Does it matter what size you bake at?
polycounter lvl 8
ZBrush often works in meshes that are super tiny compared to what needs to be imported into engine. What I generally do is just export from ZBrush and scale up both the high and low poly in Maya and re-export.
My question is, is this step even necesary? Or can I do all my baking and texturing at whatever scale I want as long as the final mesh that goes into engine is the correct scale?
Replies
only if it causes a problem where you are baking. the rays being used by the baker may act weird if you are at some crazy scale. but if you get a good bake, that's all that matters.
just work in a real world metric, not whatever zbrush is using. start with a 1x1x1 meter cube if needed.
zbrush has a section labeled "export" - in it you'll find a 'scale' setting.
A zbrush model is always about 1x1 unit. But when you export it - it applies a scale to make it the size you want. If you import a mesh from another program it will set this scale factor to match the scale in the other program.
So if you want the model in zbrush to export larger you can adjust this scale setting.
If you want to do it more accurately than just guessing what scale factor you need you can use a plugin that comes with zbrush - 'scale master'
http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/zbrush-plugins/scale-master/
interesting! I never knew ZBrush had an export scale setting. Thats good to know. Sometimes I start with a blockout mesh in Maya and export to ZBrush to get a good base started, but if Im doing rocks or something I just start in ZBrush. Nice to know this option exists. Thanks.