Zbrush unwrap god enought?

jimpaw

Hello everyone,

I have recently stared to use Zbrush. Quite a difficult interface but worth the while. Now to my question:

I have just finnished a high-res model (huge sandworm) and are planning to use that information as a normal map on the lowpoly version and finally paint the texture with projection painting. Everywhere i look it seems like artist generally export out the lowpoly model first and unwrap it in another program. isn't Zbrush unwrapper good enought?

2. Is projection painting ok to texture the model,or am i better of trying some other program?

It would be great if someone has a tutorial that covers everything from ,unwrapping,texturepainting,normalmapping,and exporting lowpolymesh + assets out of Zbrush tutorial, on just a box or something simple so i get the workflow/ idea.

thanks alot,

Mortague

I have not used the new uv plugin with zbrush but i think you will always want to have more control over your uvs than an automated system will provide regardless of how well it unwrapps. In the end its going to depend on the intent of the final model. Certainly give it a try and see if it works for you but I suspect you will end up wanting to edit the uvs in another program.

Projection painting is ok but I have always found it to be cumbersome, time consuming and unable to provide me what I want out of texturing. The more powerful method of painting in zbrush is polypainting. In conjunction with zapplink you have a pretty full arsenal with witch to paint. The only downside is that the resolution of the model determines the detail of the texturing. Some planning and proper use of subtools is the solution.

My work flow is as follows.

1. Build a low res model in a modeling app. I may set up a rough set of uvs depending on my needs and how I plan of texturing and baking out the model though uvs are nto necessary at this time.

2. Export and import into zbrush, sculpt and paint. Export the high res mesh.

3. Bring into topogun (or whatever retopo program suits you, zbrush can do it as well) and retopolize the model. export the low res model.

4. Import the new low res into a modeling app and set up your uvs.

5. Bake out the maps in whatever app you prefer. xnormal is great as it can read the color data directly from the high res obj exported from zbrush. If your baking in another program you will need to export the polypaint via textures which will require setting up uvs on the high res. Not generally a problem just give the high res guv mapping via zbrush and your good. Bake the maps.

chronic

if this is game-res you will probably want to optimize UV space by having overlapping or mirroring on at least parts of you UV's. Zbrush wont be a good tool for these kinds of situations.

felipefrango

Exactly, if it's a game model it's all about optimizing space and for that you need total manual control but the automatic unwrapping can be a good starting point. It's more usable for stuff like rocks, I had to do some asteroids at work that would use a tiled texture and the UV Master plugin worked very well, but it's not something I'd use for a character. Maybe for unwrapping the more organic parts but you'd want to tweak the shit out of it afterwards.

jimpaw

Mortague wrote: »

I have not used the new uv plugin with zbrush but i think you will always want to have more control over your uvs than an automated system will provide regardless of how well it unwrapps. In the end its going to depend on the intent of the final model. Certainly give it a try and see if it works for you but I suspect you will end up wanting to edit the uvs in another program.

Projection painting is ok but I have always found it to be cumbersome, time consuming and unable to provide me what I want out of texturing. The more powerful method of painting in zbrush is polypainting. In conjunction with zapplink you have a pretty full arsenal with witch to paint. The only downside is that the resolution of the model determines the detail of the texturing. Some planning and proper use of subtools is the solution.

My work flow is as follows.

1. Build a low res model in a modeling app. I may set up a rough set of uvs depending on my needs and how I plan of texturing and baking out the model though uvs are nto necessary at this time.

2. Export and import into zbrush, sculpt and paint. Export the high res mesh.

3. Bring into topogun (or whatever retopo program suits you, zbrush can do it as well) and retopolize the model. export the low res model.

4. Import the new low res into a modeling app and set up your uvs.

5. Bake out the maps in whatever app you prefer. xnormal is great as it can read the color data directly from the high res obj exported from zbrush. If your baking in another program you will need to export the polypaint via textures which will require setting up uvs on the high res. Not generally a problem just give the high res guv mapping via zbrush and your good. Bake the maps.

Thanks for the answer, i dont know what baking is or how to use it,but i have an idea (baking shadow into the texture right?), what does polypainting means ?, i seen tutorials about thatand still not understand what it does and what the upps are ?, thanks

Mortague

Baking is the process of transferring data, color, normals, lighting ect.. from the source to a texture.

Polypainting is just vertex painting where every vertex on the model is assigned a color. As zbrush can handle millions of polys you can attain some pretty high resolution. All you need to do is, fill your model with a color, Select a color color>fillobject. Then select another color, ensure rgb is selected in your drawing options and paint, easy as pie. In your tools pallette their is a menu for polypaint, turn on/off ect. With polypainting you can use alphas and textures. Experiment and have fun : )