[zBrush, Maya, SP] Hatsune Miku model

OSad

Hello!

Some background: I  like to model things that seem cool for fun. I'm trying to do a character model off of this drawing.

Problem is, while sculpting is fun and all, I'm completely new to this zBrush approach, so once the mesh is at a stage where I would personally consider it "done" and ready to move on, I have no idea how to get it out of zBrush to do other things. I've previously done another model where I did it all and exported it right out of zBrush, but it was my very first, wasn't really retopologized, it was shoddily colored with polypaint and shoved out the door ASAP once I realized I was in way over my head trying to be a proper 3D artist.






Anyway, here's the model in question, so far. I got to a point where I'm fairly happy with it and would consider the mesh part of it "done". Now, considering that my normal workflow is to make and UV something in Maya, then move on to Substance Painter, then back to Maya to pose it, how the heck do I get this 500.000 point monstrosity to SP? Should I even attempt to do that?

I could zRemesh everything, but then I lose so much detail around the skirt, hair and mouth areas, which is just unacceptable. Should I pose the model before I take it anywhere else? Should I UV in zBrush using UV Master if I plan to texture the model in SP? I understand there's a certain workflow you can do to transfer hipoly data to a lowpoly model, but I can't find a clear tutorial on how to do that, they seem to include xNormal and 3Dcoat into the process which I don't know if it's necessary since SP bakes maps off of highpoly meshes as well, I believe.

Basically, where do I take this mesh from here? Any sort of guidance is more than welcome, having something stuck on your pipeline is agonizing so I am willing to do any sort of menial, tedious work to get the ball rolling on this again. I don't know if this is the right forum to ask for advice, but I found another thread similar to this one while googling about zBrush pipelines, so I assume it's okay.

Thanks!

pior

Heya -

You basically got it backwards. Forget ALL about Zbrush for at least a few months (let's say, 3 months or so) and fully dedicate this time to regular lowpoly modeling and UVs  in Maya/Blender (or whatever you want to use) + manual texturing in Photoshop. All that without any highres sculpting.

Once you've done that you'll fully understand how all these cool, lightweight and colorful anime/japanese game models are actually made. And you'll be able to combine all this knowledge with your Zbrush skills after looking up a few guides about texture baking. But first things first, you have to learn how to create clean lowpoly models first and foremost, *especially* when dealing with this sort of art style.

I know that this is not what popular game art youtube tutorials will say. But that's the prerequisite you need to have before getting into sculpting.

Good luck !

OSad

pior said:

Heya -

You basically got it backwards. Forget ALL about Zbrush for at least a few months (let's say, 3 months or so) and fully dedicate this time to regular lowpoly modeling and UVs  in Maya/Blender (or whatever you want to use) + manual texturing in Photoshop. All that without any highres sculpting.

Once you've done that you'll fully understand how all these cool, lightweight and colorful anime/japanese game models are actually made. And you'll be able to combine all this knowledge with your Zbrush skills after looking up a few guides about texture baking. But first things first, you have to learn how to create clean lowpoly models first and foremost, *especially* when dealing with this sort of art style.

I know that this is not what popular game art youtube tutorials will say. But that's the prerequisite you need to have before getting into sculpting.

Good luck !

Hey, thanks for the advice.

At the risk of sounding like I'm being dismissive, I'm way past the point of a lowpoly model at this stage. It would be imperative for me to keep your points in mind for my next models - and I am thankful for them - but for this one, I'm not looking for any sort of excellence in lightweight anime modelling: at this point, I'm just looking for a finished model, be that good or bad. Going back to square one with Maya and Photoshop would mean throwing what I've done so far away, which I've been taught isn't a good practice and you should try to never throw your work away if you can help it (plus, it'll take me way longer than just three months to get even a single model done - I'm not any sort of texture artist to be able to paint my textures by hand in Photoshop).

I would just like to know how to proceed forward with this model. It's okay for it to be a "flawed" workflow since I'll be abandoning it afterwards. 

pior

The way to go forward with this model is to retopo it and UV it, and then bake high to low.
To do a good retopo job and a good UV job, you need strong knowledge of lowpoly modeling techniques, because that's exactly what it is. No way around it.

https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/

Good luck !

OSad

pior said:

The way to go forward with this model is to retopo it and UV it, and then bake high to low.
To do a good retopo job and a good UV job, you need strong knowledge of lowpoly modeling techniques, because that's exactly what it is. No way around it.

https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/

Good luck !

 Cool, thank you very much!

OSad

Just to have some sort of closure to the thread, I actually went back and re-did the entire model in Maya as was suggested, except for the shoes and twintails, as they were more organic forms, which I already had ready at hand, and felt would be more appropriate to zRemesh and re-use instead of trying to remake them from scratch in Maya. I tried to keep it all under 8k polys as an okay goal but I'm just not good enough yet for that.

 https://sketchfab.com/models/c59476da354b4260ab6694a0ba0519d2

 I didn't get the proportions right at all, but at least there's nothing noticeably janky about it, and everything's painted into the color layers. It doesn't look anything like what the pros can do but it's a start, I guess. Again, thanks for the advice, turns out that when I gave it some more thought, it would have been way faster to just re-do everything in a software I'm already pretty comfortable in, and it was. I got it done in just shy of a week. I do want to hang out with the cool boys in zBrush someday but that day is nowhere near today.

 This is probably not the place for this but any further feedback is appreciated. I am happy with the result but I will keep any advice in mind for future models.

OSad

Hey, just to have some sort of closure to the thread, after some further thought I decided to take Pior's suggestion to heart and re-do everything from scratch in Maya. The twintails and shoes are zRemeshed exports though, as they're more organic forms and I felt appropriate to re-use those. Everything was painted to color maps, since after looking at other models on Sketchfab, I realized that lighting creating shadows where you don't want any seems to be the single biggest enemy this type of model has. 

There was an attempt to keep everything under 8k quads but unfortunately I blew right past that. I don't want to point out flaws in my own stuff so I'll refrain from mentioning all the things that are wrong with it, but I'll say that all in all, I'm quite satisfied with the end result.

This is probably not the place for this, but I will take any feedback to heart for my next models as well. I would like to hang out with the cool zBrush boys someday, but that day is a very distant future from today, and it probably is best for me to stick with a software which I'm far, far more comfortable in. 

Again, thanks for the advice.