Pipeline
polycounter lvl 8
Hi guys, I just realized that I have used the same pipeline for quite a while and thought that it might be time to look into optimizing it. So I thought we could just share our pipeline so that people can be inspired to incorporate elements of other pipelines into their own. So if you have some kind of standard post it bellow.
My personal: Zbrush -> Topogun(retopo) -> Maya (UV) -> Topogun(bake) -> (DDO if its something hard surface or the like) -> Maya (rest).
It'll be interesting to see how much it differs from person to person.
My personal: Zbrush -> Topogun(retopo) -> Maya (UV) -> Topogun(bake) -> (DDO if its something hard surface or the like) -> Maya (rest).
It'll be interesting to see how much it differs from person to person.
Replies
MODO (model, UV, retopo, some sculpting, baking)
ZBrush (if there is heavy sculpting)
Engine (check that everything looks alright with basic bakes)
Photoshop with Quick Save Maps and Combine Normals (still not really on the procedural bandwagon yet with SP/SD/Quixel)
Knald (generating maps from any fine detail stuff I make heightmaps for in Photoshop)
Marmoset (for quick texture iteration)
Engine (check my textures look as expected)
Photoshop (for any final tweaks to the texture, generally just adjusting scalar texture maps)
MODO (LODs, etc)
Engine (final thing)
it doesn't matter really, in any case, as long as you are working in games, freelance or onsite your stuff will end up in an engine
My/our workflow is a bit less "this is it" as we work with many clients with tons of individual workflows but usually it is something like
3dapp - for modelling, could be max or blender, i need to port over more to blender
zBrush - for sculpting and polypainting
3dcoat - for retopo and uv
3dapp or iPackThat - for UV packing
Baker - could be Maya, could be Backstube (xnormal batcher), could be topogun, Mightybake, Substance, whatever the client needs
Photoshop - for texturing, we have a whole lot of the texturebuilding automated. Sometimes it is in combination with ddo, most of the times just PS, maybe a bit of fixing or maskcreation with 3dcoat.
I have yet to find the client that lets us dive deeper into substance. So far, none in sight. But we might push our internal pipeline into that direction, for external work, which is lik 95% of what we do it is unlikely unless i can construct PSDs based on Clients wishes.
Engine - this could be the Projects Engine, or a modelviewer. In many cases it is just Marmoset as we do not get to touch the clients engine that often.
If it is a Unity or Unreal Project we check the stuff in there
Photoshop - for presentation
1.Max: basemesh (an optional step)
2.Zbrush: sculpt
3.Max: retopo & UV
4.Substance Painter: bake maps and texture ( I haven't noticed much difference between substance and xnormal for organic stuff)
5.Engine
My old school, hand painted method is
1. Max: model & uv
2. 3D Coat: bake AO & texture
3. Photoshop: tweak
4. Engine
like how you would expect it? last time i tested it (in painter) it would export flattened metalness, albedo, roughness etc and not all layers.
If i can define how stuff will be named and grouped this would work for most clients, as everyone has their own layout I can't just export in the order of creation.
Additional Sculpting - Zbrush
Baking - Xnormal,Maya or Substance Designer,depends on random stuff and if i need sometimes to test something with X software.
Texturing - Substance Designer or Quixel Suite.Photoshop sometimes if i want to add something that is hard to do in Quixel/Substance,but generally it almost never happens
Rendering - Engine/Marmoset Toolbag 2.
Another workflow i've been studying for a long time now is the use of the Rounded edge shader in Modo to create quick complex shapes that are bakable in Modo,or you can also convert them to something cleaner or even to SubD using Zbrush.Texturing in Substance Designer or Quixel as always.
Dont want to go off-topic,but do people heavily use Creasing in Maya/Max/Modo (Wheigting) to avoid edge looping,or it's 50/50 or absolutely not using them at all ?
So just exporting flattened channels with a custom naming, order and hierarchy would be enough for most client?
Or would one PSD per output with flattened folders inside it work?
We are trying to find the best tradeoff when it comes to PSD export because our blending modes and image/color formats differ too much from PS to be able to do a full-on conversion to PSD.
I use the Catmull-Clark surfaces anyway as they deal with problematic topology much better, but if you have all the support loops in, you wind up with considerably more geometry than using edge weights for most of it.
I would like a PSD export that put out an exact replica of my layer setup in Painter. If it's using a blend mode that isn't supported maybe just display an error and have it convert to the next closest thing?
FYI 3DCoat PBR is possibly dropping around the end of this month, free for 3DCoat 4 license holders. I'm messing with it now, it kiiiinda exports psd layers.... I have to mess with it more to figure it out.
For mechanical:
high poly Maya smooth mesh preview + crease set editor>
low poly and uv's in Maya + NightShade UV editor>
bake normal map in MightyBake with Maya tangents preview in Maya>
generate detail normal passes in Knald>
composite maps in Photoshop and tune strength, detail normal + surface normal + geo normal and preview in Maya>
bake UE4 tangent maps in MightyBake>
composite final UE4 tangent maps in Photoshop>
import into Unreal 4.
For organic:
blockout in shape in Maya>
sculpt in Mudbox>
decimate in Mudbox or low poly and uv's in Maya + NightShade UV editor>
bake normal map in MightyBake with Maya tangents preview in Maya>
generate detail normal passes in Knald>
composite maps in Photoshop and tune strength, detail normal + surface normal + geo normal and preview in Maya>
bake UE4 tangent maps in MightyBake>
composite final UE4 tangent maps in Photoshop>
import into Unreal 4.
For tiling textures:
layout objects in Maya>
render top down normal map light rig to capture tiling texture>
generate detail normal passes in Knald>
composite maps in Photoshop and tune strength, detail normal + render top down normal map and preview in Maya>
import into Unreal 4.