zBrush live boolean game art workflow with blockoutmesh from max/maya

mobpapst

Hello,

in these days i see more often people that use zbrush for the whole high poly process for hard surface stuff like weapons - especially the boolean. As i know they only start with a blockout that works as a LP and do the rest of the modeling in zbrush. Does anyone know a guide or tutorial for this workflow?

Especially how to adapdt the blockout shape/ LP after all the boolean because not all boolean will end up getting only a normal map detail. Does i've to make a retopo in combination with the blockout mesh?

Would be really great if someone experienced in this topic could tell me something about it. I only ask for game art/ready stuff

Cheers

RawData

I modeled hardsurfaces with zmodeler and zbrush live boolean but what i think today, there are scripts for maya that behave like live boolean operations of zbrush, and eventhough zmodeler can do lots of modeling actions, traditional modeling programs are still more comfortable. What i see when i worked in zbrush for boolean modeling, i never used any sculpting software feature, i box modeled and made boolean operations, so if you have scripts that i mentioned, you can do same things in maya. When you finish boolean modeling, you can always dynamesh and use zbrush unique features. Besides my thoughts, those videos can help you about understanding process.  

https://youtu.be/Fg6QPJ7XirE
https://youtu.be/08crkU999Fs

mobpapst

Hey Rawdata,

that sounds the way i've doing it right now but i always got the problem of getting a proper lp without doing a full retopo. and reducing the polycount with zremesher or other automatic reducing stuff is always not the best solution.

RawData

@mobpapst if sculpting changes the sillhouette drasticly, i would make a retopo too. Otherwise you can clean up your boolean mesh and use it as lp. But i prefer making a retopo mesh rather than cleaning up a mess. Also hard surface objects generally doesnt deform, that means triangles can be used. So retopo process will be pretty repetative but wont take much time. When working on a non- organic objects, at lower polycounts, zremesher and the other alternatives cant keep the hard edges. If you give them enough polycount to keep the hard edges it will be meaningless. I didnt make before but , if you want a low poly model pretty quick, you can use decimate Master plugin, it can hold hard edges at very low polys. But the resulting mesh will be created by triangles and making uvs wont be easy