Creating ID Maps from ZBrush Models for Substance Painter
polycounter lvl 18
hey guys... haven't really been posting here in a while but I figured I would share something I learned today
I recently discovered the baking engine in Substance Painter (how did I miss this?) and was working to figure out how to get my ID maps working from my ZBrush meshes. In my pipeline, I use ZBrush>Modo>Substance Painter and needed to figure out a way to get the models into it with all of my polygroups intact. So I want to share with you how to do just that. I will be using modo, but I think this will work for other apps.
1. You need a subtool from ZBrush... here is a NICE looking tshirt... with three polygroups. You just need one for something like a shirt unless it has complex patterns. But for now, three will suffice. And use these options. Also, feel free to decimate your models if needed. Since we are just baking for IDs, polypainting is not needed.
And the export options... it is IMPORTANT to have Export Polygroups as Materials selected otherwise you will not be able to get all of the details.
2. When we import it into Modo, the polygroups that were made will become materials... but it will be too damn small! (I am working with real world scale, which I STRONGLY encourage, and the FBX Exporter from Zbrush seems to bypass this. Hopefully by time I get Modo 901 this won't happen again) So we will have to fix the scale. But let's make sure the model imports the way we want.
Here are the options I am using for import... I chose Load Polygon Parts because it was cleaner to use. The model will be too small so you have to scale it up to match the scene around it. Interestingly enough the colour of the materials match the polygroups... sweeet.
Import Options:
Result (too small though):
There we go... now the shirt is ready to be processed in Substance Painter (Export selected will be best. An option I use for asset creation.)
3. Open up Substance Painter and import the low res shirt (or any mesh in your scene). Pick a res. Now we need to bake the ID maps. Nice shirt, man.
Open up the bake textures options, load in your high res model and when you get to ID, select Polygroup/Submesh ID from the dropdown and choose Random for the colour generation. If you did everything correctly, you will get three colours.
ID options
TA DA!!!
A quick take away from this... if you have a subtool with multiple pieces like a boot, you will want to decimate, if needed, and merge visible so that will create one subtool to export... and then in Polygroups, click autogroups, which will detect all of the pieces NOT connected
And Enjoy.
I recently discovered the baking engine in Substance Painter (how did I miss this?) and was working to figure out how to get my ID maps working from my ZBrush meshes. In my pipeline, I use ZBrush>Modo>Substance Painter and needed to figure out a way to get the models into it with all of my polygroups intact. So I want to share with you how to do just that. I will be using modo, but I think this will work for other apps.
1. You need a subtool from ZBrush... here is a NICE looking tshirt... with three polygroups. You just need one for something like a shirt unless it has complex patterns. But for now, three will suffice. And use these options. Also, feel free to decimate your models if needed. Since we are just baking for IDs, polypainting is not needed.
And the export options... it is IMPORTANT to have Export Polygroups as Materials selected otherwise you will not be able to get all of the details.
2. When we import it into Modo, the polygroups that were made will become materials... but it will be too damn small! (I am working with real world scale, which I STRONGLY encourage, and the FBX Exporter from Zbrush seems to bypass this. Hopefully by time I get Modo 901 this won't happen again) So we will have to fix the scale. But let's make sure the model imports the way we want.
Here are the options I am using for import... I chose Load Polygon Parts because it was cleaner to use. The model will be too small so you have to scale it up to match the scene around it. Interestingly enough the colour of the materials match the polygroups... sweeet.
Import Options:
Result (too small though):
There we go... now the shirt is ready to be processed in Substance Painter (Export selected will be best. An option I use for asset creation.)
3. Open up Substance Painter and import the low res shirt (or any mesh in your scene). Pick a res. Now we need to bake the ID maps. Nice shirt, man.
Open up the bake textures options, load in your high res model and when you get to ID, select Polygroup/Submesh ID from the dropdown and choose Random for the colour generation. If you did everything correctly, you will get three colours.
ID options
TA DA!!!
A quick take away from this... if you have a subtool with multiple pieces like a boot, you will want to decimate, if needed, and merge visible so that will create one subtool to export... and then in Polygroups, click autogroups, which will detect all of the pieces NOT connected
And Enjoy.
Replies
This way it doesn't matter how many polygroups you have. Or how many meshes you're loading.
This also works... though I needed to combine some of my subtools like a boot or a pouch... was trying a new setup to autogenerate my "Clown Mapping"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BySLGqU4RMaWYjRrcFNZc29vWFU/view
* original link here; http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?188035-BA-Thesis-ZScript-Creating-Masks-for-dDo-Quixel-Suite-and-Compositing&p=1151471#post1151471
I have this plugin... it's REAL handy.
The only reason I have to do this long step is because FBX Exporter from Zbrush to Modo, the model is too small.