Zbrush Retopo to Substance Painter Workflow?

SaltySalter

Hey, so I've been sculpting one of my first characters in Zbrush and reached a point where I want to UV and texture them in Substance. How should I approach getting them into Substance Painter? I've been trying to use Zremesher and Projection onto a lower poly sculpt but been getting messing results. Is there a more efficient way to retopo characters to UV them? I also have the option to UV in Zbrush, but if I can make a low poly then bring it into 3DsMax it would be ideal as well.


Projection Method I followed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ips3GhWI0s 

kanga

Did a quick seach and as far as I know you cant create uvs in substance painter. 
You can in zBrush but its kind of inflexible.

*What I do is create the character in zBrush.
*Goz a (duplicated) decimated version to a 3D modelling app. Play with the eport settings in ZB until the decimated model is the right size and position in the 3D app.
*Retopo over the decimated model (in your case in max using the polydraw (super retopo tool)).
*Uv the lowpoly mesh in max.
*Export the full hipoly from zBrush as fbx with appopriate substance painter names. 
*Export the lowpoly uved mesh from the 3d app (max) as fbx with the appropriate substance names.
*Import the lowpoly fbx into substance.
*Point substance to the highpoly exported mesh from ZB.
*Hit bake.

The expot settings in ZB will make sure the hipoly and lowpoly line up in 3d space so save the tool with the new export settings after you are done with the second step. Depending on whether your mesh is a single skin or separate parts you may have to make different selection sets for substance. Below is a character I broke into 3 sets for substance. They are placed side by side for the pic but each shell is at exactly the same origin so they ovelap.

SaltySalter

kanga said:

Did a quick seach and as far as I know you cant create uvs in substance painter. 
You can in zBrush but its kind of inflexible.

*What I do is create the character in zBrush.
*Goz a (duplicated) decimated version to a 3D modelling app. Play with the eport settings in ZB until the decimated model is the right size and position in the 3D app.
*Retopo over the decimated model (in your case in max using the polydraw (super retopo tool)).
*Uv the lowpoly mesh in max.
*Export the full hipoly from zBrush as fbx with appopriate substance painter names. 
*Export the lowpoly uved mesh from the 3d app (max) as fbx with the appropriate substance names.
*Import the lowpoly fbx into substance.
*Point substance to the highpoly exported mesh from ZB.
*Hit bake.

The expot settings in ZB will make sure the hipoly and lowpoly line up in 3d space so save the tool with the new export settings after you are done with the second step. Depending on whether your mesh is a single skin or separate parts you may have to make different selection sets for substance. Below is a character I broke into 3 sets for substance. They are placed side by side for the pic but each shell is at exactly the same origin so they ovelap.

Cool thanks for the advice, I'll look up and learn the GoZ, never knew about it. For the Bake in Substance, which maps should be baked? I know I need to bake the hi poly onto the low poly, but what about the Curvature/World Normals and such?

sprunghunt

SaltySalter said:

kanga said:

Did a quick seach and as far as I know you cant create uvs in substance painter. 
You can in zBrush but its kind of inflexible.

*What I do is create the character in zBrush.
*Goz a (duplicated) decimated version to a 3D modelling app. Play with the eport settings in ZB until the decimated model is the right size and position in the 3D app.
*Retopo over the decimated model (in your case in max using the polydraw (super retopo tool)).
*Uv the lowpoly mesh in max.
*Export the full hipoly from zBrush as fbx with appopriate substance painter names. 
*Export the lowpoly uved mesh from the 3d app (max) as fbx with the appropriate substance names.
*Import the lowpoly fbx into substance.
*Point substance to the highpoly exported mesh from ZB.
*Hit bake.

The expot settings in ZB will make sure the hipoly and lowpoly line up in 3d space so save the tool with the new export settings after you are done with the second step. Depending on whether your mesh is a single skin or separate parts you may have to make different selection sets for substance. Below is a character I broke into 3 sets for substance. They are placed side by side for the pic but each shell is at exactly the same origin so they ovelap.

Cool thanks for the advice, I'll look up and learn the GoZ, never knew about it. For the Bake in Substance, which maps should be baked? I know I need to bake the hi poly onto the low poly, but what about the Curvature/World Normals and such?

You need to bake all the default Substance painter maps to be able to use substance painter properly. It's all in the default baking dialog. Just tell it to bake all of them.