Zremesher

[zandoriastudios]

The last udate to Zbrush has an automatic retopology tool that will analyze the sculpt and remesh it to quads. Here is a test using the .obj import in a modeling window:

[John Bigboote]

That's pretty cool... does it render smoothly? Can you set it to generate less-dense geometry?

[robcat2075]

All Quads... It's about time.

 

I wonder who wants that besides A:M users?

[detbear]

That is a great feature for lowering spline counts in A:M.

 

Too bad that A:M has no way of matching moving splines from other apps in that fashion.

[robcat2075]

That is a great feature for lowering spline counts in A:M.

 

Too bad that A:M has no way of matching moving splines from other apps in that fashion.

 

I believe William Sutton has a tut somewhere on importing NURBS spline models

[detbear]

Will's note here concerning Z-Brushes retopology tool is that it exports quads.

 

The exciting thing about that is that a low spline version can be exported into Hash.

 

AND THEN a higher mesh within Z-Brush can be exported as a texture map and placed onto

the A:M import seemlessly. The resulting combination is a very detailed render out of A:M.

 

PLUS....if you export an animation out of hash, the textures and animation can be used externally also.

 

 

 

MY point with the moving splines has to do with morph targets and importing cp positions as well in more than one position. Which is really off topic.

So I should have placed that in the other more relevant thread. My Apologies.

[zandoriastudios]

That's pretty cool... does it render smoothly? Can you set it to generate less-dense geometry?

 

Yes, you can set a target poly count! What would be cool is to be able to bring it in with the UVs and easily use the higher res version to generate displacement. I think I will still be able to do that, but it may take another step...

I'm thinking that I could take a textured version from A:M out as an .obj and bring it back into Zbrush and use the high-res details to generate a displacement map. Or maybe TROER might be a way (but it wasn't able to open this one...)

[Fuchur]

That's pretty cool... does it render smoothly? Can you set it to generate less-dense geometry?

 

Yes, you can set a target poly count! What would be cool is to be able to bring it in with the UVs and easily use the higher res version to generate displacement. I think I will still be able to do that, but it may take another step...

I'm thinking that I could take a textured version from A:M out as an .obj and bring it back into Zbrush and use the high-res details to generate a displacement map. Or maybe TROER might be a way (but it wasn't able to open this one...)

 

I did that with 3dCoat... it should be quite easy with ZBrush too. Looks very promising Will!

> See my cameleon-thread here.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Malo]

It's a great tool!

Look at this picture:

 

Keep the purple topology and you get a topology compatible with AM:

 

I explain the method in this topic: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...mp;#entry390604

Don't need to remodel or to retopology the model in AM. (there is some correction to do, You can find some patches made with more than 5side, but it is very easy to repair, before import in AM)

[zandoriastudios]

I'm really liking that Zbrush and A:M play so well together! Here is a quick tutorial going from Zbrush to A:M:

http://zandoria.wordpress.com/2013/12/24/642/

 

[Shelton]

That is cool. So it is imported as a prop?

 

Steve

[zandoriastudios]

No--NOT a prop! It is patches

with Zremesher, it went from 1/2 million polygons to a little more than 6,000 patches!

[Shelton]

Will. I saw this on your blog. Wow that is cool.

 

 

Steve

[nimblepix]

Thanks Will.

That sure opens up

a lot of possibilities,

to say the least.

[jakerupert]

What still breaks this pipiline is that you cant transfer the uvs and get just a naked model without displacement and normalmaps right?

[John Bigboote]

Great RnD, Will. I need to get hip to your blog... yeah what about the displacements in this process?

[zandoriastudios]

Jake, I haven't taken it that far, so I don't know how the textures would import on the .obj import... My thought would be to setup UVs in A:M and then export back out to .obj, then use that model in Zbrush to project displacement and turn any polypaint into texture maps (At this point you already have the .mdl in A:M). But that may be an unnecessary step--I will followup...

[higginsdj]

I'm trying this myself but the AM splines are not converting well from the Poly mesh quads. On one leg, instead of parallel slines I get a continuous spiral spline Might see if I can find a way to reduce the mesh count even further without compromising too much detail...

 

I love sculpting models now

 

Cheers

[zandoriastudios]

draw guide curves before running it, and it will use them to determine edge loops and stuff

[higginsdj]

Ah - yes - still working my way through the tutes - so many tools, so much to learn....

[zandoriastudios]

When you create UV's inside of ZBrush and export an .OBJ and then import it into Animation:Master, your imported model will have a DECAL that uses them. Here is an example of a cliff that I created in ZBrush and imported into A:M. You can see the UVs in the Decal View, and the cliff in the final shot:

[Fuchur]

When you create UV's inside of ZBrush and export an .OBJ and then import it into Animation:Master, your imported model will have a DECAL that uses them. Here is an example of a cliff that I created in ZBrush and imported into A:M. You can see the UVs in the Decal View, and the cliff in the final shot:

 

steffen reworked the obj import at v18a or something like that. maybe this is what he did?

sounds very cool for me .

 

see you

*fuchur*

[robcat2075]

Heu , Will... here' what I'm wondering...

 

 

Can you now make a basic shape in A:M, take it to ZBrush and add a bunch of surface detail, then somehow export a map from Zbrush that can go back on the basic shape in A:M and act as a displacement map to make it look like the denser, more complicated shape you sculpted in ZBrush?

[zandoriastudios]

yes, you can do that.

In this case, I made a low-res proxy for the cliff and exported an OBJ from A:M. Then I subdivided it in ZBrush and sculpted and painted it. Then I exported the lowest subdivision back out as an .OBJ and imported into A:M. If you setup your decals in A:M, then you should be able to do just what you said--however, once you try UVMaster inside ZBrush, you may not want to bother

[zandoriastudios]

More experiments with ZBrush and A:M. The dino is sculpted and poly-painted in ZBrush then I exported an .obj with color and displacement maps. I made a specular map also from the displacement. Imported all of that into A:M in a new model:

 

[Rodney]

Nice!

 

Are keeping them as OBJ files/Props?

I assume you might want to animate them eventually.

 

I suppose in a pinch one could animate the OBJ files in A:M via a stopmotion methodology, swap in/swap out or turn on/turn off in order to gain the effect of movement with different iterations of the same object.

[zandoriastudios]

no--you aren't reading the whole thread... I am using the OBJ Importer--they are now PATCH models, with all of their texture information converted to DECALs

So they can be rigged and animated in A:M

[detbear]

That's really cool Will.

 

Getting Z Brush level textures stamped onto A:M models is an awesome combo.

 

Is it automatic to have the mapping info come in automatically. I know that there are a few

other Apps that bring in the maps to the A:M obj importer seemlessly.

Whereas others take a lot more pre-work.

 

Is ZBrush one of those "works seemlessly" just by exporting and importing into A:M. Or is there a "pre-flight"

protocol you must do in ZBrush to make sure the textures come in and stamp on correctly.

 

I don't have Z-Brush...so I can't try it myself.

[zandoriastudios]

Automatic. But if you clone textures and export them separately (such as Normal Map), flip them vertically. (I think you can make that a preference)

[Rodney]

I am using the OBJ Importer--they are now PATCH models, with all of their texture information converted to DECALs

So they can be rigged and animated in A:M

 

 

Nice. I knew that was what you were doing before but it seemed like you were stopping with the OBJ models in this instance.

I could easily see the value for generating props that way but knew you'd be wanting to animate creatures like this.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

[jakerupert]

Interesting ears on the dino.

[Fuchur]

Very cool .

 

It still seems to be many patches (although 12.000 isn't that much...) but I am sure you can define how many subdivisions you want in ZBrush.

This is a very interesting method anyway .

 

See you

*Fuchur*