Hi guys! I’ve been learning the workflow for creating a character with zbrush, maya, and photoshop. I followed through to make notes of the workflow up to rendering & having a final model completed. However, there was no mention of rigging, when should rigging be completed with a zbrush, maya, photoshop workflow? Would anyone mind directing me to where I can learn about adding a rig to a completed zBrush model? Thanks!
This can depend on how you’ve started the sculpt and what the purpose is.
- If you’re working on a mesh for animation/gaming, you’ve got an existing basemesh that has the final proportions established (along with the final topology that works well with animation and sculpting) and you’re only using zbrush to add in very fine surface details like scratches, then you can rig the mesh before taking it into zbrush.
- If you have an existing basemesh and you’re sculpting something static (a statue, something for a 3d print, an illustration, etc), then you could also give it a quick rig to establish a pose before taking it into zbrush to handle the rest of the work.
- If you DON’T have a final mesh/topology established yet, then you’re going to want to wait until you have that in order to start rigging. Get your sculpt done first and retopologize it for the final mesh. It wont matter if you start rigging before UVing/ texturing it, or if you wait until after to rig it (if you’re working with a team and someone else handles the rigging, then it might be more time efficient to hand them the final model so that they can start rigging while you work on the texture)
Thanks Cryrid, this helped clarify rigging for maya & zBrush a lot! I really appreciate the help!