ZBRUSH TO 3ds Max web

ZBrush to 3ds Max 8Displacement Guide

Michael McCarthy & Scott Spencer

March 06, 2006

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and the ZBrush logo, are registeredtrademarks of Pixologic, Inc.

Photoshop

is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.3ds Max is a registered trademark of Autodesk® 3ds Max®All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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.

1.

INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................3

2.

3DS MAX MODEL PREP.................................................................................................................3

2.1.

M

ODEL

R

EQUIREMENTS FOR

ZB

RUSH

..........................................................................................3

2.1.1.

Fixing Overlapping UVs......................................................................................................... 4

2.1.2.

Cleaning the Mesh Topology.................................................................................................. 6

E

XPORTING FROM

3

DS

M

AX

..............................................................................................................7

2.2..............................................................................................................................................................7

3.

SCULPTING IN ZBRUSH................................................................................................................7

3.1.

UV

R

EGIONS AND

P

OLYGROUPS

................................................................................................10

3.2.

F

INAL

UV

A

DJUSTMENTS AND

V

ERTEX

O

RDER

.........................................................................12

4.

DISPLACEMENT MAPS AND THE ZBRUSH ALPHA DISPLACEMENT EXPORTER.....13

4.1.

G

ENERATING A

D

ISPLACEMENT

M

AP

.........................................................................................14

4.1.1.

Creating a comparison Image to check your 3ds Max Renders ........................................... 16

5.

BACK TO 3DS MAX........................................................................................................................17

5.1.

M

ENTAL

R

AY

S

ETUP FOR

R

ENDERING

.......................................................................................17

5.2.

R

ENDERING WITH A

S

INGLE

M

AP

...............................................................................................17

5.3.

M

ENTAL

R

AY

R

ENDER

S

ETTINGS

...............................................................................................19

6.

FINALRENDER DISPLACEMENT..............................................................................................20

6.1.

FINAL

R

ENDER

S

ETUP FOR

R

ENDERING

.......................................................................................20

6.2.

R

ENDERING WITH A

S

INGLE

M

AP

...............................................................................................21

7.

BUMP AND DIFFUSE MAPS.........................................................................................................24

7.1.

U

SING THE

B

UMP

V

IEWER

M

ATERIAL

........................................................................................25

7.2.

A

PPLYING BUMP MAPS IN

3

DS

M

AX

...........................................................................................26

7.3.

C

AVITY

M

APS AND THE

D

IFFUSE

C

HANNEL

...............................................................................27

2

1. Introduction

Welcome to the ZPipeline ZBrush to 3ds Max guide. In this manual Michael McCarthywill guide your through a process of exporting your sculpt in ZBrush, for use in 3ds Maxwith Mental Ray and finalRender. Michael illustrates the processes he uses to work seamlessly between the two applications.

2. 3ds Max Model Prep

If your model started as a mesh in 3ds Max, begin by loading your model in 3ds Max.We will need to export the geometry as a generic 3D format that ZBrush can read. 3dsMax will export OBJ files for this purpose.

2.1. Model Requirements for ZBrush

There are two requirements your model and UV map should have before they can be usedin ZBrush:The mesh may only have one UV set and the UVs may not overlap at all.Overlapping UVs will cause unexpected crashes when you are extracting yourdisplacement map and they are easy to miss.

3