xNormal never works for me!
Okay, I made a low poly mesh in Maya. I then exported this to Zbrush to work on. In Zbrush, I sub divided it several times, sculpted in some details, etc. I then exported the new lowest sub division version of the model with the new high poly model created in Zbrush.
I brought these into xnormal, made the cage overlap the model, Low def = average normals, etc.
The generate maps look like crap.
After writing this, I realized Zbrush messed up the UVs. So, I remade the UVs in Maya for the low poly.
Loading this up into Xnormal, I now get the error when I try to open up the 3D viewer:
"The mesh default has an UV face (5125) pointing to a non-existent vertex."
Do I have to make the UVs for the high poly as well?
I brought these into xnormal, made the cage overlap the model, Low def = average normals, etc.
The generate maps look like crap.
After writing this, I realized Zbrush messed up the UVs. So, I remade the UVs in Maya for the low poly.
Loading this up into Xnormal, I now get the error when I try to open up the 3D viewer:
"The mesh default has an UV face (5125) pointing to a non-existent vertex."
Do I have to make the UVs for the high poly as well?
Replies
"grabbing all the verts of the duplicated mesh and moving them across the normals axis to create the cage."
What do you mean by moving the verts across the normals axis? I pretty much have only watched a few xnormal tutorial videos. Thanks for the quick response, helps me keep sane, lol.
Low Poly
Envelope Mesh
High poly
Make sure the LP and HP are surrounded or Enveloped by the Envelope mesh. I make sure the LP, HP, and Envelope mesh are triangulated to avoid errors.
You should be good if you follow this mostly, bar any geo errors.
- Make a simple high poly model (like a cube, with some details)
- Build the matching lowpoly model, with proper UVs.
- And then practice baking with that.
No point putting the cart before the wheels
I just noticed baking normals only ever works if I do a simple sub divide on the low poly, making the high poly, and then bake the high poly onto that low poly.
However, when I try to sculpt a face in Zbrush, then try to bake that onto a retopo of that same high poly zbrush mesh, it doesn't work.
P.S. I'm working on an animation ready bust.
Export your finished high poly out of Zbrush as an obj, if you flip the colorize switch on under the subtool menu you can also bake diffuse.
Your low poly and high poly have to be in exactly the same place but you will have that if you retopo in maya. No penetrating polys from the lowpoly through the highpoly. You can let the low mesh penetrate but you will have to use the Maya version of a projection cage and edit the cage so nothing sticks through before export. This way the lowpoly will fit the high volume better but its a lot of work and you can shrink your fat lowpoly after baking with a normal 'push' modifier or tool if you just make sure there is no penetration before applying the cage. The lower your lowpoly is the fatter the end mesh. You should still use a projection cage on anything more complex than a box though.
Make sure you use a mesh debug tool to get the mistakes out of your low mesh. Max has xview, dunno what Maya has. Make sure the uvs of the lowpoly are good with no overlaping. Make sure all your polys are in one smooth group.
Use the xnormal exporter to export your lowpoly with cage.
If you want to make a colour id map you can export your highpoly with the xnormal exporter and include vertex colours. Or just export a colour coded version of your high poly out of Zbrush which is quicker.
In xnormal make sure use cage is checked for the lowpoly when you load it in its slot.
When not baking AO check the 'ignor vertex colors' button is not checked for the highpoly, and when baking AO check that box.
Mostly the xnormal default settings work just fine.
If you are still having trouble post some images of your problem maps in the tech section here and outline the steps you are taking. Folks here are very helpful.
Also the suggestion to do a simple object for tests is the smart way to go.
Cheerio
Then keep trying, as you need to figure it out. This, rather than the other workflow you describe, is what you will be using 99.99% of the time.
And again, take things one thing at time. First step : brings both the low and the high in a regular 3d program (= not Zbrush) and see if they align.
(also : a mod needs to move this over to the proper subforum.)
When creating the cage, go under tool settings for your move tool, youd change it from object to normal. Then select your cage's verts with the move tool and move your verticies across the 'N' axis.