Zbrush and texturing?

[Cephalic Internecion]

i bought meat's intro to zbrush DVD.. pretty decent DVD for the beginner. there is one section that goes over how to use projection master for texturing but doesnt really go into the techniques used to texture certain items. he just messes with each tool quickly and moves on to the next.. i learned more about how to texture going through some of the zscripts on zbrushcentral.. maybe you should check some of those out if you havent already.
if you are totally new to zbrush get meats DVD.. if not get alexs (although it is a lot shorter). i am just waiting for meats zsphere DVD..

have you seen those new creature design DVDs? those look very interesting although they use XSI (assuming you use maya). there is a chapter iin the first DVD that goes over texturing.

[Ordibble-Plop]

I don't have the DVDs but I do wonder just how much it will be possible to teach someone to texture using ZB.

The reason I say this is that the techniques themselves seem to be quite simple and will really come down to understanding what each of the brush/stroke combos are capable of - something that can be figured out with a bit of experimentation.

The real skill in texturing with ZB comes down to the application of colour (opaque or transparent), which for best results relies on an understanding of traditional painting. Unlike Photoshop, painting in ZB is destructive, so to achieve a desired result you really need to know how to paint yourself there.

Of course there are other aspects, like texturing with photos and texturing with materials and converting these to maps for use in external programs, but info on these is readily available at ZBC.

[chadtheartist]

I can paint traditionally, but that's not what I'm after. What I'm trying to figure out is if either one of those DVD's focus on setting up the textures to "accurately" render inside of Maya. Alex's DVD's cover different types of map creation in Zbrush, for Maya. But I don't know if Meat's DVD's do it.

I've seen a lot of texturing tutorials, but rarely do I see anyone focusing on teaching the why certain shaders need translucency, or specular maps, and how to adjust them for different lighting situations etc... I don't have a problem making the maps. It's putting them together that is causing me to scratch my head.

[APLevitz]

Antropus' tutorial involves a few things:




Painting a diffuse map

That's pretty straightforward. Any texture you create in ZBrush is this by default -- the colors you paint are the colors you see.
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Choosing an SSS shader

I'm not sure if Subsurface Scattering is covered in either DVD, to be honest. Nor does ZBrush even do it -- Antropus gets a very nice approximation by simply applying one of Sokar's skin materials. In Maya, it probably means tracking down a Mental Ray tutorial on the subject, and adding a good deal of time to your renders. (I'm confident I can fake this in 3DS Max's material editor for some lightning-fast render times, but unfortunately can't help you in Maya. It's just not what I know.)
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Varying the Specularity

This, Antropus covers by creating three variations on his material and alternating between them. The process doesn't translate exactly, but it's pretty close -- you see how in Preview Mode, some areas look much darker or lighter than others? You're going to do the same thing on a texture, in grayscale. More light areas on the nose, darker areas on the lips. Follow his example, and export that texture. You'll apply it on a specularity node in Maya.
I haven't finished watching the Head Modeling DVD, nor the Maya Pipeline one. Scanning through the two of 'em real quick for you...

I don't see a whole lot of texturing on the Pipeline DVD. Displacement and Normal Maps, yes, but if some of the other types are covered, I must have skipped past 'em.

I do know that the material Alex creates does apply a Specularity map in Maya. How that map's created, I can't yet confirm, but I think it's a bump map, brought into Photoshop and repurposed. Which is something you should experiment with anyway -- it's one of the more traditional ways of working.

Between the two of those, I think Alex's DVD is going to have more lasting value. Meats' one will get you through technical hurdles in a hurry, but I don't think you'll watch it again once you understand those processes. Spending eight hours with a single model, though, there will always be nuances to pick up on repeat viewings. That's just the nature of the beast.

But, actually... You might think about something like this (http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/tex01.html) instead, confront the problem head-on. You know how to paint a texture map, I'm guessing, so a video specifically dedicated to what the different kinds of maps are and how to set 'em up in Maya... that might be a better option right now.

Otherwise... I'd go with Alex's.

(Hey, cool! Aaron Sims' DVDs are out! They look to be pretty XSI-heavy, though.)

[marciani]

if you are totally new to zbrush get meats DVD.. if not get alexs (although it is a lot shorter). i am just waiting for meats zsphere DVD..



i'm totally agree

P.S. Chad look check your e-mail
Bye
Leo

[APLevitz]

Umm.. Alex's is the longest of the bunch. 8 hours for the one set. The "lot shorter" one would have to be Zack's, at 2.5 hours. (Or are y'all merging Meats' two sets into one uber-long video?)

Whatever. We're all saying the same thing, details regardless.

[Lottus]

I just have a quick question. Is it possible to export the mesh from Zbrush to another 3D package sucha as Maya or XSI?

[chadtheartist]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I'm probably going to hold of on buying anything for now. After I get my modeling demo reel done, I'll start really focusing on texturing, and I'll probably end up getting quite a few DVD's for that.

[chadtheartist]

I just have a quick question. Is it possible to export the mesh from Zbrush to another 3D package sucha as Maya or XSI?

Yes. Zbrush imports and exports .obj and .dxf files.

[APLevitz]

Also Normal and Displacement maps, if your next question was "how the heck is my other 3D package supposed to deal with the kinds of poly counts ZBrush spoils you with?"

[Lyr]

I'm Texturing a model right now in Zbrush, painting the color map. The projection master can be a little annoying because it's tempting to treat it like 3d painting package. Just remember to only paint areas perpendicular to the viewing plane, use low rgb intensity and as big of a brush as possible to start with. I don't reccomend painting materials and color if you intend the texture to be used outside of Zbrush. I'll try exporting my model and texture to maya and see what kind of problems I run into.

[Cometsoft]

Alex paints a specular map using the same method as any other map with a combination of Projection Master and the regular 3D brushes. It's not like the bump map where there is a bump material to view it in ZBrush. Basically you just create a color texture at whatever the default specular value you want, paint lighter values where you want more specular values darker for less. Export it and attach it as an image in the spec channel in Maya or whatever. Also he does some photoshop layer magic combining the ZBrush generated spec map with the Zbrush generated bump map.

In my limited use I find the biggest problem the uvs. I think the best method for texturing in ZBrush is to create your UVs in another package so you can do the initial coloring in ZBrush then refine it in Photoshop. Unfortuntely the really effecient AUVs from ZBrush are impossible to decipher in Photoshop. Another way I've done it is use the ZBrush AUVs for displacement (they seem to work best) and then use my own uvs for color and other texture maps.

[APLevitz]

Re: Lyr's comment
Also, start with a pass of just painting base colors in RGB Mode (no ZADD) -- do that before you even touch Projection Master. That'll save a lot of trouble later on, trying to get paint into tight corners.


Cometsoft:
You might try GUVs instead of AUVs -- those aren't impossible to decipher, just incredibly difficult. :thumbsup:

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