Messed Up the Workflow, any advice to correct mistake?

gene098

Hey all,

I finished a model in ZBrush, brought it to Maya, then rigged it

But then I noticed that I forgot to make a ear hole...

- But if I bring the model back into Zbrush to model the earhole then i lose my rig... 

- But if I do the ear hole in Maya, later on I have the high res version of the model in Zbrush which I plan to make a normal map of to get the details back onto my simplified retopoed model in Maya....

= The normal map will just cover up the ear hole (if i make it in Maya) when I apply the normal map

-Any suggestions on how to solved this dilemma without losing the rigging work?

Yerus

Have you weight painted already? Because if you don't, I don't see why you can't replace de model. In case you have
already done it, then try just to extrude inwards the earhole and then correct WP in that area. Sometimes it
bugs, in this case extract a displacement map, paint in Photoshop the earhole depth and then convert the map
to a normal map (not quite sure if there is that possibility). 

Alex_J

if you export your model as an obj, so long as the vertices are not changed it will update in zbrush. In other words, you can rig and pose your mesh, export as OBJ, then in zbrush select your subtool, reduce it to the lowest subdivision level, and use import. The posed mesh will come in and the subdivision levels will update with it.

If you do need to add geometry for the ear hole, just do that in maya, export to zbrush, and then use project all. Add the detail you need, and rebake.

gene098

Alex Javor said:

if you export your model as an obj, so long as the vertices are not changed it will update in zbrush. In other words, you can rig and pose your mesh, export as OBJ, then in zbrush select your subtool, reduce it to the lowest subdivision level, and use import. The posed mesh will come in and the subdivision levels will update with it.

If you do need to add geometry for the ear hole, just do that in maya, export to zbrush, and then use project all. Add the detail you need, and rebake.

Sorry I understood up to this part
if you export your model as an obj, so long as the vertices are not changed it will update in zbrush. In other words, you can rig and pose your mesh, export as OBJ,

If I rig and pose my mesh and then export it, wont my rig and skin weights dissapear? So when I reimport it to Maya I lose my rig?

and in Zbrush I have my High resolution mesh with details, while Maya is the retopo low rez mesh(which is rigged)
If I export the low rez mesh, and make the ear hole, 
Then later on when I bake the high rez mesh on the low rez one, the ear hole gets filled cus I did the ear hole on the low rez one.

I mean is there a way to do the ear hole on the low or high rez mesh, then have it somehow get created? on the other one?
Maybe Maya Live Surface?

Alex_J

I'll make you a video tutorial tomorrow, showing all the options. This stuff is tricky first time doing it, but don't worry because there is plenty of options and absolute worst case, redoing a bake or skin weights isn't the end of the world anyway. You do it a few times you get pretty quick at it.

Alex_J

Hey, sorry i have been trying to make a video for the last hour but everybody and their fucking brother is bugging me today.

Not as easy to follow text but here's some instructions:

Scenario 1. You just need to add new sculpted detail, but don't need to add new geometry to the low poly mesh:

1. In general, for an animated game character you will do your baking in A/T pose, and then do the rigging and posing after baking.

2. In that case, simply return to your zbrush ztool, add your new sculpted detail, and bake.

3. Export the lowest subdivision level and import that into your maya scene with the rig. Be sure to change the names if they are the same.

4. Select the rigged mesh and go to skin>go to bind pose.

5. Select the new mesh and bind it to the skeleton.

6. Use copy vertex weights tool. Be sure to read the documentation about it to use it correctly. The transfer should be clean but in the area where you have changed the position of the vertices you will need to touch up.

7. That's it!

Scenario 2. You actually need to add some geo to the low poly mesh:

1. In maya, select you low poly, rigged mesh. Go to bind pose, duplicate the mesh. Add your geometry as you need. Export as an OBJ (not FBX.)

2. In zbrush, duplicate your ztool with the subdivision levels. Select the duplicate, reduce it to the lowest subdivision level, and then in the tool pallette use the Import button to bring in the new export from maya.

3. First, save a morph target of the new mesh. Second, use the project all tool to project subdivision levels from the old subtool to the new one. The projection will be clean except for the area where you added the new geometry. Use the morph brush to clean up that area where the projection got screwy, and then sculpt your new detail.

4. Export your low and hi, do your bake.

5. Back in maya, import the new low poly mesh, and just like you did before, bind the new mesh to the skeleton and then use copy vertex weights tool. Again, it should all be clean except where you have the different geometry.

6. That's it!

Scenario 3. You want to project the details of your sculpt on a posed mesh.

1. In maya, select the posed mesh. Duplicate it, delete history, and export as an OBJ.

2. In zbrush, duplicate your subtool. Select the duplicate, reduce it to the lowest subdivision level, and use Import button to bring in the new posed mesh.

3. The posed mesh takes place of the lowest subdivision level, and the higher subdivision levels automatically get instantiated onto it.

4. That's it!

Conclusion : It sounds like a lot and will take you a lot of fussing -- maybe a few days of work to work out all the hiccups. But you only have to learn it once, so just go slow, take your time, read through the documentation and watch tutorials covering the tools, and you'll get it. You shouldn't need to redo your weight painting or sculpting entirely in either case.

gene098

I will go through this slowly, thanks Alex!

Alex_J

This video demonstrates the Scenario 3 I described.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKeZrqldv90