Good pipeline? (from model to texture to ringing or VFX) (Cinematic characters)
polycounter lvl 6
Hello,
I am Tanel.
Started with CGI last year June
This is when i messed around in Houdini
Now from September last yar started with zBrush
Finished my first sculpt.
It is this one:
But now trying to figure out what is good way for texturing.
I have no info how to do UV-s etc.
Tested out this model with Keyshot (model had no UV-s).
Aplied materials and tweaked with sliders a bit but that was it.
Tried to import this to the Substance Painter but failed as it does not have UV-s.
Did do small research and found out that zBrush uv maps are not used often in production pipeline.
I know that there is option to do UV-s in Maya.
What i am trying to figure out is what is good and profecional way to texture a character.
What i am interested is creating sculpts or models for cinematic animations.
Had some issues in zbrush as it is more like 2.5d then 3D and hate that it does not have option to see 2 sides same time. (like in Houdini or Maya) where you can have multiple windows and eahc window has seperate capmera view that i can adjust.
Yes i know Maya is not sculpting it is more like Modeling and zbrush is sculpting.
So here are my 2 questions:
1.) Is this valid pipeline that i create base mesh in Maya (because then i get front and side view siluet of model right as i can see side view and front view same time) and then export the model and import it to zbrush.
After zbrush sculpting is done export the model and import it in to Maya agan for UV-s?
2.) How to proceed after that in order to texture it?
Import it to Substance Painter for painting can i then take the textured model to other aplication (maintaining the textures on the model).
Programs that i have are:
Keyshot, Maya, Houdini,Zbrush, Substance Painter and Substance Designer.
And trying to figure out good pipeline.
Replies
Yeah you can start in Maya, you can also start in zBrush and then do a retopo, but if you're sure about your blockout, just do the UV first in Maya and then import it in zBrush and start sculpting.
Personally I rather do everything in zBrush, then I do a retopo and uv in Maya and reproject my detail in zBrush,
For the next step, you should forgot about Keyshot if you want to work in the film industry, maybe you want to try to start working with Mari if you want to do creature / organic work. Painter is great for hard surface stuff tho !
You just import a low rez version of your sculpt inside Mari / Painter and start working on it, when you have something, just extract the displacement map in zBrush and you'll be able to start rendering stuff.
I didn't went into the detail and I don't know if you know what I mean by projecting detail / extracting displacement, but I'm sure you'll find ton of info if you google this terms ( if you don't know them yet ! )
hf !
But have not purchased it not at the moment.
But yes my goal is film industry and game movies like blizzard game cinematic etc.
But same time i want to know also how to create different elements, vfx effects, furr, riging, etc.
So what i understand is that Mari is more for organic stuff and Substance painer more for hard surface?
If i texture in Mari is it possible to take those textures to my low poly model and bring it in to Houdini for example?
What i know about projection is this:
Here are 2 sample videos i created with Houdini:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZqgKG
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/54mAE
I mean if you want to do for exemple a hero Character for a full cg cinematic,
You'll first create your model in Maya / zBrush, then you'll bring your mid-rez model in Mari ( enought to see where are stuff ) and you'll start painting your map ( diffuse / rough / bump etc )
Then inside of Maya you'll bring your low poly model ( or your mid rez model depend of what you need ) and add a displacement on top of it, extracted from zBrush ( or mudbox / or directly created in mari ( this is kinda more advanced ) to have your " high poly result " in your render.
Projecting detail is something else, but that's a really important trick to know
Also, if you wanna work in the industry you should focus on 1 or 2 skill, and avoid being the guy that are trying to do everything. ( For exemple modeling / texturing - Fur / Cloth - etc.... )
gl !
And by the way thank you so much for trying to help me!
This is exact, so when you want to do your UV, you need to use this technique, because you want to do your UV on your Low poly model, you'll have a hard time if you bring your decimated mesh in Maya for the UV.
So, when you have your high poly -> create a low poly, bring in Maya for UV.
When I say Mid Rez to put in Mari, it's for example if you have 6 subdivision, you bring the 3rd one, Mari can handle pretty big mesh.
Your pipeline seems to be good, but I'm not sure about how texture work when you do FX on them, I think there is other restriction. My only advice would be to try to work on few area first, for exemple, Try to nail modeling / texturing and extraction displacement and do proper render of a simple objet like a Rock, when you got this, you can move on FX. ( but I'd still advice you to choose an area if you want to work in a production )
For the differente type of texture map, there is ton of course online, and theses map change depending of the render engine you're working with, for exemple if you render with Arnold you'll need slightly different map than with vRay.
and yeah that's a crazy level you're trying to reach by aiming a theses cinematic, don't forget that there is a big team ( which each people in it is a 3D god ) working on theses,
gl !
It all started when i tried to make one animation clip for logo to my brother.
Now i am deep in 3D and i love it.
I spend 40-60 hours per week trying to learn and create.
I feel some times stupid as i do not understand first time when someone explains me something but i am too stubborn to quit.
To think about it i did not know anything else but a bit of Adobe After effects 6 months a go but now i know something.
(not in the eyes of production company but more then average joe).
Why i did think to bring decimated model to maya is because as i understand Maya cant handle high amount of polygons as well as zbrush and it will crash. This is why i did think that i need to decimate it.
I dont know how correct is that i create low mesh take it to Maya, make UV-s and bring it back to zbrush and sculpt
As it may have a lot of details later and if UV-s are done at start may be the texturing will be crap then? (wont look good) ?
I did look also this video.
Where he uses also decimation and does retopo (i think that is retopo what he does)
As i understand to get good UV-s i need to have topology.
Here is my mesh that i had at start (i dont know but i think that is too soon to take in to maya to get UV-s):
As now mesh looks like this:
I did see Kouji Tajima demoreel
Then realised how slow i am
For example he shows in the video the Skull that he created (in 3 hours?).
And im doing mys tuff like weeks and months.
Should be faaster
But i wont speed up in order to make something as often when u start rushing things quality drops down.
Ofcourse i dont know how quality is my stuff in the eyes of Production and those elites who do CGI stuff.
But anyway:
Here are some test renders from Zbrush.
(Noticed also that camera rener vies like perspective view etc) are not same in zbrush and in Keyshot.
Decided to drop keyshot for now an later proceed with Mari for soft surfaces and substance paineter for hard surfaces.
But atm practicing zbrush.
I think if you want to be effective in the industry you might need to start doing more human studies, it's a looooong way until somebody give you a creature job in the film industry, before that you'll mostly do digi double, organic stuff, rock etc...
My advice'd be to nail the human and animal anatomy, only modeling / sculpting first then move into creature.
Speed is something that come with experience, you should not worry about that,
gl !