MudBox-Zbrush - and the world of UVs

[abuminalis]

Dude...Does Peltmapping, unfold uvs or lets say, plg plugins for lw ring any bells on you?! Have you been kidnapped by aliens or something? :P

I have no trouble at all with mudbox and lightwave...

[Julez4001]

Those are all valid tools .. I guess. My question specifically is what has been the most error -less option. I was asking to pool from many people to come up a solid workflow. Unless you are telling me you use all those tools to get from lw-mudbox and back, each and every time.... with no hangups. Which peltmapping tool are you referring to..Modos, Maya's plugin, Max's built-in...what??


I'm from the planet "ain't trying to start nothing" by the way :)

[softdistortion]

My current ideas on

UV types/use>
The UV methods, should be decided by what it is you are wanting to do. And on your workflow.

GUVs are mostky gonna work for the solo artist who doesn't need to be compatible with other people's software of work methods.

GUVs are not a good idea if you (or someone else down the line) may need to paint on the texture in a 2D paint app. In this case you would be best to lay out proper UV maps.
I haven't tried it yet myself, but I am sure a 3D paint app like BodyPaint would work with GUVs.

Tools>
I use and would recomend PLG as a good free set of LW UV tools.
Beyond that, uvlayout is imo the best specialized UV tool atm.
...looked at Unfold, but some reason I just didn't get the same vibe I did about UVlayout.
If you want or can justify Modo, that's another good UV toolset in there, Lux will probably shortly add the last few things that UVlayout has over Modo's UV tools.


Hope that doesn't make it more confusing for you. :)

[AngelDream]

I started using Blender for uv unwrapping (and sculpting) because of its LSCM and ABF unwrapping algorithms. You can even load the lwo without having to export an obj from LW. After that you can spit out another lwo.
There's an standalone app that has these two algorithms taken from Blender source code, you can get it here
http://www.pullin-shapes.co.uk/
but to use it you must export and obj from Lightwave.

[softdistortion]

AngelDream- Thanks for that post. read about roadkill in another forum, but never checked it out. ... looks pretty good at first glance, and even seems to have a UV distortion color display, which is one of the nice options in UVlayout.

[AngelDream]

Yep, from RK Manual:
Show Stretch is not a texture map, but it shows how stretched the UV’s are in relation to the polygon size. Green is a good fit, Blue is over stretched and Red is shrunk.

It would be nice if someone could make a lw version, like Kim Aldis did for XSI. The source code is available from RoadKill download page.

[Steve Warner]

With Zbrush, you have a GUVTiles that can save you but even then you going to cry if you want to paint the obj later in Photoshop going that route.
You can always use GUV or AUV in ZBrush and then transfer the image to a more recognizable UV by baking it with the Surface Baker or Surface Baking Camera in LightWave. I've done this and it works well. You can also use the ZApp Link in ZBrush to work between it and Photoshop.

You can also use the PLG "Nifty" UV plugins as others have recommended. This would be my suggestion if you want to create nearly perfect UVs in LightWave for use in ZBrush or Mudbox.

[softdistortion]

You can always use GUV or AUV in ZBrush and then transfer the image to a more recognizable UV by baking it with the Surface Baker or Surface Baking Camera in LightWave. I've done this and it works well.

Thanks for posting that Steve...it's obvious, but sometimes I don't think of it all in the fastest context...get stuck in the old flow of full UVs. :D

The method you suggest would save time if the artist feels the probability of needing full UVs would be low....as you point out baking allows the UV's to be done after the fact. :wip:

[Julez4001]

In the mudbox forum. Infinite got on the boardand did a quick tutorial.
According to him you got to scale your mesh 14000 % because .obj file sexported from LW comes out tiny. Anyone else crossed this occurance.
If so, did you follow the same pattern or create a new remedy.

He also suggest using Feep Exloration for mesh converstion.

For doing full bdy mesh, do you use GUtiles or unpeel the character yourself.
If you unpeel the characters body, whast your favorite toolset and method?

[mav3rick]

u re all unfold butchers...

[Wout]

Hey,
you really ought to give this a try
http://www.uvlayout.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=50
I tried it and it's a very solid and intuitive tool if you ask me :thumbsup:

[softdistortion]

Julez4001-
Haven't gone to look at the tut you mention, but yeah, .obj size is different in various apps sometimes much larger than LW...MAx i think is like 1000xs bigger XSI is a few times bigger too as I recall. I just use the measure tool to resize it in LW for texture measurments...and then resize back to original for sending back out to the owner app.

I still do an unwrap UV, using PLG and by hand. But as Steve said, you could go with GUV...using ZBrush native paint , or Zmapper, or Bodypaint3d.
You can make up proper UVs later if needed .

From what I gather, Zmapper's necessity looks to be less important as Matcap looks to do the same things as a new part of ZB3 native 2D paint. So you might not need to even go to PS much.

mav3rick-Maybe you just need a bit of munching on your head? :D

[Julez4001]

when does Zbrush3 come out?:surprised


Well we know Mudbox need to have perfect UVs. Does anyone jave any alternative UV relaxers beside PLG's toolset. I think getting those kinks out are always helpful. Also does anyone pipeline require the to have perfectly spaced quads..if so, what tools do you use for that?

[schuubars]

when does Zbrush3 come out?:surprised


15th. of May and free to all registered ZB2 users.

[softdistortion]

Well we know Mudbox need to have perfect UVs. Does anyone jave any alternative UV relaxers beside PLG's toolset. I think getting those kinks out are always helpful. Also does anyone pipeline require the to have perfectly spaced quads..if so, what tools do you use for that?



The better UV tools are mentioned in this thread.

even with the best UV tools you get some distortion afaik. the better UV tools have feedback to show you where you still have stretching...

http://www.headus.com/au/uvlayout/egtorso/snap0009.jpg

www.uvlayout.com

[Steve Warner]

Does anyone jave any alternative UV relaxers beside PLG's toolset. Also does anyone pipeline require the to have perfectly spaced quads..if so, what tools do you use for that?
I've never had a situtation where I couldn't successfully remove UV distortion with the PLG tool. Sometimes I've had to isolate the problematic polys by selecting them or making them a distinct UV island. And on more than one occassion I've had to tinker with the settings to get the best results, but I've always been able to remove the distortion. Before looking at an expensive 3rd party utility, I'd highly recommend playing with the PLG tools for a day or two. They've changed the way I think of UVs in LightWave.

As for the evenly spaced quads, are you talking about in the UV viewport? If so, the only tool I've seen do this is ZBrush (can't speak for Mudbox as I haven't used it). AUV Tiles should do this perfectly. GUV Tiles will also do this, but not to the degree that AUV will.

[PerfectLine]

Proper UV unwrapping is really the secret to good Mudbox or Zbrush work that actually makes it into a Render Engines like LW, Max, Maya, Modo, XSI etc.

I'd say PLG or Modo is the best way for LWavers to get nice Unwrapped UVs.

I mainly use Modo but since Modo is pricey for many I'd recommend PLG.

I can not stress this enough. If you are going with Mudbox, which is awesome for sculpting until ZB3 comes out next week, you should be very careful with anything going beyond the 1.0 UV co-ordinate because 99% of the time it will crash the disp or norm map baking process.


I am one of these guys who jumped on ZB 2 right when it came out but never really got to use it in LW with great results because of my limited UV unwrapping skillset. I would get nice things but the UV mapping was the real hangup.

After Modo came out (201) I really could get nice stuff out of Zbrush because I wasn't really relying on GUV tiles. Once you get the UV unwrapping mastered the rest falls in to place.

PLG or Modo were the best LW compatible options for me.

Also, in any situation a displacement map for overall displacement combined with normal map to get the finer details is the best combo for a high quality look.

[Julez4001]

Does everyone think Zbrush3 will squash the need for perfect UVs with its even newer painting process?

I can only hope?

[softdistortion]

Again, it depnds on what you are doing...where the model is going to be used.
...It seems you are wishing for a magic bullet to remove all the work...I'd say you will probably never see a tool that automagically replaces a UV done by skilled hands.

Even if you end up using the other methods, knowing how to do it maually is always going to be benificial imho. :thumbsup:

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