ZBrush to MAYA EPIC FAIL

[cgbeige]

any reason you're using 3.1 in Windows instead of 3.2 on OS X? It's a better release and has things like GoZ, which will make your life a lot easier. It will set displacement and mental ray approximation values for you, etc.

I can't help you since I don't use 3.1 but I would say that's part of the problem - it's an old release and has issues with displacement and normal maps from what I've read.

[acc9340]

Hi Thanks for your swift reply. I have zbrush 3.12 for the OSX but didn't know there was a 3.2 out for it. In fact, pixologic's website still mentions 3.12 and nothing higher for the Mac. I used the pc version b/c it had multidisplacement 3 and OSX 3.12 only has multidisplacement 2 and I thought the newer iteration would be better. Also it doesn't have zmapper which I want to use to generate a cavity map.

What is GoZ? Where is it located I don't seem to have it.


Thanks for your reply.

[cgbeige]

3.2.1 is at the bottom of the page:

http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/

you need 3.1.2 installed as well, for some reason. GoZ is in the Tool menu and it will automatically send the Tool mesh to your newest version of Maya (it works with 2011 even - I am beta testing it). You can then send the mesh back to ZBrush from Maya. Here's GoZ:

http://grab.by/3976

and a demo:

http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/features/GoZBrush/


Cavity maps (or better, ambient occlusion maps) can be done from the masking panel. Normal maps and displacement are done from the new panels in the Tool palette:

http://grab.by/397c

32-bit displacement maps can be made there but the only issue with it is that GoZ only sends 16-bit maps for some reason. So if you want 32-bit maps, use Export maps.

But make sure to grab the UV Master plug-in as well. It's amazing and it will help eliminate seams and stretching with displacement and normal maps. It can be grabbed from the downloads page.

[chi]

have you tried the same thing in 3.5? its a free upgrade.

[acc9340]

Well, thanks to everyone's advice I went out and did upgrade to 3.2 (there is no 3.5 for the mac and it did seem that the emulation software's messes with PC zbrush's ability to output accurately). GoZ is awesomely powerfull. Here are my results so far...

http://www.chartoonz.com/images/cgTalk/zbrushToMayaEpicFail/05HeadUVFixesDisplacement01.jpg

http://www.chartoonz.com/images/cgTalk/zbrushToMayaEpicFail/06HeadUVFixesDisplacement02.jpg

I only have three questions at this point:

1. How do I tell GoZ where toput the displacement maps? It puts them in the GoZ projects folder but I want them in my maya project's texture folder. Can I tell it where to put the maps? That would be awesome.

2. How can I generate a cavity map. Zmapper is gone so where do I go to enact my cavity map?

3. How do I specify map size? Neither the displacement map or the Normal map menus have size specifications? How do I tell GoZ that I want 2k or 1K or 512 maps?

I see that under UV map it can allow you to specify is that a global setting?

Thanks to everyone for all their input. More to come.

[cgbeige]

1. How do I tell GoZ where toput the displacement maps? It puts them in the GoZ projects folder but I want them in my maya project's texture folder. Can I tell it where to put the maps? That would be awesome.

ya, this isn't changeable, unfortunately. It's kind of lame - but use this awesome script to transfer them and you're good:

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/rendering/misc/c/filetexturemanager

2. How can I generate a cavity map. Zmapper is gone so where do I go to enact my cavity map?


In the tool palette under Masking, there's a Mask By Cavity option. Once the mask is made, you select Create Alpha and save the created texture.

3. How do I specify map size? Neither the displacement map or the Normal map menus have size specifications? How do I tell GoZ that I want 2k or 1K or 512 maps?

It's under UV Map

[acc9340]

cgbeige (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=180350): Thanks a lot. I have really benefited from your responses.

ACC

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