exploding meshes again - max to zbrush
polycount lvl 666
I have been loooking at this again recently and have still got the issue where the max to zbrush pipeline seems borked.
I took the existing male model with six levels, exported out the base level and tried to import it back in after uv mapping it , but obviously the mesh expodes at the higher levels.
So then i decided for a test to delete the higher levels and re subdivide .
This time the pipeline works perfectly, no exploding mesh. I managed to uv the mesh in max , reimport the base level and voila - no problems.
Obviously I have lost my sculpt by doing this , but my point is that the pipeline does seem to work.
So perhaps the best thing is to test each model before actually getting around to sculpting the higher levels.
I am hoping that the exploding mesh thing is just not a random glitch that introdues itself as you do more work on the sculpt.
My theory is that the settings I used originally to export to zbrush from max were wrong and its only now that I have exported with the correct settings that the whole pipleline works and no matter what I try, the higher levels of my original sculpt are never going to get fixed because there is a different vert order on the higher levels from the one where I resubdivided.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this
I took the existing male model with six levels, exported out the base level and tried to import it back in after uv mapping it , but obviously the mesh expodes at the higher levels.
So then i decided for a test to delete the higher levels and re subdivide .
This time the pipeline works perfectly, no exploding mesh. I managed to uv the mesh in max , reimport the base level and voila - no problems.
Obviously I have lost my sculpt by doing this , but my point is that the pipeline does seem to work.
So perhaps the best thing is to test each model before actually getting around to sculpting the higher levels.
I am hoping that the exploding mesh thing is just not a random glitch that introdues itself as you do more work on the sculpt.
My theory is that the settings I used originally to export to zbrush from max were wrong and its only now that I have exported with the correct settings that the whole pipleline works and no matter what I try, the higher levels of my original sculpt are never going to get fixed because there is a different vert order on the higher levels from the one where I resubdivided.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this
Replies
only problem is that I get a bit of corruption where the mesh does n't project properly , particularly around the eyes and lips or any bit that is 'inside' the mesh
But thats only a fix of 1 hour as opposed to redoing the whole sculpt.
again many thanks for that, saved me a whole bunch of headaches
http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php...true#Post264962
it seems like one problem that causes this is having tris in your base models. another problem is that the model is imported into max as editable mesh, and should be converted to editable poly before being re exported.
I thihk its max's exporter whicxh is more than likely broke and hopefully some one will adress it at some point soon.
MoP's workaround is cool though.
When it's subdivided the corners get rounded, crease makes a bit of difference. Tried smoothing groups, pre import meshsmoothing then finally detaching many parts and then reattaching them to make breaks. The last one nearly fixed it but not quite, is it possible to keep the whole mesh together rather than split to sections and if so how could that be done?
I just think it seems a bit strange to be doing this in ZBrush when you could get exactly the same results without jumping through all these self-imposed hoops.
but wasn't happy with the results. Wanted more detail and more diversity showing through, I was planning on mixing the normal maps created from the diffuse and one from zbrush then painting more detail on top. Just stuck on how to approach it.
New edit: Nope, foiled again, having to manually subdivide the mesh, getting better results this way so a few more edges here and there.
You should probably concentrate on the more basic aspects of texturing before you get too heavily into normalmapping everything, since it seems that your time would be better spent texturing things at this stage.
When you UV mapped the lowest subd export from ZBrush, did you a) check the single option for import into Max (default is multiple) and b) did you convert it from an editable mesh to an editable poly? The reason meshes explode is because the vertex order has changed. The mesh may have the same number of verts, but their IDs change due to those two things I mentioned above. I did something like what you did, and when I reimported the editable mesh from Max, no explosion. But it did with editable poly.
By the way, all this knowledge I learned from Scott Spencer's book: ZBrush Character Creation.
It's a tome of knowledge that any level user of Zbrush can gain from.
Did you try to use the crease option in Zbrush before subdividing? Located in Tool>Geometry>Crease. That sounds like it may solve your problem of edges curving out.
This is the Scott Spencer book that was mentioned
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/ZBrush-Character-Creation-Advanced-Sculpting/dp/047024996X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217266543&sr=8-1[/ame]
To fix the small mess ups where the meshes don't conform you want to do this-
Import the new mesh as subtool and line both meshes up as much as possible then subdivide the lower poly tool to the same polycount (or more) as the high density mesh. Then use Tool>Subtool>Project All.
To fix errors make the low poly tool the active tool and use the Zproject brush to smooth out the errors. Using transparency helps to see where things line up. I used this for parts of my Cthulhu sculpt and it worked out pretty well.