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ScrotieFlapWack
polycounter lvl 5
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ScrotieFlapWack polycounter lvl 5
Hi Guys,

I am having some problems. I have made a mesh which is just over 20 million polygons and I want to bake this to a low poly version of my mesh.

Here is a picture of the mesh ....

eCkPokS.png

I am using Maya LT for baking out my maps. I have tried a few workflows to lower the poly count of my model in Zbrush but I lose a significant amount of detail on my mesh with both workflows.

The first workflow I try is just freezing my sub levels and then using ZRemesher and then unfreezing this doesn't work to well because the poly count is still in the millions and when I try and import the model into Maya LT it causes it to crash.

The second workflow is duplicating my SubTool of my mesh then hiding the clone and using ZRemesher and then projecting all the detail from the original to the remeshed version of the model. This lowers the poly count down into the thousands which is good but I lose a load of detail.

The main issue is that Maya LT crashes when I import the mesh. I have tried both workflows. I don't know whether this is due to a RAM problem with my computer so here are my system spec's in case you are wondering.

Processor: AMD FX - 8350 - Eight Core Processor 4.00 GHz
RAM: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance 16000 MHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 660Ti
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  • SuperFranky
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    SuperFranky polycounter lvl 10
    I'm pretty sure that using Decimation Master plugin in Zbrush would be the best way to do it if you want to import high res mesh into Maya. In most cases you can decimate a mesh to 20% or lower without losing any details.
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  • ScrotieFlapWack
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    ScrotieFlapWack polycounter lvl 5
    SuperFranky wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure that using Decimation Master plugin in Zbrush would be the best way to do it if you want to import high res mesh into Maya. In most cases you can decimate a mesh to 20% or lower without losing any details.

    Ahh sweet man! I will look into that and see if that works! I'll post the results back here :)
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  • ScrotieFlapWack
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    ScrotieFlapWack polycounter lvl 5
    Just took a look at this tutorial.

    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTp6J644zGA[/ame]

    Amazing stuff, I think this is the tool I was looking for!

    Thanks alot man appreciate the help :)
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  • SuperFranky
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    SuperFranky polycounter lvl 10
    I think you should spend some time on reading the manual for Zbrush, there's a lot of great hidden stuff in Zbrush that you just can't find without it :)
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  • ScrotieFlapWack
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    ScrotieFlapWack polycounter lvl 5
    SuperFranky wrote: »
    I think you should spend some time on reading the manual for Zbrush, there's a lot of great hidden stuff in Zbrush that you just can't find without it :)

    I agree. Thank you so much man honestly can't thank you enough. I thought I had to buy a new system LMAO.

    Here are the results ....

    oEcLnr6.png

    20 thousand polygons from 20 million. Zbrush is incredible! I compared my original with the new version and I can barely notice any differences XD

    It imports into Maya LT as smooth as butter now. Thanks SuperFranky you sir are my hero :)
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  • ScrotieFlapWack
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    ScrotieFlapWack polycounter lvl 5
    I am looking for more help now lol. Big thanks again to SuperFranky for telling me about Decimation Master in Zbrush. I have now run into another problem though :(

    After getting some amazing results in Zbrush with Decimation Master I imported my model into Maya LT to bake from my high poly to my low poly model. The issue I am running into is when I bring the high poly decimated model from Zbrush into Maya LT I am noticing some problems.

    Here is a screenshot of my high poly model in Maya LT ....

    fUZ1P9E.png

    xw80JES.png

    You can see some issue with the mesh not looking how it looks in Zbrush (check my post above this one).

    The polygons of the mesh are visible across the whole model and I also have some artifacts in the second screenshot, they are black area's these are around the whole model as well. I did a smooth in Maya LT but due to the topology of the model this makes more artifacts across the mesh causing a lot of black spots but it does fix the issue of smoothing out the polygons.

    I think I may need to test the Decimation Master in Zbrush a little more just to find out my limit of polygons I can bring into Maya LT per model. My question is, I just want to know why the model looks the way it does in the first screenshot? Would this be due to me decimating my model too much in Zbrush? Because it looks completely fine in Zbrush and there is hardly any loss of detail, but in Maya LT it looks terrible.

    I am basically trying to find a workflow for modelling which is efficient, I have a ton of models I need to make and I really don't want to be spending time on unnecessary steps such as retopology when I have tools like Decimation Master which can do it quickly for me :D

    All the models I need to make are for an environment of a level I am working on for my project, so perfect topology isn't really necessary as I won't be animating any of the environment models.

    Any tips would be very much appreciated things such as ...

    What do I need to look out for in Zbrush after decimating my models to prevent this from happening?
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  • SuperFranky
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    SuperFranky polycounter lvl 10
    Zbrush and Maya simply display polygons differently. You have two identical decimated models. If you want it to look better, then, you'll have to up the number of polygons... For an object like that I wouldn't be too shy with polygons, Maya can handle a lot :)
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  • ScrotieFlapWack
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    ScrotieFlapWack polycounter lvl 5
    So I have done some tests and as you suggested SuperFranky Maya LT can handle a fair bit. I have my model in and the detail is looking great after a 20% decimation on it before exporting from Zbrush.

    I keep getting these black area's on my model though and I have no idea what they are or where they come from.

    Here is a shot in Maya LT.

    Cb6XtE8.png

    This model is sitting just over 4 million polygons. The detail is great but the black area's are causing me problems. At first I thought it was my camera clipping or something so I adjusted that in the Attributes Editor but that didn't solve it. It seems to be something with the model.

    Here is a close up of one of the black area's with wireframe on ....

    9azDHWb.png

    And here it is with wireframe off ....

    hF5uaie.png

    Is it something to do with the normals? I used a surface noise in Zbrush to get all my detail. Before applying to the mesh I adjusted the smooth normal slider to 100.
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  • ScrotieFlapWack
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    ScrotieFlapWack polycounter lvl 5
    After doing some research into Noisemaker and the Surface palette I found out that unfortunately when you apply noise to your mesh it causes a lot of pinching on the edges of the mesh. Due to the amount of noise I am applying to my mesh to get the desired effect I am after it is pinching a lot of the polys around the edges of my mesh.

    There are a few ways to combat this which I will explain (incase someone else wants to know the answer or is having the same problem I am).

    There is a really cool tutorial at Bad King on Noisemaker which shows you a huge amount of stuff Noisemaker can do, here is the link http://www.badking.com.au/site/tutorial/understanding-zbrush-noisemaker/

    When applying extreme noise to your mesh, Noisemaker inflates the mesh after you apply your effect to your model. There are some techniques you can use to combat this which are shown in the above tutorial.

    Morph targets can be used so you can go in to the 'problem area's' and cleanup some of that pinching. You can also use layers, which in my opinion isn't as good because you really have to compensate the desired effect to fix the problem area's which in turn isn't really fixing the issue. You can also smooth the area's you are getting pinching which works considerably well.

    Hope this helps anyone else having the same problem I am having, I guess you have to be careful when using Noisemaker as your are essentially deforming your mesh to get the effect you are after but at a pretty heavy cost of having to go back in and clean up area's, with bigger meshes this may take you a lot of time but I guess it is all down to preference and how you wish to work :)
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