Zbrush - 3dsmax Pipline. Help need

Farina

Hello guys,


i am a little bit new at 3d. I have seen a lot workflows and pipelines, HOW you should begin and end.

But i think, i need a little bit help, for understanding.

So here is my Workflow. (I start everything from Zbrush)

1. Build a Basemesh from a "Mannequin" or "ball". (Starting Dynamesh) ( At this point, i dont know, i should sculpt in "Perspective" or not.
2. Make hands and feet by pulling/moving out the mesh. (I dont know, if this method is good) ( I dont want to use the given ztools in zbrush, because i want to make everthing by myself.
3. Go to higher dynamesh level.
4. Detailing everything. (I dont know, if i ONLY should use dynamesh for all? What is with subdividing?) It seems to be the same
5. The model is ready in zbrush.
6 Export the HighPoly to 3dcoat and make there the retopo, OR i take the Zremesher?

I know, when i make a retopo by myself in 3dcoat, i can make holes in the nose, mouth and eyes.
But zremesher seems to be harder for it or? Because i have to make the holes after i use zremesher in a harder way, as in 3dcoat? I have try zremesher too and enden up with 14.000 Polys for a head with bust and its really hard to cut out the nose, eyes and mouth in 3dsmax in editable poly ;-( I try to make symmetry, so that the other side of the objekt have holes too but the polygons are toooooo near.

7. After retopo my model, Unwrap my model with "unwrella,unwrap in 3dsmax. (Set the uvs)
8. Take my Highpoly and my Lowpoly (with uvs) and bake with xnormal the normal map or displacement map OUT of the highpoly for the low poly.
9. After baking the maps, i go back to max, set in the normal(dismap to my lowpoly.
10. Export the model to mudbox and stamp the textures to my model (I stamp, because i dont like to draw)
11. If i like it, export my model with uvs and texture to 3dsmax again and Lightning and Press " Render".


Could you give some feedback, what you can cristim? Or what i could make better and faster?
My big deal is it, to make hands and feets, from pulling out the mesh with "Move" and "Inflate". At the moment its really hard for me, but i learn learn learn.


Im so sorry for the questions, but i hope you can give me tips, it would help me a lot ;-/

Its hard for me to understand, when its time to make holes and HOW to to the holes (eyes, mouth , nose)

Elodin

I find 3dcoat extremely hard to use. I use zphere and then - retopology tool. Gives you a little bit more control.

Zremesher doesn't give you a good result.

Cut edges of your UV's in Maya or Max, then export to zbrush and hit unwrap. Works like a charm.

Randell Trulson

I don't know what version of ZBrush you have, but 4R7 pretty much can take the place of most all the tools you mentioned.

Here is what I do.

- How I start in Zbrush depends on if I am sculpting, say like a soft model, or hard surface.

- With either one the idea is to start with a low poly mesh and subdivide it for more detail.

-When the model is done in ZBrush, you can texture it or even use alpha brushes to stamp impressions into it if you like. There are tons of insert mesh tools too. Then you can use PolyPaint and texture the whole thing.

- You can use UV Master to generate the UVs for the textures too

- Then I take the low poly version and all the textures including the normal and displacement maps from the higher division version of the model and use "GoZ" to export it all to 3DS Max for rendering.

There is no need to even have Mudbox loaded if you have ZBrush. Anyhow, that is what I do.

Sincerely,
Randell Trulson
www.NeuronGames.com

Pabs

for retopology and uv'ing, i would recommend 3dcoat (you can set navigation mode to zbrush)

if you plan on using zbrush for retopo and unwraping, it will work, but you'll get 'rough' results.

Obscura

For the most, I didn't find any of these answers useful to be honest, sorry guys. She or he is asking about the pipeline, which really depends on many things. First we should know what style you are aiming, what type of game, or not game, camera view, target platform, is it an enviro, a prop, or a character, etc...Everything is based on these if you want to work effectively and professionally.

As my personal opinion, you can't build your workflow around zbrush, it won't work in many cases, but still everything depends...It can if you are making only characters for example.

lol, I just see how old is this thread.