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View Full Version : Struggle with workflow (Z <-> Maya) and AO baking

kgkldfsmm
09-24-2009, 04:34 AM
Hi everyone,

I got stuck a little, can anyone please to help me to figure out the best way to organize a process between maya and Z or whatever.

I am mostly a photoshop guy, but friend of mine asked if I can help him with low-poly models and textures of furniture for a realtime Flash applet. 'What a nice opportunity to learn something' I said.
I chose 'hi-poly > retopology > bake AO for diffuse > tons of overlays for texture' way

Ok, my problem is: I can't get it!
here's a fast example:
1. Hi-poly with 'kinda-uniform' topology
http://sparklehorse.ru/ph/shit/Autodesk_Maya_2009_Unlimited__untitled___---___PolySphere_11-20090924-081003.jpg


2. Outstanding Zbrush details
http://sparklehorse.ru/ph/shit/ZBrush-20090924-081148.jpg


3. Retopology with Zbrush, then goZ to Maya, refining retopologed mesh
http://sparklehorse.ru/ph/shit/Autodesk_Maya_2009_Unlimited___Users_macintosh_Desktop_temp_low-.mb___---___low_poly-20090924-081412.jpg

4. making UV and baking AO in Maya. The result is:
http://sparklehorse.ru/ph/shit/Autodesk_Maya_2009_Unlimited___Users_macintosh_Desktop_temp_hi-.mb-20090924-082026.jpg

settings for AO were 128 rays and 1024 texture map, mental ray

in the same time baking of normal map was ok:
http://sparklehorse.ru/ph/shit/Autodesk_Maya_2009_Unlimited___Users_macintosh_Desktop_temp_hi-.mb-20090924-083307.jpg

My questions are:
What am I doing wrong?
Is there a way to optimize or advance this workflow? Because the part with 'hipoly > retopology' sounds loke a long time

many thanks in advance!
phix314
09-24-2009, 06:19 PM
Few questions-

Why retopologize? If it subdivided fine and there's not any animation on it... why take the time? The mesh looks fine (besides the fact I don't know what it is ;) )

Why not make the norm maps in ZBrush? It's 100 times easier and better, IMO.

As for the AO, we'd need to know your settings. There's a lot in the bake set parameters.
kgkldfsmm
09-24-2009, 06:59 PM
Few questions-
Why retopologize? If it subdivided fine and there's not any animation on it... why take the time? The mesh looks fine (besides the fact I don't know what it is ;) )
Why not make the norm maps in ZBrush? It's 100 times easier and better, IMO.
As for the AO, we'd need to know your settings. There's a lot in the bake set parameters.

As I said, meshes will be used in Flash Applet and it have strict restriction considering poly count. More than 1k polys make my Mac Pro say 'Oooohhhhh'

I don't need normal maps actually, I just baked them to see if I'm not doing anything seriously wrong. And anyway Mac version of Zbrush doesn't have Zmapper :/

as for AO settings:
http://sparklehorse.ru/ph/shit/Screen-shot-2009-09-24-at-22.54.47-20090924-225745.jpg

and baked texture looks like this:
http://sparklehorse.ru/ph/shit/Preview-20090924-225834.jpg

I followed the steps from this tutorial:
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/1317-tutorial-ambient-occlusion-maya-alchemist101.html
phix314
09-25-2009, 05:47 AM
As I said, meshes will be used in Flash Applet and it have strict restriction considering poly count. More than 1k polys make my Mac Pro say 'Oooohhhhh'


"retopologizing" meaning readjusting edge loop flow, not poly count. If this is the case, you would absolutely need normal maps.


I don't need normal maps actually, I just baked them to see if I'm not doing anything seriously wrong. And anyway Mac version of Zbrush doesn't have Zmapper :/


Gotcha. But again, if your poly count needs to stay low, normal maps are necessary. No two ways about it.

Not sure exactly what your AO issue is. I tried with similar settings and everything was fine. :-/
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