ANOTHER....quick Zbrush question

fritz

OK. 8,000 poly model goes into zbrush. i divide the geo to level 4. i start sculpting. i'm getting some pixelation but that's OK. i bring it back into max and i can't even move the guy. i mean...i thought dividing to level 5 in zbrush was still safe. now i can't build my low poly over my high poly in max for normal maps. does this sound right? or could i be missing something? or could it be my machine?
it's a brand new shuttle....can't remember the specs offhand but it's sup'ed up for sure.

thanks for your help

MoP

If you're just building the lowpoly cage in Max, why not export the 2nd or 3rd subdivision level instead of level 4? It should give you enough silhouette detail to work with.

Also, once you import your mesh into Max, make sure Edged Faces display (wireframe) is off, since that runs really slowly - put the viewport in Smooth Shaded mode and make sure the imported mesh has 1 smoothing group all over, that way it'll run faster.

fritz

i will give that a try....and send you an extra large pepporoni w/a six pack of stella. you are oh so helpful MOP. THANKS!!!

fritz

OH WAIT. you mean just bump it up 2 or 3 iterations in max. then sculpt THAT in zbrush? i never thought of that.

arshlevon

take it down to the base level 1 or 2 iterations in zbrush(only take to 3 if you did some serious, and i mean serious deveation from the model ..like sculting and entire apendage that wasent there previously).. hit the "cage" button by the "divide" button you mesh will look nuts.. export this level to an obj.. import the obj in max .. put a turbo smooth on it and you will pretty much have all the surface volume of the finished zbrush model in max.. model around that .. thats how i do it..

fritz

hey arsh. thanks so much for the tip however. i'm not sure of the cage thing you speak of. here's a screen:

MoP

Fritz, you need to go down to subdiv level 2 or 3 before the Cage button becomes active.

So the best way to do it would be to go down to SDiv2, highlight the Cage button, then just export that as OBJ and use Meshsmooth/Turbosmooth in Max to get the smoothing back.

And sorry no, regarding the earlier export question, I was referring to exporting the SDiv level 2 or 3 mesh OUT of Zbrush into Max for reference purposes, rather than the highest level. You should always export the control mesh from Max to ZBrush, best workflow that way.

Let me know if I'm still not making much sense, I'm sure I could be clearer a lot of the time

fritz

no way MOP. you guys are always clear and always such a great help. i'm trying what you and arsh advised me on. so let's see what happens. i've NEVER heard of the mesh/turbo thing....should be an interesting test. i'll let you guys know if it's succesful

thanks again so much guys.

fritz

OK...just tried it. it worked. it's not quite the same level of detail....maybe since i'm new to normal mapping, i don't realize that tiny levels of detail will probably go un-noticed to the viewer. i'm just wondering if this level 1/2 with turbosmooth is an industry standard technique. or is it a quick way to get around "chugging" when bringing in a high poly model to max from Z?

once again, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fritz

MoP

For me it's just a quick way to get round the max viewport slowdown while I'm making the lowpoly model.
Then I'd probably do the final normal-map render from the highest subdivision level exported from ZBrush as OBJ, usually by importing into Max after setting up all the UV's and Render-to-Texture stuff of the low-poly mesh.
You could load the OBJ in something like Melody too and generate the normals from that if you prefer, though.

I'm sure Arshlevon has a better workflow that means you don't have to import the ultra-high-poly model into Max at all, but still get the same level of detail, I'm sure he's mentioned it in a different post on these forums somewhere before... maybe even has a video tutorial on his webpage, but he seems to have made it into an "under construction" site at the moment... so maybe ask him for the links.

fritz

i got it MOP and ARSH!!! that makes total sense. especially your last post MOP. build low poly over lower sub. then import highest for normal. duh!!!!!

cheers!!! pizzas are on the way!!!