Texturing Workflow

rogue1

Hi there,

I  have been working on producing a high res model of a wolf. I am using 3d coat for the unwrapping of the low poly version of my z brush model and bringing the low poly model and unwrap into photoshop for the texturing. Once complete I plan to bring it into my main 3d application along with a displacement map of my high poly sculpted detail. 

My issue is the eyes. When unwrapping a low poly version you don't get a clear idea of where all the nice sculpted high res detail is for texturing. For example I would like to texture the eyelids and have the eyeball in place and textured nicely. I am just running into issues when trying to do this with a low res version of my model. 

Any ideas would be much appreciated for a better workflow would be awesome.

Thanks

musashidan

If you're texturing in PS just overlay a render of the UV template, make a note of the edge loop that defines the Iris, and texture accordingly. As you will never see the back of the eyeball you can delete half the mesh and Unwrap a planar projection. This will give you a perfect template to texture over.

rogue1

Hi @musashidan thanks so much for the reply. I apologize for my lack of knowledge but I am still a bit confused. Attached is my screenshot of my uv of the head in ps. The other image is the high res model from z brush, I just don't see how i can texture the eye lid area perfectly and have it fit my model when I apply the displacement map with the high res detail. 

The only way I can see having the control and being able to detail those sculpted areas is to texture on the high res version which is a million + polys.

I am aiming to create a super high res photo realistic wolf so the textures are 8k+ I will be putting hair over the whole model but want the underlying texturing to be super detailed and accurate to my high res z brush model. Again I apologize my lack of knowledge, appreciate any insight you can help a noob like me

RN

Suggestions:
- Try to texture paint (in the 3D software) the high-poly, so you get an instant feedback and can physically point where the texture should go. You do rough strokes to mark important areas and then you can bring that painted image to PS and refine it there.
- Generate a UV template (that wireframe image) of the high-poly to use as reference when painting the texture in PS. When you subdivide the mesh the topology in the UV space can change, like at the seams, so the lowpoly UV template is not accurate.

musashidan

Sorry, I thought you meant the eyeballs. No need for apologies.  We're all on the same path of learning.

The problem is that you won't be able to paint on that UV layout accurately because the topology doesn't represent  the high res surface forms. You do have options though. You have 3 in ZB: 1-polypaint 2-polypaint with spotlight projection 3-use Zapplink to projection paint in Photoshop.

You also might want to check your uv unwrap for distortion. You can do that by applying a uv testing specific texture. There are many great ones to be found here on the wiki.(bottom of page)

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Coordinates

rogue1

Thanks so much to @musashidan and @RN going to try all of your advise and methods, huge help!!!