same way, either sharp (hardened) or too smooth moving the geometry in unwanted ways.

Cheers for all your help guys!

Moonshank

what dose the "distortion" look like in zbrush?

JohnnyRaptor

You need to add supporting edges where you want hard edges etc. similar to subdivisional modelling in any other 3d application.

You can add these supporting edges in your 3d app or in Zbrush.

OR you can manually go in and smooth out hard edges using the smooth brush.


edit,
oh man, gang-ninjad!

acreativebox

Moonshank: It looks the same unfortunately, and yes you're right. I capped off the top and bottom of the pillar but that shouldn't affect the model in the way that it distorts it this badly though?

JohnnyRaptor: Thanks though!

Moonshank

If you do a "smt" sub d can you post what it looks like? that way we can see what the issue is with that. The reason it looks like it has hard edges is because you turned the "smt" option off.

acreativebox

I re-capped the end bits and "smt"-sub:d. It looks better but I have one final question, is there any way I can keep the hard edges on some parts of the model? For an example the bottom and top piece? Being itty picky right now but just trying to get a grip of it! Thanks!

Moonshank

add an edge loop (or however many you need) in maya near to the edge in desired location. Look up hard surface modelling techniques as someone already said there are fundamental techniques for sub d modelling. If your looking to bake things your going to want a bit of a round edge anyway. you will be able to see what it will look like when you add edge loops in maya with smoothing on. Otherwise you can use some of the brushes in zbrush to flatten out the top and bottom caps to get a sharp edge.

cryrid

Creasing is the route I'd take. Turning SMT off on a cylinder will lead to faceting.

acreativebox

Thank you very much for all your replies They have all been very helpful Gonna take a look at creasing, at a first glance it looks like it's exactly what I want

See you on the forums! Peace!