ZBrush Baking workflow?

Justinnd

After jumping from Mudbox to Zbrush I've been trying to nail down an AO/Normal bake workflow using xNormal.

When I used Mudbox I'd explode the low poly in Max, import it into Mudbox, line up the high poly segments, then bake there or bring the whole thing into xNormal.

Is this about what I'm looking to do as a workflow in ZBrush, or is there another way to go about things?

Thanks for any help.

arcitecht

Zbrush doesnt do typical baking. Using the Multi Map Export plugin you can rip normals off a subtool, but it has to have UVs as it bakes from the lowest subdivision to whatever you set the highest to (rather than using two models). It does work, but I've found xNormal to be a much better solution.

sprunghunt

I would also just use Xnormal for baking. You can't be sure you're matching the tangent basis to your final render engine using any other application.

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap/#Tangent_Basis

Justinnd

Awesome, thanks for the info.