Zbrush and seamless geometry
polycounter lvl 8
Hi all,
I'm trying to make some tile-able pieces and I'd like to use ZBrush to detail them. However, the fact that they need to tile seamlessly is giving me a lot of frustration, as I'm not very fluent with ZBrush yet.
I managed to deal with a straight piece (wall), but now I moved on to a corner piece and I can't figure out how could I make it tile on itself, let alone matching other pieces, like the straight wall piece.
Symmetry wont work, since it's a corner. The only idea that I have came up with so far, is taking just half of it to ZBrush, detail it, take it back to Max, mirror it and weld it there so the corner is whole again. Take that to ZBrush and mess up the seam in the middle. The problem is, this would mean I'd have to decimate it heavily in order to get it Max, losing some detail.
Are there any smarter ways to do this?
I'm trying to make some tile-able pieces and I'd like to use ZBrush to detail them. However, the fact that they need to tile seamlessly is giving me a lot of frustration, as I'm not very fluent with ZBrush yet.
I managed to deal with a straight piece (wall), but now I moved on to a corner piece and I can't figure out how could I make it tile on itself, let alone matching other pieces, like the straight wall piece.
Symmetry wont work, since it's a corner. The only idea that I have came up with so far, is taking just half of it to ZBrush, detail it, take it back to Max, mirror it and weld it there so the corner is whole again. Take that to ZBrush and mess up the seam in the middle. The problem is, this would mean I'd have to decimate it heavily in order to get it Max, losing some detail.
Are there any smarter ways to do this?
Replies
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Wrap_Mode_Tutorial
Once that's all done, you should have a perfectly tiling mesh. If all goes well.
I don't see how wrap mode would help here as it's not a straight piece, but a corner of a wall. But useful for straight objects, definitely.
Bigjohn, tested your approach and it works! I just need to learn more about making and applying displacement maps. While I managed to follow your description, the resulted quality was a bit low - this is because I'm such a noob with maps in ZBrush.
Could you give some details on how bake them? I baked a 2048 map with the SubPix setting at 2 and adaptive on. After I chopped it Photoshop and mirrored the UV shell I took it back and pressed apply - I can see the effect, but also a lot of noise. Any tips for this?
*If* I knew my way around ZBrush, I'd split the corner in the middle so I could "flatten" it (see screenshot). This way I could work on it as it were a flat piece, and then rotate the other side back to it's place when I'm done.
The corner seems to me like a perfect natural seam anyhow.
Hmm, so let me see if I got this right: I would break the corner in two, switch the place of the halves and weld it together to get the mesh your screenshot shows
Then I would take that to ZBrush, sculpt away, and not worry about the ends as they are now actually what ends up being the middle.
Then what? I'd bake the maps for that "altered" corner and then fix them in Photoshop much like in Bigjohn's idea and apply back to the original corner?
Just made this real quick to show:
You want the seams to be at the edges. I also made the edges at exactly 0.0 and 1.0 of the UV sheet, so the offset in photoshop fits perfectly.
You'd bake a displacement map on to this. Bring it into Photoshop, Offset it, and bring it back into zBrush. Don't fix the seam in the center in Photoshop. Then in zBrush, apply the displacement to the geometry (or a new geometry even). And fix the seam in zBrush by sculpting over it.
Hope this helps.
I'm afraid I'm still having problems baking the map - now I'm getting weird lines in the map (see right side of screenshot).
It's a very similar test piece, no thickness, and one single UV shell like you instructed.
I don't understand where those lines come from - I double checked the UVs with a texture in Max and they are just fine.
I must have gone slightly off the edge of the square.
Are there any alternatives for map baking? - I just can't seem to get a decent map out of ZBrush. If not, then what settings should I use? I already have adaptive on and suppixel at 2, but it's not capturing the detail very well, even though I made the bumps pretty obvious for this test.
bake settings:
Adaptive = on
DPSubPix = 2
Mid = 0,5
EDIT: Tried "smooth UV" option - no stretching, but instead the map doesn't extend all the way to the edges of the piece.
I assume my earlier noise problems raised from the UVs being "over border"? Like -0.0001 and 1.00001 - is there a way to snap them in the borders in Max?
But in the Max UV editor, you have a box you can type in the coords. So just select the left-most verts and make them 0, and the right most ones and make them 1.
I though I'd continue this thread - it's old, but I'm working on a similar idea as when I started this thread and still having problems with the displacement map.
So, the problem: I made a simple piece of a wall -even simpler than before with just straight sides and a top. The UVs are laid out as advised above. I managed to bake the map, but it creates white stripes along the upper edge of the wall - why is this? If I try to apply it, it will bulge out those edges, which is incorrect, as it should be just straight.
A ) Since you're not doing anything with the top, you could hide it before you create the map.
B ) Drop back to the original mesh and lowest subdivision (a morph target helps if you have one, otherwise just reimport the obj), crease it in the geometry subpalette, and then create the displacement map.
I think I found one solution: The mesh must be divided with smooth on.
Since this causes it to smooth (duh!) - I tried dividing the base mesh in Max before going to ZBrush - it works! Will post images soon...
I obviously didn't think this through. I tried to apply the same method for this castle wall: You can see how well the offset worked for a shape like this!
Must get some fresh air and try something else...
I'd call this a success - sort of. For this piece with the "teeth" I ended up using the offset method but only for the straight part. That's all it needs anyway.
I baked the normal maps ins xNormal and took the piece to Unity - it looks ok to me. Of course if you go very close you can see the seam, but it's pretty good. With actual sculpt and diffuse map it might even look pretty!