General question about zbrush texturing

capone

I've heard that some people more or less do all their texturing in zbrush for game assets (inc spec/norm map) and I wanted to try it but I just can't get my head round one thing, the uv's. If you put your asset into zbrush it needs to be the quaded version that you made in your standard 3D app but this is never uv mapped because later you build the lowpoly around it and map that?

Anyone understand what I'm saying?

Rhinokey

i would suspect people would do as i have in the past, texture the high poly up in zbrush using poly paint, then transfer that over to a huge auto wraped texture sheet for the high poly. import that model into max and then bake the colors at the same time as baking the normals, you can bake them straight out in zbrush but you have to have your uvs already set up on your lowest division.

capone

Rhinokey wrote: »

(1) import that model into max and then bake the colors at the same time as baking the normals, (2) you can bake them straight out in zbrush but you have to have your uvs already set up on your lowest division.

1) Could you explain this part a little more please. Bake the auto uv's made in zbrush onto the manually mapped low poly model?

2) Again a bit more info, surely it's impossible to perfectly bake info from a HP to LP. I can imagine all the edges would have issues.

metalliandy

This might help
http://eat3d.com/free_zbrush_xnormal_pipe

capone

metalliandy wrote: »

This might help
http://eat3d.com/free_zbrush_xnormal_pipe

Aha this does indeed look fantastic, even does cavity maps. But even for this method you need the finished low poly version to bake to. So what I do is make super high poly textured asset in zbrush, export to max, build Lowpoly mesh over it and unwrap it. Then in xnormal bake highpoly.obj to lowpoly.obj. Sounds simple but I'm just convinced that baking textures from a high poly to low poly will result in weird glitches, suppose I'll just have to try it out with something simple...

Rhinokey

how would it be any more glitchy than baking normals? i mean sure it will glitch if your models are not good and work well together. how are you planing on texturing a game asset if you dont have a finished low model anyway?

capone

Yep you're right, just getting confused. Only problem is that tutorial is from an older zbrush where you can click on col>txr to throw the polypaint onto a texture map. In zbrush3.5 I use 'new from polypaint' in texture menu but there is no option to export it as a PSD?

metalliandy

Texture Map>New from Polypaint> Clone Txtr then Texture>Export

Rhinokey

also besure to flip it verticaly, for some reasone i have never understood zbrushes uses textures upside down..