Zbrush and Maya Pipeline help

SirMustard

Hey guys I know I've already posted a thread about some help I need but this one is a lot more detailed.

So I have basically been trying to create a weapon for Slardar for some time now and it seems I am having some incredible trouble getting the texture from Zbrush into Maya.


So to start of the beginning here are the steps that I have taken up to now.

1.Created a mesh using Z-Spheres in Zbrush. I sculpted it into a high poly mesh and then exported the high poly as an OBJ and a lower subdivison version of the same mesh as an OBJ as well.

2I then attempted to unwrap the UV's for my low poly in Maya

3Painted the high poly mesh in Zbrush and attempted to give it UV's using the groupUV tool (i think). After doing this it caused the model to get those weird lines you can see in the picture.

So ultimately I have no idea how to get the texture from my high poly model onto my low poly. What do I do with UV's for both? How do I use XNormals properly? etc

Thanks for takin the time to help guys!

Snowstorm

afaik, you wouldn't need to involve Zbrush in the high poly - low poly process at all. My take on the workflow would be export the Zbrush high poly sculpt as an obj, export the low poly in the relevant file format, and then using XNormal place the high poly sculpt in XNormal's high poly object section, place the low poly object in XNormal's low poly object section, set the baking settings and bake out the maps you need.

You'll get the image maps and then you can apply those images to your object in Maya. So you see the final result of your high poly in maya, rather than in Zbrush.

It looks to me like you're using polypaint? If you are then check this out too http://www.polycount.com/2013/08/30/13550/

SirMustard

So I literally make a high poly and low poly and then just throw em into XNormal? Don't they need UV's or something lol. I've tried it and the maps came out funny.

Snowstorm

The low poly needs UVs, the high poly doesn't if you're using polypaint. You'll need to turn off the "ignore per-vertex colours" option in XNormal if you are using polypaint though.

Vextrakt

Just to outline it:

1. Export your UV'd low poly and your high poly thats polypainted as .obj (UVs on HP don't matter).

2. Plug both into xNormal in their respective sections and check "Bake highpoly's vertex colors" box for baking - make sure to uncheck "Ignore per-vertex-color" on your high poly.

3. After you bake that, bake the remaining maps you need (ambient occlusion, normal map, bent normal map, cavity map) with "ignore per-vertex-color" checked on.


Not sure if you already know this, but some useful information if you don't: If you are using Maya, bake your normal/bent normal with X+ Y+ Z+ in their options. When you are bringing it into DoTA, it must be X+ Y- Z+ (which means you have to invert the normal map's green channel in photoshop).