ZBrushCentral

40 million poly model into maya for rendering?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,
I’ve read that the workflow to bring a 40 million plus model into a 3D program for rendering, is thru normal maps, / displacement maps. But this seems like a "poor man’s " way of rendering because we are rendering a bump map as oppose to the real geometry.

I understood the reason for this method the minute I tried to import it into Maya. My software locked up for 20 minutes and my ram was sucked out faster than a hooker on crack. But I keep thinking that there’s a better way and I just don’t know it.

So what’s the best way to bring in a high res model without dumbing down the model to 500,000 polys?

Thanks!

#2

Displacement maps are not the same as bump maps. The render engine displaces points according to the map and renders them appropriately, so the end result is the same as if it was real geometry.

Also ZBrush provides the Decimation Master plugin which will reduce the poly count of a mesh without losing detail.

#3

Hi,
Yes I saw that feature, however I just excluded that option because I saw it created triangles. I just assumed that if any rigging is decided, quads would be the better choice. No?

Also, Are you saying that if ILM creates a 70 million poly model of Godzilla, they decimate the model before rigging? Or do you think there’s another workflow?

#4

If you are intending your model for animation then you will have to use displacement maps (I’d be surprised if ILM didn’t use them). I very much doubt that you will be able to create a good rig with a high resolution mesh, and Decimation Master is not designed to produced topology suitable for animation. I mentioned Decimation Master because it is one of the options inside ZBrush but that doesn’t mean it is best for your needs (which you didn’t state in detail).

#5

You’re right, I didn’t go into details. Sorry,
So my goal is to bring the model into maya for Still renderings, however, I wanted to rig the model just for poses.

I brought the model into Maya at 4 million polys and I was able to make renderers. But I had to sacrifice detail. When I tried the unthinkable and imported 20 million poly, I got flash backs to the 1990’s computer power days. I actually heard my HD swapping virtual memories. Ha ha.

It just kills me to have to bring my model down to the lowest lever and make maps. I guess I keep thinking there’s a better way but I just don’t know it.

#6

You can ZRemesh after Decimation Master in order to get quads instead of triangles.
If you don’t see enough details in the displacement map from a 500,000 poly lowest subdivision mesh, you could just delete the lowest subdivision and have a 2 million poly lowest level to work with.

#7

Excuse me but I think you are supposing things that are simply wrong.
If you want a very high resolution model to be rigged and used in production, the only way to do that is by using displacement maps.
If, otherwise, you want to render the model without rigging, and supposing you are using MAYA or Max to do that, you can use Arnold standins, which will read your OBJ directly.
Cheers.