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UV Mapping and Texture Mapping - examples of problems I have

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Greetings to all ZHeads out there.

I have posted a few mails on this topic before, but this time I have gone a few steps more to explain myself as concisely as possible, by including screenshots of what the problems are.

  1. Basically, if I use ZSphere to model - here is a pic:

  1. I then convert it using Adaptive Skin and use TextureMaster to paint, I get something looking like this, which is fine:

  2. I then export the skin to OBJ format, for use in Alias|Wavefront Maya. The OBJ import works perfectly - here is a perspective view of it in Maya:

  3. However, when I load the texture onto the object, I get a very faceted look to the object, as follows:

  4. The following is a close up of the UV Texture Editor in Maya - here you can see that the colour at the edge of each polygon fades, most likely causing the faceted look on each polygon (the mapping is ZBrush’s default - UV Tiles):

  5. I discovered that if I use Maya’s Layout UV command, I can texture the object using Maya’s 3D Paint System, and it works perfectly (picture not shown). Here’s a screenshot of the UV editor when I use the Layout command:

  6. If I export the object out of Maya using the new UV layout, I try using TextureMaster again, only to get the following weird result:

I am not sure if there are any tool settings I can enable so that this doesn’t happen.

Any ideas?

In appreciation.

Regards,
Zendoftheworld…
:confused:

#2

:small_orange_diamond: http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=008410

#3

EZ - I tried that some time ago - it simply doesn’t work for me.

There’s something fundamentally wrong that I am doing, or the program doesn’t do what I want it to do.

Pixolator - any ideas?

Regards,
Zendoftheworld…

#4

zendo…what does it look like when u do a test render in Maya? hardware texturing is not always accurate…the tiling affect comes from the seams of the UVs…i know it is an annoying workaround but try the merg/sew Uvs function on all of the edges in Maya…you will then lose the seams. One advice is to Redo the Uvs in Maya…you can get pretty good results…then texture in Z

#5

Hi - the rendered results are the same as the viewports - faceted.

Like I say in my post, I use the Layout command in Maya, which separates the UV borders - when I used Maya’s 3D paint feature, it works great, but TextureMaster doesn/'t work well.

It seems I can’t have it both ways.

regards,
Zendoftheworld…

#6

Hi,

I had the same problem importing models
from nendo into max. It looks like zbrush
is using per face mapping, which means
every face/poly has it’s own mapping.

In max rewelding the vertices at the right
treshhold solved the problem. You also
need to include all the faces into the
same shading group.

Hope that helps!

e1

#7

The default UV Mapping method for ZSphere-created models is UV Tiles. Unfortunately, while the mapping method works perfectly in ZBrush, some (not all) other programs have difficulties with it. If you are using one of these programs – which does include Maya – then you will need to either assign new UV coordinates inside of ZBrush using the Tool>Modifiers>Texture menu (for Spherical, Cylindrical or Planar mapping), or export your model and UV map it in another program. For this latter option, you will usually be able to use the program that you wish to use the model in, or you can use something like UV Mapper. UV maps generated in Maya, however, also seem to have problem on occasion, so if you’re a Maya user, then UV Mapper is probably the best way to go.

No matter what, the developers will be creating a special utility for ZBrush that will allow you to do your texturing in ZBrush using UV Tiles (for the minimum possible distortion in a texture) and then change it to another layout before exporting. So you’ll get the best of both worlds! More will be said about this utility as it gets closer to completion.