I am totaly new to ZBrush and have been looking at training films for some time now.
For a noob there are quite a few basic areas that i can not find answers to.
I have long had a hobby of sculpting and as a CNC operator am fascinated with the idea of a marriage
between ZBrush and the CNC machinery.
But after watching so many films the most unclear area i am ledt with is not how to make a UV Map but
what on earth is it for?
why would i need it?
Once i have it what do i do with it.
I understand XYZ is taken up thErefore UVW
But i just simply can not understand its purpose.
Simple explanation would be truly apreciated.
The sole purpose of UV mapping is to wrap a 2D image (texture) onto the 3D surface of your model. Think of it like peeling the skin off an orange and laying that skin out flat on a sheet of graph paper. There are any number of different ways that you can accomplish this and each will result in a texture (the sheet of paper) that looks different. The catch is that while you’re peeling the orange you’re also marking the points on the orange’s surface, creating a list that states exactly where each point on the surface corresponds to the horizontal (U) and vertical (V) grid of the paper. That is the UV mapping. It’s unique to each mapped model and textures created for one UV map will not work with other UV maps. You just get a jumbled image.
Regarding ZBrush, you need UV mapping any time you’re going to export a texture (or displacement map, normal map, AO map, etc.) from ZBrush or import a texture into ZBrush. However, if you’re going to be rendering in ZBrush and it’s a model that you’ve painted in ZBrush you really don’t need UV maps. This is because of ZBrush’s polypaint feature, which lets you paint directly on the surface of the model rather than on a 2D image that is then wrapped onto the surface. Not only does this mean it’s fewer steps you need to go through to get to your render, it’s also less memory and processing needed by the computer so it’s more efficient for your system.
In short:
- If you’re working in ZBrush exclusively, you don’t need UV mapping.
- If you’re importing a textured model into ZBrush it already has UV mapping. But you don’t need to keep that mapping after converting the texture to polypaint unless you plan to export from ZBrush again. You can also change the mapping if you want in ZBrush and export the new version of the model along with the texture(s) you create.
- If you’re exporting a painted model from ZBrush, it must be given UV mapping (unless it already had UV’s) before you can convert your paint to texture to export it from ZBrush. If you assign UV’s in ZBrush you must also export the model because it’s the OBJ that contains the UV map.
- If your model was created from scratch in ZBrush, it won’t have UV’s until you assign them. This can be done with the options in the Tool>UV Mapping menu, using the UV Master plugin, or by exporting level 1 of your model and creating the UV’s in another program before reimporting the newly mapped model into level 1 of your ZBrush figure.
Hope that helps!
Thank you for your appreciated reply.
Okay, this is a fairly complex answer but i get the point. further more i now understand.
Can we say in a nutshell then…
Group1 is …
People using ZBrush where they will be involving a second 3D software package, UV mapping would be required,
(in the case when they have textures & painting on their models to be used in the next program).
Group2 is …
People like myself who are thinking along the lines of staying within ZBrush, for the sole purpose of sending a model to
a 3D printer or CNC machine (UV mapping being thus an area of no concern).
This does leave me with a final question on the same note,
this would be those who are using ZBrush solely for the purpose of creating a printable image (e.g. meets Meier and others).
Would it be correct to put this type of ZBrush art into Group2?
or is there a third group?