GoZ Maya to Zbrush. What's up with the scale in Zbrush?
polycounter lvl 5
I'm trying out GoZ so I don't have to keep exporting OBJs and then import those in zbrush. But I'm running into some really strange scale issues.
So here's my original in maya. My settings use centimeters. There's a human for scale (180 cm) and the box next to him is scale for the staff bearer.
Here's an OBJ of the staff into zbrush. Notice the brush size (default 64), and how big it is on the object.
Now, if I use GoZ, the staff is way bigger for some reason. The brush, while at the same size (64) is barely visible unless I zoom in a lot:
If I go GoZ back to maya, and compare it to the OBJ's size they are back to being identical. Is there a way to normalize this?
So here's my original in maya. My settings use centimeters. There's a human for scale (180 cm) and the box next to him is scale for the staff bearer.
Here's an OBJ of the staff into zbrush. Notice the brush size (default 64), and how big it is on the object.
Now, if I use GoZ, the staff is way bigger for some reason. The brush, while at the same size (64) is barely visible unless I zoom in a lot:
If I go GoZ back to maya, and compare it to the OBJ's size they are back to being identical. Is there a way to normalize this?
Replies
There are several things you can do:
1 Use the deformation>size slider when you enter/exit ZB - slide it once left or right and hit repeat to active X times and remember the amount of times. A hack and a pain but it works.
2 Use ZB scale for the project and scale up in Maya at the end..
3 Change the scale to between 500-1000 in the export rollout in ZB. Enable 'import as subtool' in the GoZ prefs. This option is what I setup if I'm going to be jumping in and out all the time on a project (which I always am) and seems to work.
The reason your mesh is the same when you go back to Maya is because it doesn't change when you GoZ.
ThomasP: That's what I do right now, but I still get really strange scaling bugs, like the item being really small so dynamesh doesn't work, leading to zbrush crashing.
Barthalon: When I goZ back to maya and compare it to the OBJ imported in maya both are the same size. If I import the OBJ into zbrush and then GoZ it to maya the size is all messed up. Like musashidan wrote, it's about 500 times bigger. The issue ends up being that some imports (either obj/goz) end up with a small mesh which makes dynamesh not work and crashes my zbrush. Not sure if this makes sense (?).
Musashidan: thanks for the tips. I tried using 1 for a while but it seemed like a very poor fix. I'll give 3 a go. Quick question though, do you Goz from Maya/Max, then Goz right back to apply the scaling change and start working from there?
I did some more testing today and it's really all over the place. If I GoZ from Maya, then import the obj (in zbrush) to compare, the OBJ will be way bigger. When I import the OBJ first, then GoZ, the GoZ mesh is the bigger one. I tried using GoZ using Max but I ended up with subtools in really strange places. Random flips and what not.
But with Max I could select a mesh made of different part and send it over. Maya forces me to combine and to resplit in Zbrush. I'm not sure if that's also a bug
as for the second problem look in the maya obj im/exporter options. it gives you a choice to interpret meshes as single or multiple objects. they will only show up in zbrush as polygroups though, not subtools if that is what you are after.
@thomasp : I didn't know there's was a change in scale if I send maya files to max, but you're right. My meshes get scaled 2.54 from maya to max, but from max to maya there's no downscale (nor upscale, the mesh is simply 2.54 bigger than maya original). This is so confusing coming from the same software developer. I looked at the export options and found what I was looking for. Indeed, no subtools but polygroups. That's fine too, as i can just split it again.
@musashidan: Thanks that's really helpful.
So I finally got around to trying this GoZ thing again after letting it rest and somehow I couldn't replicate my issue anymore. Before the scaling would go bonkers depending on the order I'd do things. Now It's consistent all around. Really strange. If I ever run into problems, I'll come back to the video and apply it.
Incidentally, have you seen this new multi-app bridge plug 'Styx'? The dev posted on here on the forums. Also does UVLayout. It's definitely on my shopping list.