Small suggestion is after dividing the geometry to required highest division, come down to the lowest and project from the lowest division,. This will help you to rid of the missed projections happened in areas like armpit and so and overlapping projections which happened between the fingers like you shown in the video.
After watching this and gaining the knowledge I feel a lot more confident in working in zBrush. This was the final kind of step that I was always unsure of.
Thank you! You managed to turn a "sinking feeling" moment, into a moment of learning and problem solution - I'm now in a better place with my model from where I was before the problem I encountered!
Holy crap, you just solved an issue that has been eating me alive. We are printing on a polyjet machine and this was one major hang up in our pipeline. THANK YOU!
Great tutorial guys. Another great thing at the end when you have those reprojection issues is to use the ZProject brush on a low intensity setting, using Alt to pull back on the normal towards the surface/camera.
Yes, I was about to type this up. I'm glad I read through the comments. It's camera based projection, so lining up the parts of the model as straight on to you in the view port is essential. For smaller crevasses, areas like between the arms, or the inner eye, I wouldn't recommend it. It's a good brush to use to try and get detail back if you did go too far on in detailing the model in the first place and now have to take it higher (maybe even into HD geometry) to get the detail back. It can help you to not have to re-sculpt as much. The best practice, though, as they say in the video, is not to take the model's detail too far before you retopo it.
You could also mention that is a good idea to create some polygroups on the model you're reprojecting to. Doing so for areas that are very often problematic allow you to isolate them and morph them back or mask them before the projection. Cool stuff guys :)
Fantastic! this is a life saving tutorial because I've always wondered how to properly fix topology on zbrush after I've already done some details in the concept and zremesher is garbage if the character is to actually be used in production so this tutorial is pretty much the perfect solution! Thanks a lot!
Thank you guys for all the amazing videos! If it wasn't for videos like this. I don't think I could have been able to get as far as I did visually for my thesis. Thank you again!
Parts of this video has satisfied a question I've been trying to find the best working answer to for the last 3 days straight.. (how to give a HP model suitable lower subdivisions) - huge thank you, I should have known FN would have the answer haha
This is brilliant guys! I used to project my low res from SUBDIVISION 6 one by one all the way to SUBDIVISION 1... which is completely wrong! LOL! Awesome Guys! Cheers!
Thank you for going over how to fix the messed up areas. I was having these problems a few months ago and none of the reprojection tutorials I found mentioned anyway to fix it.
I love you guys, will you ever do a video showing the full pipeline from concept to rendered scene with everything in between sharing some tips on each step?
@@FlippedNormals Maybe you will think i'm an idiot, you can even screenshot it, but i really don't understand one thing from your tutorial. The main reason we are doing BAKE is projecting details from HIGHPOLY model to LOWPOLY retopologized model so u can have model with for example 12k polygons but with highpoly details. But in this tutorial u just increase number of polygons in lowpolymodel and project details.... BUT U STILL HAVE 2.5 MIL polygons. So it doesn't make any sense. Explain me please, cause i'm not even able to sleep cause of this :. thank you in advance
@@dparvulus So the low resolution mesh that they projected to, in a production environment it would have these things: Correct topology (not a zremesher) for correct deformations once doing rigs Optimized UV's for whatever texturing software etc. So from here on you would export a displacement/normal map that can be used on the low res model in f.ex Maya. You could then also continue working on and adding new details and knowing that all the new detail you will add will work with low poly version. Hope that makes sense :)
I've always done it level by level, starting at the lowest division level to catch out any big problem areas, without it taking until the heat death of the universe to project at a higher level.
Maaan you guys are life saver....I mean y'all are so damn young and like..know all the softwares I could ever dream of learning right now. Do you guys have time to eat? Any ways you are great, respect for your work and te guys🙏🙏🙏🇮🇳
Amazing video, I didn't know you could use morph target with projection, could do a video on baking hi poly details in substance without reproject in zbrush?
So I've done a high poly model, and retopologised it, normally i would bake it on susbtance painter..but should i do this instead? import my retopo in the same file as the high poly and project the detail? then export the retopology at its original polycount and texture it then? (for games not movies )
In your workflow would you retologize in Maya and then go back to zbrush to do this projection, then UV unwrap and move to substance painter. IU'm trying to get my model into substance painter but it's high poly and I'm trying to figure out how to get the uv's for a model that keeps all the detail but is low poly so I'm assuming that thats how you would do it.
Hi ! I'm new to zbrush can I ask a question? so I have a dynamesh with mutiple subtools and I need to project it, is there any way to projecting it into one normal map? because I've tried to merge and it didn't catch the details because the body just get in a way to the clothes, do I hv to do retopology first or deleting the part that covering the farthest part?
i am told one technique that minimizes such projection errors was to project in stages like you subdivide once and project subdivide again then project and such as makes sure every poly area is in its proper place and close enough to the hirez for smooth projection. i think they say to apply a smooth deformation each time so the verts are averaged.
Yes, you can absolutely do that too :) This sometimes gives you better projections. That said, it will never work for areas like the eyes and the inside of the mouth in this video, as the difference is just too big.
Hey guys you are awesome and I enjoy your tutorials a lot. I did a retopo of my model and did UVs, exported it, and when I go to Zbrush high res model just won't sit on top of low res! Or vice versa! I am so confused, I cant believe Im stuck at such a stupid and basic step. Is there a special way to make them come on top of each other, to align? I thought it was done automatically. Its so frustrating
Can you guys make a video tutorial on a natural environment too. Just a small scene would be great, or a premium tutorial on yours site would be even better! 😁
Seconding this, tho I feel like with them being a lot more knowledgeable in the character part of things, they might not know that much about environments. Very curious to find out whether that's the case!
Which is better for exporting the model to other programs: projecting hi-res details onto low-res models for export or using decimation master to get a low-res model with the hi-res maps unwrapped for export?
Question, what if I have brought retopoed model from Maya back to zbrush. Then my high poly sculpt has some blend shapes i have done. Does projecting all will also apply the blend shapes? I am worried I wasted my time for blend shapes before retopo so I was wondering if there is any way of projecting those.
Big question as i was advised to try reprojection. I have hair and model i imported to Zbrush. I am using 2021 zbrush with the cloth just heads up on that. Anyhow, on import i need the original polycount, verts, uv to all stay the same. I am simply morphing the hair to conform to the body clothing ect. When i do this using any tool does not matter it changes the hair and i cannot reimport to Daz studio without it telling me this is a new object make new. How do i use this feature and or another if so to retain the original geometry etc and only change the shape? I would love to use the new tools, specifically the cloth tools with gravity to do this if possible... Thanks Ahead of time for any help :)
Ok, so please forgive me, i am antiquated with zbrush BUT i never deep delved into it or the pipeline. Not only that i have watched several projection videos and it's lost on me. So, why would you be doing this as opposed to decimating it and zremeshing it? Should you do this only to a combined mesh, or can you do this with each subtool? I do want to say though, i understand the necessity of retopologizing, I'm just wondering what makes this so much better than to DM > Zremesh.
I wish they'd answer this question too because there's too main ways to do project, they way you mention and the way they mention. I want to know which is better and why, please!
ZRemeshing it won't really get you to the cleanest low poly model for UVing and in animation. But as to why they are reprojecting this onto a retopoed model, they want to get the clean displacement maps out of ZBrush off of this model, once they add final detailing, instead of getting it from a possible lower quality decimated model in another program.
Hi, is this covered more thoroughly in the retopology tutorial on your website? Specifically, I'm wondering where this fits in the process, is this then exported for making UV maps in Maya?
Are the final UV maps on the retopologized mesh at this stage? Is that something that should always be done before finishing the actual high frequency details on the sculpt?
these are some great videos. just wanted to let you know this. as a pretty semi professional artist myself, I must admit I learned some good techniques I would of not known of otherwise. SO thank you for your great work. subbed.
does is the same issue if I am using dynamesh as high poly and a zremesh base with couple of subdivision as lowpoly ? thx. sounds very tricky tutorial.
so after I retopo the object from maya export to zbrush doing the projection then do I export the normal maps from zbrush ? I am asking for making a game characters to rig.
Hiya! Thank you so much for the tutorial!! It helps a bunch. I have a question though; So when I have a high poly version and export it to Blender (or any other 3D software) am I supposed to UV unwrap it before exporting it back into Zbrush and do these steps? Do the UV's change at all when you export these, or am I supposed to do it after?
After doing this process, my UV maps are no longer correct as I have changed the shape of the model. I noticed this when opening my model in substance painter and checking the normal maps. Do I have to redo the uv map now or is there another way?
Interesting video. Out of curiosity I have a 3d stl file that's really high resolution that I would like to decimate in zbrush and then bring the decimated version into maya to rigg it and pose it and then once it's in the desired pose import the model back into zbrush and then project the origional high resolution detail back onto the model but in the new pose. Do you guys know how to do that? Any help would be greatly appreciated
I have problems after doing this. After I got subdivision levels and polypainted. When I pressed create from polypaint, the models texture became kinda flat.. no details no shadows. This is now really a moment where I can't find any any solution.
When would be good to reproject this way? I am guessing this is for when you have a high-resolution model with bad topology to project it over a lowRes with good topology, or just to reduce the polycount .. ? I believe in my case wouldn't be too useful as I am sculpting my model from a good topology basemesh. Am I right? ... Thank you in advance
Good video as always. I think you just could've shown what the layer is for and perhaps also how to invert a mask. Those are steps not always clear for beginners I guess. Cheers
Good point! The layer is there just as a backup. You dont strictly speaking need it, but it means you can always go back to where you were at before the projection.
I had a problem before that for some reason when try to hit project, one of the side tried to project the opposite side, so all my polygons got messy, "flipping" normals or mesh helped
Hey guys, somebody else mentioned this a little lower so I felt like maybe two comments would pique your interest: would you be interested in making a video showing how to make natural environments in Zbrush? I'm being a bit more specific than the person below because I'm mostly interested in the Zbrush part of designing an environment and how a Zbrush built scene could be integrated into a pipeline. Let's take a cave for example: would you design the whole interior in Zbrush, stones and flora and everything, or would you much rather build the walls in Max/Maya, sculpt elements in Zbrush and then bring them in and assemble in autodesk apps?
Ok I'm a little lost and new at this do you have both high and low Res loaded at once? I'm trying to process photogrammetry models. Do I open the high Res model and then the low Res?
You need to have the high and low as subtools. Subdivide the low to a few million polys, and then project from the high to the low (now with millions of polys). Hope this helps!
I just joined my first job. It's all about cleaning and doing retopo on a 3D scaned model. And my studio only uses zmodeller. I'm used to doing retopo in maya and my speed is getting hampered by it. I'm frustrated to my bones 😐.
Man, I feel for you. If any of my coworkers or employees could show me a faster way to do something with the same results, I would be so freakin' happy and glad that they were on my team. I didn't get a job once doing graphic design because the interviewer/manager was mentioning that he was using Acrobat Pro to add web links to pdf documents. I knew from our conversation he was doing the layouts in InDesign and asked why he didn't do the links there on a separate layer. i saw him pause for a full 10 seconds to work out that he had probably wasted years of his life doing it his way. lol, oh well.
@@Setlinsubba I think it might have been a joke since no one uses zmodeller if they can avoid it and go "WHELP Time to decimate or zremesh and RETO IN SOMETHING ELSE. Brb Zbrush"
I baked info from high poly to low retopo in sp and the height map ended up being totally black. The normal worked ok (some issues on edges) in vray/Maya but i would also love to know too if there are any settings-changes needed so it works properly?
@@Garuso93 just increase the control area, there are 2 number , you can find the tutorial on UA-cam, search for substance bake problem, and you will find it, but it's not the answer of my question:)
Sorry but I still don't really understand. So my understanding is that reprojecting details is to reduce the actual poly counts right? For example your actual is 5Mil and you project onto a 900k model but still maintaining decent amount of details. However, in your video, your model after projecting has higher poly count than before?
Stupid questions: Why do you need to project detail from a dynameshed mesh onto a zremeshed mesh? I would assume it is to hit a lower poly count with the same detail, right? But if you start subdividing the "low poly" zremeshed mesh, it's no longer low poly anymore. And I swear, I'm not trying to criticize, I'm just lost....... So basically, this exercise was showing how to project detail from a high poly mesh to a high poly subdivided mesh (just one was dynamesh, other was Zremesh which isn't as good as a retopo'd mesh anyway)? so..... In the end, what was the gain? Is it just to get 4-sided polys?
I'm pretty sure that the projected details will be turned into a displacement map, so it's not actually going to add any polys to the retopologised mesh
Lets say a guy just got an entry level job in your company and notices that he has been doing something inefficiently that you have a much smoother workflow for. Would you help him out if he asks? And if he asks what would you think of him?
Of course. I would think that he's doing better than most, as most people don't reach out to learn because they're to afraid to look inexperienced. All in all, that's a very good trait
is it just me or it is impossible to get the final pass (small detail like pores) in this technic to project, so i think you should mention that you have to do that pass after the projection.
How can I preserve smaller details on my model like spikes when zremeshing? The geometry gets shrunk, faded or even a bit distorted after remeshing and reprojection can't bring the details back.
This is the idea of this reprojection thing, you don't have to do any zremeshing, just do the concept to the final proportions with moderate amount of details then export it into another software like topogun and do clean topology then bring it back to zbrush and project the zbrush model on the new retopologized model then start adding the small details and you will have clean topology with high details that you can drop the subdev level and use it with normals map for a game or something
@@FlippedNormals how low poly is your final Low Poly model that your projected onto? I'm working on my portfolio and want to cater it to games but am struggling with how high poly I should allow my models to be? I did a projection using the sample dog which i duplicated and sculpted onto as my HP and it worked, i projected from each subdivision level and it's a perfect match at higher levels, but simply because there's not enough topology to hold everything, subdivision level 1 doesn't have the details. Should i just bake the normal in substance painter now? Really not seeing how this holds your details at lower subdivision levels, isn't that the whole point of projecting in the first place? PLEASE HELP CLARIFY.
So, I have a doubt about this process. I've never seen it used in any game development pipeline, is it exclusive to a film production pipeline? If so, another doubt popped up in my mind: what are the differences between a character model pipeline for games and a character model pipeline for film and animation? That is, what do you need to have in a character for film that would distinguish it from a game character? I've looked for information about this online but couldn't find any useful answer.
There is no reason you can't do it this way for a game dev pipeline. I've used it myself (Disclaimer: I am not a master by any means.) But this is a very fast way of making sure your Low Poly matches the High poly for super clean bakes and final polish detailing. For games I have noticed that most people tend to work however they are comfortable but it seems like Film have much more stringent pipelines (depending on the studio of course). Basically if it does the job faster than you were doing it before, go nuts; you've saved time and money in production. The difference between a game character and a film character is usually the poly limits and the outputs for bakes. Poly limits can be set a bit higher in film (for the most part, this is not an exclusive rule as there are usually cut-scene specific models with pretty high res characters for games as well), and the other difference is the outputs on bakes will be a displacement map for film instead of a normal map for games. The processes are very much interchangeable if you are creating characters that will be rigged and animated; and as the technology advances for game engines and real time rendering the difference gap will keep closing between the two.
I did not understand..............unfortunately. Can you show all pipeline with this technique (how to bake details from high poly to low poly)? By the way - very cool chanel
We're going to do a video showing all the steps. The asset used here is from one of our Premium tutorials. We are finalizing the retopo part of it now, and then we're moving onto texturing. Once that's done, we'll make a video showing all the steps.
Pretty much none of this issues would showed up if you'd reproject on subd level 1 first, then on level 2 and so on to the top. You can also tweak the geometry on every step to the top.
On a normal model, actually you'd still get most of these issues, as the hardest to fix isn't around the torso, but rather for the eyes, mouth and nose. We wanted to show you how you can fix it, as you'll never really going to sculpt those areas in perfectly :) I hope this makes sense.
hello, why is it important to reproject ? i mean if the high poly is done, then we have to retopologize this, and project normal map on the low poly for texturing. i dont understand very much why can someone explain? thanks :)
Your high res wont have UVs most of the time. Also, when you use Dynamesh to sculpt easier, you will lose your UVs. So you are making a highres sculpt, retopologize it and reproject your low res onto you high res. Now you have your high res with UVs ready for texturing
So the purpose of this is to preserve the details on your model so you can continue sculpting on a it with better topology but you dont lose the detail from your high res. So your basically transferring the details over to your low res model. A lot of people including myself like to use zremesher early for better topology for lets say a head where the eyes and mouth might have issues sculpting secondary forms. In production you would sculpt your high poly(probably have a base mesh because no artists in production sculpts from a sphere), then retopo your high poly in maya, 3ds max, topogun, etc. Then before sculpting the really fine details you would reproject your high poly details onto your low poly and then begin to sculpt the fine details with better topology. Then when your ready to bake you can export your model at sub division 2 and that is basically your low poly and then export your model at the highest subdivision for high poly. Hope this helps
I don't get it? The lowres polycount is still way too high? I mean how to project details on a really low res model? is there no way or am I not understanding something?
Small suggestion is after dividing the geometry to required highest division, come down to the lowest and project from the lowest division,. This will help you to rid of the missed projections happened in areas like armpit and so and overlapping projections which happened between the fingers like you shown in the video.
U are changing the world with these videos... you have my eternal gratitude
After watching this and gaining the knowledge I feel a lot more confident in working in zBrush. This was the final kind of step that I was always unsure of.
Thats awesome, thanks a lot Jacob!
Never thought of using morph target to fix projection errors; I've just been trying to smooth endlessly like a scrub... Thank the gods!
Thank you! You managed to turn a "sinking feeling" moment, into a moment of learning and problem solution - I'm now in a better place with my model from where I was before the problem I encountered!
Now expect to do it 10 more times through the whole process lol.
Holy crap, you just solved an issue that has been eating me alive. We are printing on a polyjet machine and this was one major hang up in our pipeline. THANK YOU!
Great tutorial guys. Another great thing at the end when you have those reprojection issues is to use the ZProject brush on a low intensity setting, using Alt to pull back on the normal towards the surface/camera.
Ahh yes, thats a great tip! The ZProject Brush is great.
Yes, I was about to type this up. I'm glad I read through the comments. It's camera based projection, so lining up the parts of the model as straight on to you in the view port is essential. For smaller crevasses, areas like between the arms, or the inner eye, I wouldn't recommend it. It's a good brush to use to try and get detail back if you did go too far on in detailing the model in the first place and now have to take it higher (maybe even into HD geometry) to get the detail back. It can help you to not have to re-sculpt as much. The best practice, though, as they say in the video, is not to take the model's detail too far before you retopo it.
You could also mention that is a good idea to create some polygroups on the model you're reprojecting to. Doing so for areas that are very often problematic allow you to isolate them and morph them back or mask them before the projection. Cool stuff guys :)
Thats a great tip! Thanks for sharing :)
So the new LowPoly (with its 3 Mil polys) will be exported as a displacement map for the real Low Poly model? Thanks!
Yes, check out Multi Map exporter. You select your lowest subdivision level and your highest, then click export.
Fantastic! this is a life saving tutorial because I've always wondered how to properly fix topology on zbrush after I've already done some details in the concept and zremesher is garbage if the character is to actually be used in production so this tutorial is pretty much the perfect solution! Thanks a lot!
Thank you guys for all the amazing videos! If it wasn't for videos like this. I don't think I could have been able to get as far as I did visually for my thesis. Thank you again!
These tutorials are amazing! This step will save me so much time and headache!!
Thank you so much!
Parts of this video has satisfied a question I've been trying to find the best working answer to for the last 3 days straight.. (how to give a HP model suitable lower subdivisions) - huge thank you, I should have known FN would have the answer haha
After this metod i baked my perfect normal map for my model, thanks for saved my life
OMG, you guys are hysterical. Love your videos!
Thanks for making such a concise and clear video! Cleared up alot of questions i had. You should make a quick texture zwrap video as well.
Hey guys, thank you sooo much for your videos. Can`t say enough how useful they are. Thanks again!
Glad you like them :)
Thanks for the tutorial. One question, why do we need the layer? You never mentioned it again in the video. Is it to bake something related to the MT?
Same question I have. The "why" surrounding the "how" doesn't always get brought up, which can be confusing.
MORPH TRICK IS GREAT I USED TO GO CRAZY WHILE SMOOTHING SOME PARTS THAT ARE LIKE IMMPOSIBLE TO SMOOTH BACH PROPERLY
This is brilliant guys! I used to project my low res from SUBDIVISION 6 one by one all the way to SUBDIVISION 1... which is completely wrong! LOL! Awesome Guys! Cheers!
OMG my mesh projected like a DREAM!!!! THANKS IM SO HAPPY
Thats such an awesome solution to a problem thats been nagging me for years.
Flipped normals isnt normal😁
Thanks for that Pro Knowledge!
Youre welcome!
Thanks for this guys! Was wondering how I could retopo something in Maya without having to resculpt everything on my mesh!
Super effective tutorial! Thanks so much for the pro tips.
Thank you for going over how to fix the messed up areas. I was having these problems a few months ago and none of the reprojection tutorials I found mentioned anyway to fix it.
Thanks! The fixing-part is really the most important part of the tutorial, as this can be a real nightmare to fix.
Thanks for the tutorial this helps me a lot. Next step is you go to substance and bake the high poly and low poly?
Thanks FlipedBros you guys are the best
Great video, one tip is make sure your hi and low poly is on display mode
I love you guys, will you ever do a video showing the full pipeline from concept to rendered scene with everything in between sharing some tips on each step?
Yes we will! :)
@@FlippedNormals Maybe you will think i'm an idiot, you can even screenshot it, but i really don't understand one thing from your tutorial.
The main reason we are doing BAKE is projecting details from HIGHPOLY model to LOWPOLY retopologized model so u can have model with for example 12k polygons but with highpoly details.
But in this tutorial u just increase number of polygons in lowpolymodel and project details.... BUT U STILL HAVE 2.5 MIL polygons. So it doesn't make any sense.
Explain me please, cause i'm not even able to sleep cause of this :. thank you in advance
@@WannaFastWin I was thinkinh the same, what's the purpose of this progress?
@@dparvulus So the low resolution mesh that they projected to, in a production environment it would have these things:
Correct topology (not a zremesher) for correct deformations once doing rigs
Optimized UV's for whatever texturing software etc.
So from here on you would export a displacement/normal map that can be used on the low res model in f.ex Maya.
You could then also continue working on and adding new details and knowing that all the new detail you will add will work with low poly version.
Hope that makes sense :)
@@silhu1 oooh thank you very much! Now I understand:D
I've always done it level by level, starting at the lowest division level to catch out any big problem areas, without it taking until the heat death of the universe to project
at a higher level.
Thats a pretty good way of doing it too :)
Maaan you guys are life saver....I mean y'all are so damn young and like..know all the softwares I could ever dream of learning right now. Do you guys have time to eat? Any ways you are great, respect for your work and te guys🙏🙏🙏🇮🇳
this is soooo nice i really struggle with reprojecting eyes and mouth
Awesome, thanks a ton!
Thank you so much for the tutorial!
This is so amazing. Thanks so much!
Great video again!:) would you do the last sculpting pass on a layer an well and then export displacement etc?
Yup! That's pretty much how we'd do it.
Amazing video, I didn't know you could use morph target with projection, could do a video on baking hi poly details in substance without reproject in zbrush?
We might! No promises, but it's something we have on our list.
So I've done a high poly model, and retopologised it, normally i would bake it on susbtance painter..but should i do this instead? import my retopo in the same file as the high poly and project the detail? then export the retopology at its original polycount and texture it then? (for games not movies
)
In your workflow would you retologize in Maya and then go back to zbrush to do this projection, then UV unwrap and move to substance painter. IU'm trying to get my model into substance painter but it's high poly and I'm trying to figure out how to get the uv's for a model that keeps all the detail but is low poly so I'm assuming that thats how you would do it.
this is pure gold
Hi ! I'm new to zbrush can I ask a question? so I have a dynamesh with mutiple subtools and I need to project it, is there any way to projecting it into one normal map? because I've tried to merge and it didn't catch the details because the body just get in a way to the clothes, do I hv to do retopology first or deleting the part that covering the farthest part?
i am told one technique that minimizes such projection errors was to project in stages like you subdivide once and project subdivide again then project and such as makes sure every poly area is in its proper place and close enough to the hirez for smooth projection. i think they say to apply a smooth deformation each time so the verts are averaged.
Yes, you can absolutely do that too :) This sometimes gives you better projections. That said, it will never work for areas like the eyes and the inside of the mouth in this video, as the difference is just too big.
How would you do this in Blender? Or is it not possible in Blender? With the newest update of the Multires modifier maybe?
Hey guys you are awesome and I enjoy your tutorials a lot. I did a retopo of my model and did UVs, exported it, and when I go to Zbrush high res model just won't sit on top of low res! Or vice versa! I am so confused, I cant believe Im stuck at such a stupid and basic step. Is there a special way to make them come on top of each other, to align? I thought it was done automatically. Its so frustrating
really really helpful thanks guys much love x big fan now
Fantastic, thanks!
Can you guys make a video tutorial on a natural environment too. Just a small scene would be great, or a premium tutorial on yours site would be even better! 😁
Seconding this, tho I feel like with them being a lot more knowledgeable in the character part of things, they might not know that much about environments. Very curious to find out whether that's the case!
Awesome video and I have a little doubt in movies generally Normal map or Displacement map used...
Thanks! In film, Displacement maps, sometimes vector, are used the most :)
Which is better for exporting the model to other programs: projecting hi-res details onto low-res models for export or using decimation master to get a low-res model with the hi-res maps unwrapped for export?
This is a great sculpting. I would like some advice on my work.
Question, what if I have brought retopoed model from Maya back to zbrush. Then my high poly sculpt has some blend shapes i have done. Does projecting all will also apply the blend shapes? I am worried I wasted my time for blend shapes before retopo so I was wondering if there is any way of projecting those.
This is awesome! But I can't manage to understand how to apply this process to a multi subtool model
one subtool at a time, just turn off visibility on every subtool that you don't want to project.
Thank you so much guys .
Big question as i was advised to try reprojection. I have hair and model i imported to Zbrush. I am using 2021 zbrush with the cloth just heads up on that. Anyhow, on import i need the original polycount, verts, uv to all stay the same. I am simply morphing the hair to conform to the body clothing ect. When i do this using any tool does not matter it changes the hair and i cannot reimport to Daz studio without it telling me this is a new object make new. How do i use this feature and or another if so to retain the original geometry etc and only change the shape? I would love to use the new tools, specifically the cloth tools with gravity to do this if possible... Thanks Ahead of time for any help :)
Ok, so please forgive me, i am antiquated with zbrush BUT i never deep delved into it or the pipeline. Not only that i have watched several projection videos and it's lost on me.
So, why would you be doing this as opposed to decimating it and zremeshing it?
Should you do this only to a combined mesh, or can you do this with each subtool?
I do want to say though, i understand the necessity of retopologizing, I'm just wondering what makes this so much better than to DM > Zremesh.
I wish they'd answer this question too because there's too main ways to do project, they way you mention and the way they mention. I want to know which is better and why, please!
ZRemeshing it won't really get you to the cleanest low poly model for UVing and in animation. But as to why they are reprojecting this onto a retopoed model, they want to get the clean displacement maps out of ZBrush off of this model, once they add final detailing, instead of getting it from a possible lower quality decimated model in another program.
Hi, is this covered more thoroughly in the retopology tutorial on your website? Specifically, I'm wondering where this fits in the process, is this then exported for making UV maps in Maya?
Does it affect the UV of low res model????? I fear it might distort the UV map.
Are the final UV maps on the retopologized mesh at this stage? Is that something that should always be done before finishing the actual high frequency details on the sculpt?
We prefer to do the UVS after the details have been reprojected, as they are then more accurate than before the projections.
these are some great videos. just wanted to let you know this. as a pretty semi professional artist myself, I must admit I learned some good techniques I would of not known of otherwise. SO thank you for your great work. subbed.
Hi pls make a video about hard surface retopology.
does is the same issue if I am using dynamesh as high poly and a zremesh base with couple of subdivision as lowpoly ? thx. sounds very tricky tutorial.
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You guys saved my bacon!
Our pleasure
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so after I retopo the object from maya export to zbrush doing the projection then do I export the normal maps from zbrush ? I am asking for making a game characters to rig.
Can you export the high subdiv level vertion of the tool with the projection baked as a high Poly vertion? I'm think un the substance workflow
Hiya! Thank you so much for the tutorial!! It helps a bunch. I have a question though;
So when I have a high poly version and export it to Blender (or any other 3D software) am I supposed to UV unwrap it before exporting it back into Zbrush and do these steps? Do the UV's change at all when you export these, or am I supposed to do it after?
After doing this process, my UV maps are no longer correct as I have changed the shape of the model. I noticed this when opening my model in substance painter and checking the normal maps. Do I have to redo the uv map now or is there another way?
Interesting video. Out of curiosity I have a 3d stl file that's really high resolution that I would like to decimate in zbrush and then bring the decimated version into maya to rigg it and pose it and then once it's in the desired pose import the model back into zbrush and then project the origional high resolution detail back onto the model but in the new pose. Do you guys know how to do that? Any help would be greatly appreciated
I have problems after doing this. After I got subdivision levels and polypainted. When I pressed create from polypaint, the models texture became kinda flat.. no details no shadows. This is now really a moment where I can't find any any solution.
When would be good to reproject this way? I am guessing this is for when you have a high-resolution model with bad topology to project it over a lowRes with good topology, or just to reduce the polycount .. ? I believe in my case wouldn't be too useful as I am sculpting my model from a good topology basemesh. Am I right? ... Thank you in advance
Good video as always. I think you just could've shown what the layer is for and perhaps also how to invert a mask. Those are steps not always clear for beginners I guess. Cheers
Good point! The layer is there just as a backup. You dont strictly speaking need it, but it means you can always go back to where you were at before the projection.
I had a problem before that for some reason when try to hit project, one of the side tried to project the opposite side, so all my polygons got messy, "flipping" normals or mesh helped
Hey guys, somebody else mentioned this a little lower so I felt like maybe two comments would pique your interest: would you be interested in making a video showing how to make natural environments in Zbrush? I'm being a bit more specific than the person below because I'm mostly interested in the Zbrush part of designing an environment and how a Zbrush built scene could be integrated into a pipeline. Let's take a cave for example: would you design the whole interior in Zbrush, stones and flora and everything, or would you much rather build the walls in Max/Maya, sculpt elements in Zbrush and then bring them in and assemble in autodesk apps?
rogue verts that go to infinity killed me
Ok I'm a little lost and new at this do you have both high and low Res loaded at once? I'm trying to process photogrammetry models. Do I open the high Res model and then the low Res?
You need to have the high and low as subtools. Subdivide the low to a few million polys, and then project from the high to the low (now with millions of polys). Hope this helps!
I just joined my first job. It's all about cleaning and doing retopo on a 3D scaned model. And my studio only uses zmodeller. I'm used to doing retopo in maya and my speed is getting hampered by it. I'm frustrated to my bones 😐.
Congrats on the first job! Only zmodeller? Oh god why.
Man, I feel for you. If any of my coworkers or employees could show me a faster way to do something with the same results, I would be so freakin' happy and glad that they were on my team. I didn't get a job once doing graphic design because the interviewer/manager was mentioning that he was using Acrobat Pro to add web links to pdf documents. I knew from our conversation he was doing the layouts in InDesign and asked why he didn't do the links there on a separate layer. i saw him pause for a full 10 seconds to work out that he had probably wasted years of his life doing it his way. lol, oh well.
Marut Subba don't you mean zremesher ?
IGarrettI i found Zremesher only useful when I'm working on BG characters. I'm only talking about Zmodeller lol.
@@Setlinsubba I think it might have been a joke since no one uses zmodeller if they can avoid it and go "WHELP Time to decimate or zremesh and RETO IN SOMETHING ELSE. Brb Zbrush"
How do you get the multi-subdiv level mesh out of Zbrush into say Blender?
Excuse me, can I just use sp to bake map, without project in zbrush, is that the same function?
I baked info from high poly to low retopo in sp and the height map ended up being totally black. The normal worked ok (some issues on edges) in vray/Maya but i would also love to know too if there are any settings-changes needed so it works properly?
@@Garuso93 just increase the control area, there are 2 number , you can find the tutorial on UA-cam, search for substance bake problem, and you will find it, but it's not the answer of my question:)
What do you at the end do you just export as obj then into painter to start painting?
Sorry I'm kinda new, can someone explain whats the point of doing this if the end result is 3mil poly as well? Thanks
What do you mean in republish in Maya? For rigging it is important? I couldn't get it. What is it What exactly Pipeline means? Thanks
sir i have doubt that while using zremesher after sculpting my pose is changing....how to fix this???????
Guys I needed that like yesterday XD
:D
Sorry but I still don't really understand. So my understanding is that reprojecting details is to reduce the actual poly counts right? For example your actual is 5Mil and you project onto a 900k model but still maintaining decent amount of details. However, in your video, your model after projecting has higher poly count than before?
Can i use this process high mesh model with retopologed low mesh model?
Stupid questions: Why do you need to project detail from a dynameshed mesh onto a zremeshed mesh? I would assume it is to hit a lower poly count with the same detail, right? But if you start subdividing the "low poly" zremeshed mesh, it's no longer low poly anymore. And I swear, I'm not trying to criticize, I'm just lost....... So basically, this exercise was showing how to project detail from a high poly mesh to a high poly subdivided mesh (just one was dynamesh, other was Zremesh which isn't as good as a retopo'd mesh anyway)? so..... In the end, what was the gain? Is it just to get 4-sided polys?
I'm pretty sure that the projected details will be turned into a displacement map, so it's not actually going to add any polys to the retopologised mesh
i just have one doubt that after doing retopo in maya how to adjust that two high and low resolution model at same time in zbrush with same size
Lets say a guy just got an entry level job in your company and notices that he has been doing something inefficiently that you have a much smoother workflow for. Would you help him out if he asks? And if he asks what would you think of him?
Of course.
I would think that he's doing better than most, as most people don't reach out to learn because they're to afraid to look inexperienced.
All in all, that's a very good trait
i want to kiss your hands beacuse i our country we kiss our loved teacher hands
I'm not from your country but I suddenly also desire to kiss the hands of these fine people.
Turkey...?
It's not the hand where I live, at least not according to my teacher....
@@mack7207 🤫🍆🍑
is it just me or it is impossible to get the final pass (small detail like pores) in this technic to project, so i think you should mention that you have to do that pass after the projection.
How can I preserve smaller details on my model like spikes when zremeshing? The geometry gets shrunk, faded or even a bit distorted after remeshing and reprojection can't bring the details back.
This is the idea of this reprojection thing, you don't have to do any zremeshing, just do the concept to the final proportions with moderate amount of details then export it into another software like topogun and do clean topology then bring it back to zbrush and project the zbrush model on the new retopologized model then start adding the small details and you will have clean topology with high details that you can drop the subdev level and use it with normals map for a game or something
@@black990ops I have lots of little spikes on thos model. I am trying to avoid doing the retopo by hand
Can i use this final low poly into a game engine, of course, after UV it?
Yup! You can use the low poly in a game engine.
@@FlippedNormals Thank you! I'll try it soon. 😉
@@FlippedNormals how low poly is your final Low Poly model that your projected onto? I'm working on my portfolio and want to cater it to games but am struggling with how high poly I should allow my models to be?
I did a projection using the sample dog which i duplicated and sculpted onto as my HP and it worked, i projected from each subdivision level and it's a perfect match at higher levels, but simply because there's not enough topology to hold everything, subdivision level 1 doesn't have the details.
Should i just bake the normal in substance painter now? Really not seeing how this holds your details at lower subdivision levels, isn't that the whole point of projecting in the first place? PLEASE HELP CLARIFY.
So, I have a doubt about this process. I've never seen it used in any game development pipeline, is it exclusive to a film production pipeline? If so, another doubt popped up in my mind: what are the differences between a character model pipeline for games and a character model pipeline for film and animation? That is, what do you need to have in a character for film that would distinguish it from a game character? I've looked for information about this online but couldn't find any useful answer.
There is no reason you can't do it this way for a game dev pipeline. I've used it myself (Disclaimer: I am not a master by any means.) But this is a very fast way of making sure your Low Poly matches the High poly for super clean bakes and final polish detailing. For games I have noticed that most people tend to work however they are comfortable but it seems like Film have much more stringent pipelines (depending on the studio of course). Basically if it does the job faster than you were doing it before, go nuts; you've saved time and money in production.
The difference between a game character and a film character is usually the poly limits and the outputs for bakes. Poly limits can be set a bit higher in film (for the most part, this is not an exclusive rule as there are usually cut-scene specific models with pretty high res characters for games as well), and the other difference is the outputs on bakes will be a displacement map for film instead of a normal map for games.
The processes are very much interchangeable if you are creating characters that will be rigged and animated; and as the technology advances for game engines and real time rendering the difference gap will keep closing between the two.
@@BrimstoneBeard Thanks a lot dude! Appreciate it!
Why you did'nt use project master ?
I did not understand..............unfortunately.
Can you show all pipeline with this technique (how to bake details from high poly to low poly)?
By the way - very cool chanel
We're going to do a video showing all the steps. The asset used here is from one of our Premium tutorials. We are finalizing the retopo part of it now, and then we're moving onto texturing. Once that's done, we'll make a video showing all the steps.
Pretty much none of this issues would showed up if you'd reproject on subd level 1 first, then on level 2 and so on to the top. You can also tweak the geometry on every step to the top.
On a normal model, actually you'd still get most of these issues, as the hardest to fix isn't around the torso, but rather for the eyes, mouth and nose. We wanted to show you how you can fix it, as you'll never really going to sculpt those areas in perfectly :) I hope this makes sense.
hello, why is it important to reproject ? i mean if the high poly is done, then we have to retopologize this, and project normal map on the low poly for texturing. i dont understand very much why can someone explain? thanks :)
Your high res wont have UVs most of the time. Also, when you use Dynamesh to sculpt easier, you will lose your UVs. So you are making a highres sculpt, retopologize it and reproject your low res onto you high res. Now you have your high res with UVs ready for texturing
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I don't understand. retopology is meant to lower the polygon count but then you subdivied until it's 3 millions ?
So the purpose of this is to preserve the details on your model so you can continue sculpting on a it with better topology but you dont lose the detail from your high res. So your basically transferring the details over to your low res model. A lot of people including myself like to use zremesher early for better topology for lets say a head where the eyes and mouth might have issues sculpting secondary forms. In production you would sculpt your high poly(probably have a base mesh because no artists in production sculpts from a sphere), then retopo your high poly in maya, 3ds max, topogun, etc. Then before sculpting the really fine details you would reproject your high poly details onto your low poly and then begin to sculpt the fine details with better topology. Then when your ready to bake you can export your model at sub division 2 and that is basically your low poly and then export your model at the highest subdivision for high poly. Hope this helps
I don't get it? The lowres polycount is still way too high? I mean how to project details on a really low res model? is there no way or am I not understanding something?
I mean why are we projecting when we still need to retopo and bake eveyrthing? I don't get it!
Where can I get this material?