Rendering ZBrush Displacement Maps in Maya

This tutorial is for the previous versions of ZBrush or for those who want to know how to set up the renders manually. For a tutorial on the new 3.5 and above method of applying displacements see my tutorial here

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Scott_Spencer

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• ZBrush
• Maya

[tek23ken]

So i think i may have had a break though with the displacement maps issue. In the tutorial by scott spencer, He says that ALL displacement maps that are create in zbrush will work if you enter 2.2 in the alpha gain and -1.1 in the alpha offset in ur displacement node in maya. But i found this is not true with my project. It was causing my object to be far over displaced and blown out. You just need to find out the range you need for your object ....

[eindoppelganger]

@tek23ken This video is from ZBrush 2 - use GoZ to render displacements now - it sets everything up for you automatically.

[tek23ken]

@continued..... If you check the settings you will also find what i said about the alpha offset is all ways half the amount of the alpha gain , then u just needing to stick a negative sign in front of it, to be true. I find that you still have to set up the approximation editor in mental ray on ur own. I am finally able to get some great results. Let me know if i have given any false info. Cause i am still learning. Also is there a difference between 32bit and 32float??

[tek23ken]

@continued...... In my case it was .006 in the alpha gain and -.003 in the alpha offset. I have worked on afew more objects and it seems that the alpha offset is all ways half the amount of the alpha gain , then u just need to stick a negative sign in front of the alpha offset. Also if you create a displacement map and set it in your displacement palette in zbrush then send it to maya using Goz, it will have everything set up for you in maya including ur nodes.....

[eindoppelganger]

@tower26films well, normal map detail will not be affected at all by subdivision levels.

[tower26films]

@eindoppelganger I have tried to create a diffuse map (is that the same as a cavity map?) same thing all of the help i find to make a cavity map uses the zmapper. I end up with lighting details and shadows in my cavity map which doesn't work. This is going into a live action scene so I can't adjust the lighting any way I want.

[tower26films]

@eindoppelganger I wouldn't know what zmapper does, I never had it. I am trying to use normal and displacement. As I said, I am adjusting the subdivision approximation levels up to the point where there is no difference in appearance but a huge jump in rendering time and back again. There is always more smoothing in Maya than in zbrush.

[eindoppelganger]

@tower26films are you using Normal or displacement maps? ZMapper was for normal mapping so that confuses me. If you lack the details its almost always the subdivision approx is too low. Also be aware that ZBrush has a curve on the diffuse channel of the shader so detaisl showup clearer there than they do in mayas defauls shaders. Make sure you use some specular shine and a raking light to spot the details - also consider using a bump node to punch up the details and maybe a diffuse map

[tower26films]

@eindoppelganger

I've been using GoZ in between ZBrush 3.2 and Maya 2009 and I don't get the high frequency details that I have in ZBrush. I have tried several methods of adjusting the subdivision approximation to varying success but it never gets to the level of detail I have in ZBrush. I seem to be stuck in the middle of the old way using zmapper (which 3.2 doesn't have) and the new way that doesn't give me what I want. Are there any other ways to set it up manually without zmapper?

[eleszar1]

to have a perfect model lets say my model is 25k polygons how many maps i need to make it look cooL? difuse map, normal map, and what else? and i got a problem if i get my model lower than 20k polygons its detail start to look bad evenwith normal map on any suggestion?