ZBrushCentral

Zbrush and furniture hi-res modeling

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello ZBC!

I would like to ask anyone to guide me to the right direction.

I am an archi-viz specialist and at times I need to do my own furniture models for interiors,
what i would like to achieve is a detailed representation of the furniture.

Now my question is, what would be the best approach to do this. work-flows or pipeline.
What I am thinking is, starting with a base mesh in 3dmax UV it, then transfer to zbrush to add details like,
seams, folds, textures, wrinkles etc… then the next step is where I am lost.

I have seen around the internet the methods of doing this, normal mapping and decimation master.
To my understanding normal mapping will not alter the low-res mesh but simply its looks. which at certain angles might not look good? (correct me if i’m wrong please)

And for the decimation master I not sure what will happen to the UV map.

Thank you for your time.

#2

you want to either export out a displacement map and a normal map…
or…
you’ll want to decimate the mesh (keeping the UVs) and export out that mesh.

The decimated mesh will be harder to handle in MAX when you start adding a ton of them.
The displacement map you can use for silhouette changes and then use a normal map, or bump map to add in the little details like fabric patterns, etc.

The displacement/normal map method makes for an easier workflow inside of another package…3ds, but makes for longer render times. The decimation workflow makes for a boggy 3ds experience but a faster render (usually).