ZBrushCentral

Burning shading into textures

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m analyzing ZBrush for use in games development. In looking through the forums I’ve not been able to find a good topic on this issue.

I really like z-brush and I think it would really speed up the developement of low poly character models and texturing. The only problem is burning the lighting into the texture itself.

  1. Z-Sphere model
  2. Up-rez the mesh
  3. Use the great modeling tools to generate muscle, clothing etc
  4. Drop the model with Projection master marking color and shaded
  5. pickup
  6. The texture has darkened significantly but the shading is burned in
  7. Rotate the model and drop using proj-master and color and shaded
  8. pickup the model and the shading is burned in, but significantly darker. Also the previously burned areas of the texture for the front of the model have darkend even more.

Is their a better solution for this? The goal is to have a low poly model, upsample the mesh, mold in the details and then burn the shading into the texture.

Any help would be appreciated. I hope this is the right forum

#2

When you open PM to ‘drop’ the object make sure the ‘shaded’ option is un-checked. I think this is what’s causing your problems.

Sleeper

edit: having re-read your post ;)… If you still want some shading try texturing the object with shading off at first. When the texture is finished then Drop the object with shading turned on and just pick it up again.

The other alternative would be to use PM with the shading option turned off to create the texture but to paint the shading on manually (if you know what I mean).

#3

try using Gamemaster770’s flat shading plugin. you can find the thread in the main forum.

#4

Thank you for your help. I’ll look for that script.

#5

Using the normal map to make textures for low-poly models.

It really depends on what you want to do with your model. If you go here, you can see how I was able to get a really, really good result of “baking” the shadows and highlights in Zbrush. It’s almost like baking lighting in Maya, but a lot faster.

If you go here, you can see that I was able to utilize the normal map as a grayscale texture map to start work from. So basically, this is how I did the Orc character.

  1. Make the lowpoly model. Zspheres, or in another package. Do your UV mapping to be able to paint on the texture in a 2D editor.

  2. Import your model back into Zbrush. Start detailing the model as you see fit. I went to about 2.4 million polygons with the Orc.

  3. Once you are finished with the model, go back to the first level, and create your normal map.

  4. Export your normal map to a 2D editor of your choice.

  5. Convert the color image (nromal map) to a grayscale image.

  6. Paint your texture map as you normally would. Using overlays, dodge and burn, etc.

  7. Import back into Zbrush and fix the seams. And continue painting the model.

IMO, this is the best way to utilize Zbrush’s feature sets to make an awesome looking textures for a low-poly model.

I just wish there was a way to bake out the materials to a texture.

Actually, I wonder if the normal map material is used to make the normal maps in Z2? If that’s the case, maybe a script can be made to use another material other than the normal map material. That would be a cool feature.

#6

as far as I know Displacement maps, and Normal maps generated out of ZBrush have nothing to do with a material, so you can’t use another one.
They are generated by figuring out the difference between current polymesh, and the highest LOD one.

#7

You’re probably right. I was just wondering because of the Normal material that’s included in Z2. Why have it?

#8

The normal mapping material was created for 1.55b, but is still very useful for Z2. You wouldn’t use it on a 3D model. Instead, you can create a texture for a flat surface (such as a wall) by painting your details on the 2.5D canvas. Thanks to tilde-scrolling, it is very easy to create seamless textures this way. You would then convert the canvas to the Normal Mapping material and use Texture>GrabDoc to capture it as a normal map that you can apply to any flat surface.

#9

Thanks for the clarification Aurick. I remember reading about that in the forums a while back.

#10

Thanks everyone. I’ve tried using the normal map and displacement maps to burn shading into the textures. Displacement worked wonderfully? I create an alpha from the displacement map, convert the alpha to a texture and then use a program called Texture Master to add the alpha’d bumpmap to my base texture using their shader option and presto, perfecly baked high resolution shading for my low poly model. Also, being able to easily create normal maps is a wonderful feature. ZBrush is looking good for our production pipeline.

Thanks again everyone.

#11

Care to share any info about the Texture Master software? I found this:
http://wscg.zcu.cz/wscg2003/Papers_2003/D89.pdf

But I’m not for sure if that was what you were talking about.

#12

Woops, texture maker.
http://www.texturemaker.com

This is incredible software for the price. Some of the features like texture sampling, automatic tiled textures and advanced shaders are real timesavers. Been using this for a while and it really cuts down on making seamless textures. I also use this for creating base character and environment textures.

Enjoy-

#13

Yep, same here. A fantastic piece of software!

(just ignore the only problem with it- a bug in the advanced mixer, for the time being :slight_smile:

#14

This one is a pretty good too, a little more expensive though.

Darktree textures