Answered: What's your Quixel Workflow?
polycounter lvl 6
So I picked up the Quixel 2.0 suite during that holiday sale, and so far I've been pretty happy with it. I think I like it a little more than the Substance family, mostly because I'm already really familiar with Photoshop.
I have, however, been finding it a little hard to wrap my mind around a proper workflow for this suite. Mainly in regards to nDo and dDo. Do you guys go into nDo first, and add any normal map detail you're going to need, and then swap over to dDo for the rest? Is there an easy way to go back and forth if you decide you want to add a couple more beveled boxes or extra details somewhere? How would you approach needing to add beveled text, that also has albedo and specular information required on it? Like adding raised, gold leafed letters on a book cover, or some such detail.
It doesn't seem like nDo and dDo actually work all that well in tandem together to me. Like I can't seem to have a dDo project on the go, and then in the middle of that open nDo and add some normal map details, and then use a mask from one of it's layers to add a paint material over only that new normal sculpt layer based on a text path.
So either I'm right, and going back and forth is a little more tedious than I expected it would be, or there is some workflow education I'm lacking. Would really like to hear how you guys approach this particular suite, and any other challenges or bonuses you've come across adding it to your entire pipeline. Cheers!
I have, however, been finding it a little hard to wrap my mind around a proper workflow for this suite. Mainly in regards to nDo and dDo. Do you guys go into nDo first, and add any normal map detail you're going to need, and then swap over to dDo for the rest? Is there an easy way to go back and forth if you decide you want to add a couple more beveled boxes or extra details somewhere? How would you approach needing to add beveled text, that also has albedo and specular information required on it? Like adding raised, gold leafed letters on a book cover, or some such detail.
It doesn't seem like nDo and dDo actually work all that well in tandem together to me. Like I can't seem to have a dDo project on the go, and then in the middle of that open nDo and add some normal map details, and then use a mask from one of it's layers to add a paint material over only that new normal sculpt layer based on a text path.
So either I'm right, and going back and forth is a little more tedious than I expected it would be, or there is some workflow education I'm lacking. Would really like to hear how you guys approach this particular suite, and any other challenges or bonuses you've come across adding it to your entire pipeline. Cheers!
Replies
My workflow depends on the type of work I'm doing. If I'm doing low-poly only:
Export as *.OBJ -> create normal details in nDo 2 -> Convert normal details to AO -> Bake AO from xNormal or 3DO depending on whether or not I need additional shadows from vehicle wheels -> Combine normal detail AO with baked AO -> Create ID map with Quixel Colors -> Create dDo project, but make sure to let 3DO generate a curvature map so that normal details and the low poly curvature are combined -> Profit.
High-to-low baked:
Export high and low models as *.FBX to xNormal, bake down, import mesh and normal map into nDo -> Add nDo details if necessary -> Convert those details to AO -> Bake AO from xNormal or 3DO depending on whether or not I need additional shadows from vehicle wheels -> Combine normal detail AO with baked AO -> Create ID map with Quixel Colors -> Create dDo project -> Profit.
Adding normal detail after the fact can be done by using a game engine calibration profile. Add a bump channel to that and you can paint raised or lowered surfaces in Photoshop or via dDO Painter. Ideally, you'll finish normal detailing before loading your project into dDo. Think of dDo as a finishing tool, not an iteration tool, unless you're comfortable with reimporting input maps as you update them later. I personally prefer to use it as a finishing tool rather than as an iterative tool, although it works well either way.
Be aware that adding detail from the bump channel with a game engine export profile combines the bump channel into the normal channel, but does not update curvature information for masking - that requires reimporting changed input maps.
Let me know if this helps!