Low Poly to High Poly Methodology - Lost UVs?
polycounter lvl 4
Hi, I am relatively new to sculpting, so I need help with something here regarding lost UVs when I was in the progress of making a low poly to high poly character. These UVs got lost for the models which I subdivided to Level 3 (The character, Dress and Cape) and I only realised it when I took the high poly back to 3DS Max.
I created a low poly character model on 3DS Max, and put it into Mudbox for sculpting details. Here is the low poly for reference:
What I did was bring the chest out slightly using Grab tool and also bulge some of the thighs, stomach area and back of the character. I also included wrinkles and creases into the dress garment for details. Here is the high poly version:
My main problem arises here, its the fact that my premade UVs on 3DS Max got lost somewhere along the process of the high poly sculpting method for the character, the dress AND the Cape. I used basic bulging, sculpt and knife tools mostly and as you can see from comparison, the two dont differ much at all so does anybody have any idea how or why my UVs disappeared?
Like I said, I am new to sculpting so I dont have too much experience with it. Too summarise If someone could let me know:
A). On the ultimately better methodology from Low Poly to High Poly character modelling
. If using certain tools in the 3D sculpting application causes the loss of Uvs to occur
C). If there is a way to get the UVs back on these high density models or if I have to either redo the sculpting with another method or redo peel seams on the high poly sculpts.
Thanks in advance!
I created a low poly character model on 3DS Max, and put it into Mudbox for sculpting details. Here is the low poly for reference:
What I did was bring the chest out slightly using Grab tool and also bulge some of the thighs, stomach area and back of the character. I also included wrinkles and creases into the dress garment for details. Here is the high poly version:
My main problem arises here, its the fact that my premade UVs on 3DS Max got lost somewhere along the process of the high poly sculpting method for the character, the dress AND the Cape. I used basic bulging, sculpt and knife tools mostly and as you can see from comparison, the two dont differ much at all so does anybody have any idea how or why my UVs disappeared?
Like I said, I am new to sculpting so I dont have too much experience with it. Too summarise If someone could let me know:
A). On the ultimately better methodology from Low Poly to High Poly character modelling
. If using certain tools in the 3D sculpting application causes the loss of Uvs to occurC). If there is a way to get the UVs back on these high density models or if I have to either redo the sculpting with another method or redo peel seams on the high poly sculpts.
Thanks in advance!
Replies
I could essentially also do this in the sculpting software without subdividing the base mesh by using the 'Grab' tool and using the high poly as a skeleton of some sort to shape the low poly to high poly. Ive already got the low poly UV'd but they just gotten lost as I was sculpting, since I thought it would preserve them anyway regardless of how much I sculpt or bring the subd levels higher.
I mean I just thought it would be a time saver if I used my old low poly model for retopology since Ive already got it UV'd and everything. But if theres no other way, do you think it would be a good idea if I just restart the entire thing and shape the low poly first by using non-detail sculpt tools like Grabbing and Bulging and after Ive defined the model I can subdivide it further and add smaller details? Appreciate the help btw!
If they are really lost just import new UVs in Mudbox.
@oglu may I ask why are you guys texturing the highpoly instead of the lowpoly? Sounds like a lot of unnecessary work. The generally accepted game art workflow is to make highpoly, make lowpoly in some way, unwrap only the lowpoly, bake the normal and ao from the highpoly, and texture the lowpoly. This way you don't have to unwrap the highpoly.
I can imagine only one case when texturing the highpoly straight would be necessary. And that case is when you need a higher poly version textured for a cinematic anyways. So the in game version is a bake of that to a lower poly one.
We store everything in the highres to get a consistent look. We handpaint a decimated highres in mudbox with some Substance magic on top. Its much easier to paint a highres cause you can read the shapes much better.
We wont work that way on a "standard" game project.
It seems odd to me though that it loses the UVs when you bring the subdiv up, I didnt think it would so I thought it would be lost for the lower poly versions aswell. Anyway, I seem to have gotten the exact shape I needed for the lower subdivision urgh... Thanks for your help guys, hope this wasnt a complete waste of time for y'all!
One more thing, bit of a dumb/curious question but I've tried looking everywhere for this answer, could I possibly use the blocky, Pre-Nurms version of my model (shown in the image below) for baking high poly or is it a necessity to utilize the first level 0 subdivided version? This is just for optimization and so I can get the same smoothness of the subdivided mesh for in-game use while having it be the very base version.. I've always used subdivided version instead of the very base one.
https://help.autodesk.com/view/MBXPRO/2019/ENU/?guid=GUID-AFE05480-6AA0-455F-B69F-0F4125CC772A
Or if you turn UVs on in the subD optionbox.
Or if you start to paint on the mesh.