Mudbox to ZBrush, how?

rollin

Hi eyeryone.

I'm struggling with this every time I have to deal with it and there seems very little information about the fastest or smartest workflow.

Basically I want to get the sculpted data (not the painted data) out of Mudbox and as separated as possible into ZBrush.
Ideally all subd levels with all sculpt layers

And to keep it simple we assume it's just one single object and we still have to original base mesh as obj or whatever laying around

thomasp

Perhaps this could be done by transferring the highest subd over without layers, then letting the software recreate the lower levels and by getting the layer data across separately via baked displacement maps and applying them each on a fresh layer in the target software?

thomasp

Actually, forget what I posted earlier - you can simply transfer over the highest subd level without layers into Zbrush, then from Mudbox export again with the desired layer applied and in Zbrush create a new layer, set to record mode and import the OBJ (into it).

I'm not going to ruin my weekend messing with this but the key is to keep the vertex order intact so that means only recreate subd levels in Zbrush after all your layers have been imported. And from what I recall as long as exported mesh and Zbrush tool are set to the same subdiv level, you don't need to transfer layers in highest subd either, you could just import a level 3 mesh (but have to set record mode on a new layer in Z on the highest level, then step down).

Should work, pretty sure I've done something like that in the past.

rollin

Hey @thomasp
did take some time but tried it out and seems to work. Thanks a lot! There did certainly happen some development between zbrush 4 and 2020 I guess
cheers!