Looking for a solid workflow

[EllieAnne Silverfall]

I've not been creating much in the past year. RL has just been too busy and I was dealing with a health issue that made it hard to concentrate. I am hoping to get back into it again soon. I typically create mesh furniture and decor using blender - I still need to learn Zbrush. I learned how to mesh by watching a tutorials, and a lot of trial and error. Since it's been a while, I want to get back at it the right way... so I am looking for some tips or tutorials specific to SL for workflow. I think mine was probably a little bit sloppy and definitely has room for improvement. As for texturing... that I'm not as worried about, but would be a topic for another day. If anyone is willing to share, I will be very grateful. Thanks!

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by EllieAnne Silverfall

[Jenny Ashland]

Because of the new PBR system in SL I would recommend using Adobe Substance Painter instead of zbrush. It has a direct export for SL settings, it can make the UV maps for you, and it is a lot easier to learn.

[OptimoMaximo]

On 2/13/2024 at 12:08 PM, Jenny Ashland said:

Because of the new PBR system in SL I would recommend using Adobe Substance Painter instead of zbrush. It has a direct export for SL settings, it can make the UV maps for you, and it is a lot easier to learn.

And what would the criteria be for such shift in the choice between these two softwares? Substance Painter is a texturing program and ZBrush is meant for sculpting (can also texture, yes, but its main use is sculpting)

[Porky Gorky]

If you can afford the license for ZBrush and Substance then you should use them both. A common workflow involves sculpting a high poly model in ZBrush, then create the low poly model in your 3D modeling software, then use Substance Painter to bake your high poly to low poly maps, generating as many maps as you can including normals, curvature, thickness, AO and position. These maps will feed into the smart materials in Substance Painter offering you more functionality when texturing. You can also use Substance Designer to author your own tileable basic materials or smart/procedural materials for you to use in Substance Painter or you can import basic tileable PBR materials straight into SL.

Edited February 16 by Porky Gorky

[Flea Yatsenko]

16 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

And what would the criteria be for such shift in the choice between these two softwares? Substance Painter is a texturing program and ZBrush is meant for sculpting (can also texture, yes, but its main use is sculpting)

I would take SP over ZBrush because SP makes it a lot easier to handle PBR and GLTF and ZBrush, while superior to Blender in sculpting, only kind of repeats Blender's functionality. Better to ditch ZBrush, learn to sculpt in blender, and use substance painter. AFAIK Blender's GLTF support isn't nearly as good as SP's.

[OptimoMaximo]

1 hour ago, Flea Yatsenko said:

I would take SP over ZBrush because SP makes it a lot easier to handle PBR and GLTF and ZBrush, while superior to Blender in sculpting, only kind of repeats Blender's functionality. Better to ditch ZBrush, learn to sculpt in blender, and use substance painter. AFAIK Blender's GLTF support isn't nearly as good as SP's.

Still not explaining what's the point of comparing two softwares, painter and zbrush, which fields of use are completely unrelated to each other's.

Anyway, good luck with Blender trying to cope with the polygon numbers that zbrush can handle without breaking a sweat.

Edited February 16 by OptimoMaximo

[Porky Gorky]

22 minutes ago, OptimoMaximo said:

Anyway, good luck with Blender trying to cope with the polygon numbers that zbrush can handle without breaking a sweat

I agree, ZBrush has better computational power and can handle multiple millions of polygons whereas Blender tends to struggle, ZBrush beats blender hands down in the level of detail that can be achieved. When it comes to digital sculpting the only thing Blender beats ZBrush on is price.

[Flea Yatsenko]

On 2/16/2024 at 8:40 AM, OptimoMaximo said:

Still not explaining what's the point of comparing two softwares, painter and zbrush, which fields of use are completely unrelated to each other's.

Anyway, good luck with Blender trying to cope with the polygon numbers that zbrush can handle without breaking a sweat.

I'm just assuming you only want one piece of software. If I had to choose I'd take SP over Zbrush but if you can do both you probably should. I'm comparing them based on your workflow, even though each piece of software accomplishes different goals. I think from delivering a quality product, high quality painted materials are more valuable than baking normals to low poly. But obviously the best choice is to do both, I think it just depends how much time you have and what market segment you're targeting. It also depends what you're making.

SL used to compress normal maps heavily before PBR, so odds are baking from high to low wouldn't look that great.

EllieAnne doesn't have a lot of time and is just getting into things, so I'm basing my opinion on that.

[Luna Bliss]

5 hours ago, Flea Yatsenko said:

If I had to choose I'd take SP

Do you use the Substance Painter purchased at Steam?  If so, is it as good as the SP monthly plan?

[anitabush]

13 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

Do you use the Substance Painter purchased at Steam?  If so, is it as good as the SP monthly plan?

It’s no different at all, you just don’t get designer, sampler or access to the online assets. I believe the steam version gets 12 months of updates. It just comes down to how you prefer to pay for software really. If you need painter and designer then paying monthly makes more sense

[Luna Bliss]

2 hours ago, anitabush said:

It’s no different at all, you just don’t get designer, sampler or access to the online assets. I believe the steam version gets 12 months of updates. It just comes down to how you prefer to pay for software really. If you need painter and designer then paying monthly makes more sense

Thanks.

I think I'm going to like painting with this much better than painting with Blender.

[anitabush]

50 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Thanks.

I think I'm going to like painting with this much better than painting with Blender.

I find it so much nicer than blender for texturing, it all clicks in my head much more easily