Zbrush Environments -> Best low poly creation?
Hey guys, I'm pretty new to Zbrush - loving it but have a couple of questions relating to environments. I'm working on just a small scene right now, and I'm coming close to needing to move on to my low poly mesh.
1) Is there a way to create decent low-poly meshes within zbrush? I think I saw something with zspheres or something a while ago, but it looked like the tutorial was more character-centric and wasn't sure if I'd run into problems doing the same for environments later (not to mention the very inaccurate nature of doing so for environments which often need to snap together seamlessly.)
2) If not, what's the best 'pipeline' to getting this heavy geo into max/maya without it all going *pop*? I've downloaded the decimation master plug, and have familiarised myself - if this is used, what kind of polycounts are safe?
As a bit of extra info I want to learn Xnormal properly too, so if theres any additional steps recommended for this particular use I'd really appreciate some pointers in that regard.
If it's helpful to show what I'm making then no problem, just ask. Thanks!
1) Is there a way to create decent low-poly meshes within zbrush? I think I saw something with zspheres or something a while ago, but it looked like the tutorial was more character-centric and wasn't sure if I'd run into problems doing the same for environments later (not to mention the very inaccurate nature of doing so for environments which often need to snap together seamlessly.)
2) If not, what's the best 'pipeline' to getting this heavy geo into max/maya without it all going *pop*? I've downloaded the decimation master plug, and have familiarised myself - if this is used, what kind of polycounts are safe?
As a bit of extra info I want to learn Xnormal properly too, so if theres any additional steps recommended for this particular use I'd really appreciate some pointers in that regard.
If it's helpful to show what I'm making then no problem, just ask. Thanks!
Replies
As for the low, you -can- do stuff in Zbrush, but you don't get as much control. You can use 3DCoat, Topogun or retopology tools within Max/Maya.
For xnormal, there's not really extra steps, other than exporting your meshes out as SBM (xnormal) format, for importing into Xnormal. The SBM plugin is installed when you install Xnormal
Thanks very much for the information Joshua.
EDIT: Oh wait, I'm guessing 'Make Live' within Maya would work as a useful retopology tool? Hadn't really thought of it like that before but I might give it a go.