I'm beginner, please help.

jackthereaper

Hi, my name is Jack Banner, and i'm new to modelling, animate 3D models.

- Like the title, i'm beginner and need help.
- I have so many questions but don't know who should i ask.
- I used to work with zBrush and plan to do some animation works and textures in maya too, here are my questions:

1. I have an example, if i done modelling a car with 50 subtools, when all of them has been decimated:
- Should i export each decimated subtool to Maya, or, i just need to mark each subtool with 1 polygroup, merge copy of them together to become 1 model, then export to OBJ file and push to maya?

2. I really don't know what to do after i done retopology my zBrush model in maya:
- If i already textures my model in zBrush, how can i apply those maps to the low poly model in maya?
- If i not yet textures my model in zBrush, what map should i take from zBrush to apply to the low poly model in Maya to have my high poly model details?
- Is this process name: baking? Please help me how to do it.

3. I don't know how 3D modelling to animation workflow. Please tell me the process.

4. If i done process call 'baking' and 'rigging', should i animate my 3D model or i have to animate the low poly model first then baking?

Because my PC's Graphics card is weak, so i can't work with some advanced painting 3D model program like Substance Painter or 3D Coat to paint my 3D model.

Please help.

And Thanks.

kanga

Hi Jack.
The exact workflow you need depends on what you want to do with the model you intend to animate. Is the final model for standard hipoly animation, or realtime interactive animation? All the information you need can be found at: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount.
The whole idea behind game art is to produce assets that have more detail than the geometry they are made of. For standard animators this means producing displacement maps (as well as all the other maps)  that when the model  is subdivided assumes the form of the hipoly model.

Anyhow check out the wiki.

jackthereaper

kanga said:

Hi Jack.
The exact workflow you need depends on what you want to do with the model you intend to animate. Is the final model for standard hipoly animation, or realtime interactive animation? All the information you need can be found at: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Polycount.
The whole idea behind game art is to produce assets that have more detail than the geometry they are made of. For standard animators this means producing displacement maps (as well as all the other maps)  that when the model  is subdivided assumes the form of the hipoly model.

Anyhow check out the wiki.

I plan to make an cinematic scene on Maya, but my 3D model polygon count on zBrush is to big to rig and animation, so i decide to retopology the decimate version of it in maya.
But what i wondering right now is how can i apply High poly details from zBrush model into Maya lowpoly model?
It's 2 different programs and 2 different 3D model. How can I apply details from 3D model of one program to the another 3D model of another program.
I'm so confused. Please help.
And thank you for reply me.

throttlekitty

1) You usually want a single model in the end for animation when possible. Except for things like car doors or wheels, those are typically separate models.

2) If you can't use Substance, use XNormal to bake. Most of the time, we bake the high poly onto a normal map for the low poly. You'll need to unwrap UVs on the low poly before doing this, and this step should be done before rigging. Sometimes you may need to change your low poly a few times to either get a better bake, or sometimes need to change topology so the mesh bends better when animated. 

If you decide to do texture painting in ZBrush, there are many tutorials on how to bake that texture to the low poly as well.

3) I'm not sure I understand your question here.

4) I kind of answered this in 2.

jackthereaper

throttlekitty said:

1) You usually want a single model in the end for animation when possible. Except for things like car doors or wheels, those are typically separate models.

2) If you can't use Substance, use XNormal to bake. Most of the time, we bake the high poly onto a normal map for the low poly. You'll need to unwrap UVs on the low poly before doing this, and this step should be done before rigging. Sometimes you may need to change your low poly a few times to either get a better bake, or sometimes need to change topology so the mesh bends better when animated. 

If you decide to do texture painting in ZBrush, there are many tutorials on how to bake that texture to the low poly as well.

3) I'm not sure I understand your question here.

4) I kind of answered this in 2.

Because retopology system in zBrush is not ok, so i have to change to maya to retopology in there.
My problem is how can i apply details from high poly to low poly model?
Because that is 2 different models from 2 different programs.
And if i polypaint from zBrush, what kind of maps should i export out to apply to retopology model in Maya?

throttlekitty

jackthereaper said:

throttlekitty said:

1) You usually want a single model in the end for animation when possible. Except for things like car doors or wheels, those are typically separate models.

2) If you can't use Substance, use XNormal to bake. Most of the time, we bake the high poly onto a normal map for the low poly. You'll need to unwrap UVs on the low poly before doing this, and this step should be done before rigging. Sometimes you may need to change your low poly a few times to either get a better bake, or sometimes need to change topology so the mesh bends better when animated. 

If you decide to do texture painting in ZBrush, there are many tutorials on how to bake that texture to the low poly as well.

3) I'm not sure I understand your question here.

4) I kind of answered this in 2.

Because retopology system in zBrush is not ok, so i have to change to maya to retopology in there.
My problem is how can i apply details from high poly to low poly model?
Because that is 2 different models from 2 different programs.
And if i polypaint from zBrush, what kind of maps should i export out to apply to retopology model in Maya?

When I retopo in Maya, I usually have the high poly loaded as a GPU cache, Alembic caches are also possible if it's too difficult for your video card.

I don't do any polypaint in Zbrush, so I can't help you much more than to say that you should at least bake diffuse.

Mark Dygert

Usually when I retop, it's over the top of a low sub-level from zbrush, not the highest. I usually use Decimation Master so it's fairly easy to work with. That said I don't retop in Maya which has a lot of trouble pushing a lot of polys in the viewport. 3dsmax's viewport handles those types of polys better. It's ribbon tools are ok at retoping but there are a few plug-ins that make it better, but I don't bake in max RTT is all kinds of messed up. I use xNormal or Substance.

Max retopo
https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/max-retopo-1-5?page=1

and

TopoLogic
http://hocuspocus-studio.fr/tools/product/topologik/?fbclid=IwAR10NQT9C-My4qC3mCZ1pRVENISRW_H32_SUn7I4nONqSAiXfFxElypoXEs

Getting polypaint out of zBrush is a pain since it's vertex colors and those get stripped out by obj files. What I do is a crappy unwrap job in zBrush and then bake a color map that I apply to the high poly mesh and transfer that to my low poly.

Alex_J

You can bake vertex colors with Marmoset Toolbag, if that hasn't been mentioned already. 

In addition to what's been mentioned about making your hi-poly object a cache for viewport performance, if you are working with Maya quad draw I recommend periodically breaking your new geometry off into separate objects -- for me this seems to be the best method for keeping the viewport running fast. 


Here is a very general overview of the game model creation process. I'd recommend finding all the tutorials like this that you can -- it's a complex process with many, many ways to approach it, so it really helps to get a walkthrough from as many people as possible until you start to get the whole thing pretty well understood : 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs3nHivb5OQ

jackthereaper

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

You can bake vertex colors with Marmoset Toolbag, if that hasn't been mentioned already. 

In addition to what's been mentioned about making your hi-poly object a cache for viewport performance, if you are working with Maya quad draw I recommend periodically breaking your new geometry off into separate objects -- for me this seems to be the best method for keeping the viewport running fast. 


Here is a very general overview of the game model creation process. I'd recommend finding all the tutorials like this that you can -- it's a complex process with many, many ways to approach it, so it really helps to get a walkthrough from as many people as possible until you start to get the whole thing pretty well understood : 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs3nHivb5OQ

Mate, please understand, my PC can't use Substance painter.

kanga

-Export your hipoly/s from zBrush to your hard disk/a disk. If you want you can polypaint it/them beforehand and that will  give you a color map when you tick that  option in xNormal/Maya baking  (all 3d apps can bake maps  but xNormal is straight forward, maybe Maya too I dont know).
-Decimate a copiy of the highpoly/s model/s in zBrush. Decimate it/them low enough so it/they will work snappily in Maya, but not too low so you loose important detail. Decimating in stages usually works best: 20% (default),10%, 5%, 2% and 1% if the mesh will support it. If you Decimate too low the mesh will collapse.
-GoZ the Decimated mesh/es to Maya making sure the scale in Maya is good. You can control the scale with the export options in zBrush, at the bottom of the tool palet.
-Retopo the decimated mesh/es in Maya. 
-Uv the retopoed mesh/es.
-Assign one smoothing group to the polys of each mesh.
-Export the lowpoly/s (with uvs and smoothing group) to a disk.
-Fire up xNormal and point it to your high poly/s  and lowpoly/s and get baking. Check out youtube vids for instructions on that, or you could bake in Maya so then you wouldnt need to export the lowpolys.

Cheers.

Alex_J

No worries about Substance Painter. You can use Photoshop. The general process remains the same. In fact, learning PS first may even be preferable. I learned Substance Painter before PS and now I feel pretty stymied a lot of times no being fluent with PS.

jackthereaper

kanga said:

-Export your hipoly/s from zBrush to your hard disk/a disk. If you want you can polypaint it/them beforehand and that will  give you a color map when you tick that  option in xNormal/Maya baking  (all 3d apps can bake maps  but xNormal is straight forward, maybe Maya too I dont know).
-Decimate a copiy of the highpoly/s model/s in zBrush. Decimate it/them low enough so it/they will work snappily in Maya, but not too low so you loose important detail. Decimating in stages usually works best: 20% (default),10%, 5%, 2% and 1% if the mesh will support it. If you Decimate too low the mesh will collapse.
-GoZ the Decimated mesh/es to Maya making sure the scale in Maya is good. You can control the scale with the export options in zBrush, at the bottom of the tool palet.
-Retopo the decimated mesh/es in Maya. 
-Uv the retopoed mesh/es.
-Assign one smoothing group to the polys of each mesh.
-Export the lowpoly/s (with uvs and smoothing group) to a disk.
-Fire up xNormal and point it to your high poly/s  and lowpoly/s and get baking. Check out youtube vids for instructions on that, or you could bake in Maya so then you wouldnt need to export the lowpolys.

Cheers.

Problems solved. For now. xD
But anyway, thank, mate.