W40K Dreadnought WIP. Non-Destructive Pipeline Trials - Zbrush-Substance-UE4
So, I've
been puttering away at this thing on and off since summer. It started as a way
to learn the new Zmodeler tools in Zbrush, without having to chase around for
ref, and practice hard surface at the same time. I've mostly been a character
guy thus far. This slowly evolved into a desire to turn out a game-model, as
some people I know had real trouble with baking good hard surface normal maps.
Turns out it wasn't that easy (go figure).
So far i have most of the main pieces done in Zbrush sub-D, though all the
chapter specific detailing is left. I've managed to set up a non-destructive
synched pipeline (needs testing!) from Zbrush to UE4 after a lot of aches and pains. This shall
be the thread where I document my process of refining the model, pushing my
refinements through the pipeline, to end up with a final game-ready PBR
product. I may even rig and animate if a fey mood takes me 
This is the current Zbrush high-res:
Not quite done, but good enough to see if it will bake. Some things are off as far as the proper 40K miniature. I thought I could get away with sub-par ref in the early stages and I'll be paying for that by re-making things later on. I have a LasCannon for the other arm, but haven't added it in yet. Zbrush render of said LasCannon I made a while ago:
Below is my current bake. I had a lot of issues figuring out how to bake properly, but I think I have it down now. Currently I've settled on Substance Designer for baking, using the map combining technique illustrated by Quack! here. The really flat, hard edged places are places that will be obscured, so those take up no UV space. Some places are un-optimized polygon wise and there's a few wobbly places in the back that need more geo. I'll be adding some more stuff from the high res into this texture (one 4k set so far).
Here is a first pass in Substance painter to try out my map bakes (Just basic
smart materials. Red is places that will be obscured):
Though I created this thread to document my process, comments, criticisms
and suggestions are more than welcome. I'm likely to be doing some things overly
complicated, and sometimes downright asinine, so do call me out 
If anyone is familiar with Warhammer lore, I'd love it if you'd point out places where I've
gone wrong, as detailing progresses.
Goals for this project:
- Model high res in sub-D using only Zmodeler
- Create orderly, tightly packed UV's
- Flawless synched bakes with UE4 and Marmoset (MikkT)
- Learn Subtance Painter/Designer and texture with these
List of next features:
- Unwrapping and baking of legs
- Base texture of legs
- Low-res of Las-Cannon
- Unwrap and bake of Las-Cannon
- Las-Cannon base texture
- Finish basic Power Fist