Some mesh-related questions.

[Herpes Melodie]

Hello everyone

I was wondering which program you use to sculpt hard surfaces. I'm using Mudbox at the moment, but each time when I import a model from Maya to Mudbox it smooths out the hard edges. This can be fixed in Maya by adding more resolution or in Mudbox by hardening the edges I guess, but if you add another subdivision lvl everything is smooth again and it drives me mad D:

So what about Zbrush? I have zero experience with it but was reading Zbrush can sculpt hard surfaces. Can somebody confirm this? Also, does it smooth out your models or does it appear in Zbrush the same as how it does in Maya?

Also, I was wondering if I did my shading process right. In order to prevent that my textures look flat I Batch Bake (mental ray) light maps. Because my model textures are usually 1024 x 1024 and light maps 512 x 512 (saves render time) I throw everything in Photoshop and finish it there.

And lastly, how to create, or imitate, the effect of very detailed surfaces in SL. We cant use normal maps to do this, but we cant make the file size to big neither. I tried desaturating my normal maps then putting them on over my other textures in photoshop as some sort of improvised 2d displacement map but this doesn't always gives the desired effect. How do you tackle this?

Thanks in advance,

[Ashasekayi Ra]

I can confirm that Zbrush does hard surface sculpting very well. I don't use Maya, so I don't know what it looks like imported into that program. But, it looks like expected when I import a model from Zbrush into Blender. As far as not having normal maps, generally, people bake all the details from the high resolution model to the low resolution version. Alternatively, you can use multi-pass rendering and composite them in Photoshop. Hopefully, SL will have normal maps after mesh is released and the materials project starts.

[Herpes Melodie]

Due to my RL profession I know truly professional 3D modellers. I use to hire them occasionally. These people have a good laugh on Linden Lab and their hopeless attempt, believe me. Don´t think that you´ll meet anyone of them for professional reasons on the meshed up grid.

[Ashasekayi Ra]

You said it looks like expected when importing from Zbrush to Blender, but how about the oposite way because that's what I wanted to know **Only uploaded images may be used in postings

Sure, an obj file imported from Blender into Zbrush looks like it should.

 

I don't know what multi-pass rendering is though, but I will google for it.

It means to render different types of baked maps or renders one by one ...ie. rendering the ambient occlusion seperately, rendering the diffuse textures seperately, etc. Then, you can mix the maps at different strengths in Photoshop. Basically, it gives you more control.

 

Also, about the baking process, what do you mean exactly? Should I bake the normal map from a high detailed model, open it in photoshop and apply it to the other textures of my model. Or should I apply the normal map in Maya (so that my model appears with all the details) and bake out my textures from there? So if I would follow what you just said, should I:

1) Bake out textures with the normal map applied in Maya and thus my texture contains the details from the normal map that was made out of a high detailed model?

2) Only bake a high detailed normal map and apply this in Photoshop on the rest of my texture?

Number 1. 

[guY Ralior]

About your question of does Zbrush smooth out the sculpt as does Mudbox. I am not sure what you are trying to achieve "hard edged" but it seems that keeping the file just in Maya should give you the hard edge you are looking for. You mention you get stuff looking good then go up another level and it all smooths out. That is what both Zbrush and Mudbox do by the nature of what the program is designed for. You bring in a low poly model and enhance it with textures that are made off of million + poly models then apply those to your low poly model.  Or you can just sculpt right in the program itself, but most of the time it is done at higher resolutions than the model that you brought in, so to answer your question no Zbrush will not keep your model hard edge unless you sculpt it that way, and you can do the same with Mudbox. So unless you are looking for more of a sculpting program then Mudbox there is no need to get Zbrush. It is basically a highly specialized 2.5D painting sculpting program with a lot more features than Mudbox, Mudbox came out to try to take Zbrush market but it will be quite a few years and maybe never that it will happen hope this helps with your problem

[Ashasekayi Ra]

You can import an obj file into Zbrush without loosing the hard edge. And, you can subdivide it and keep the model hard with the correct settings in the geometry tab.

[Nacy Nightfire]

Maybe this will help you out.  Crease tool in Maya for hard edges that transfer to zbrush (and I would assume also Mudbox)).