[Mudbox - 3ds Max] High poly to low poly workflow

genni96 · Dec 2012

Hello, I'm new on this forum.
First of all sorry for my English, unfortunately I'm italian and the italian language is useless.
I'm developing a graphic engine and I need low poly models.
What is the best workflow to get a low poly using Max and Mudbox.

My current worflow is this:
- Create the base low poly mesh in 3ds Max
- Import it in mudbox, subdivide it and sculpt it to get the high poly

At this point what should i do?
I must paint the texture on the high poly or on the low poly?
I must import the high poly in Max or the low poly in Mudbox for baking the textures and normal maps?

Sorry, for the long question, but i need to know a full workflow for get models for my graphic engine.

Thanks!

genni96 · Jan 2013

There is no one that can help me?

ivanzu · Jan 2013

Bake in 3dsmax or xnormal.

SsSandu_C · Jan 2013

Well here is what I know. You can bake or as they say extract different texture in mudbox by using a low poly or the level 0 of your sculpt. It depends on the workflow if you have uvs for the level 0 of the sculpt and that the sculpting you did didn't changed the model drastically. If the changes you made on the model are big then you need to retopologize it and make a new low poly with uv's that you can use to bake the texture directly in mudbox. Well mudbox paints on uvs so you can paint your low after you extracted the base textures that you need like normal maps and, ao displacement and such. I think that painting on the high and baking the diffuse won't be much of a problem/ You should look into Ptex and see if you can bake from that to low poly. There is a warning here. I wouldn't bake hard surface stuff in mudbox. Mubdbox is better for organic models. If you want to bake hard surface stuff you should definitely use 3ds max. Bake in max and texture in mudbox. At least that is what I'm thinking.

genni96 · Jan 2013

Thanks for the reply.
I baked successfully all the maps from highest level to the level 0 of the same mesh, but if I don't want to use the level 0 but another low poly mesh created in Max, I suppose that UVs won't be the same because the new model wasn't unwrapped and has no UVs coordinates. Can I bake textures from mudbox model to this Max model with the same method?

meathead · Jan 2013

With doing high to low you have too create your low poly around your high and try match it as close as possible otherwise your normals will be all screwed up

genni96 · Jan 2013

I have imported the high poly in Max and I have baked the texture with Render to texture command, all worked correctly, but Max is very slow with high poly without freezing it, can I speed up it?
I have another question, is right to create the diffuse texture starting with the ambient occlusion map and draw other layer over it using "multiply"?

Cheathem · Jan 2013

Well like ivanzu said,you can use xnormal for what your using 3ds max for.it will do all the baking of the high to low poly mesh without you having to actually see the meshes.But i havnt used it myself so cant say alot about it.

[Mudbox - 3ds Max] High poly to low poly workflow

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