[Thomas]

First part: Modeling in Hexagon and preparing the model for the Export to Zbrush.

As explain in the introduction, the creation of the model used in the tutorial is not explain here, but you can show the video on this thread of the forum This tutorial will only focuses on one thing in Hexagon: the geometry of the object. Why? Because Zbrush, the software used for creating the displacement map only accept quadrangles (4 sides polygons) and triangles. Hexagon accept ngones and it's really easy to create such polygons in Hexagon. In fact, Zbrush can triangulate or quadrangulate the ngones on the import, but you have any control over the geometry, and if you have applied some UVs, you can be sure that they will be lost or the geometry won't be as wanted (important for animation) Below, the model in Hexagon. As you may see, it seems to have only quadrangles but it includes some ngones. Then, how to find them?

Hexagon, since 1.2 release, includes new selecting options, which are really helpful for such needs, named "Select over 4 points faces", located in the Selection menu.

Below is the result of the tool used above. As you can see, a set of polygons are selected, to show you where the ngones are located. It's not time to change this and create an appropriate geometry to create only quadrangles or triangles. But keep in mind that Zbrush, even if it accepts triangles, don't really like them, then, try to avoid them as much as possible.

And the result after some modification. Using the same selection tool won't show any 'error' and the model is ready to export.

For the export, it's important to choose the good file format. Zbrush only import OBJ and DXF. OBJ is the best format, since it keep the current topology and eventually, UVs, where DXF triangulate everything! For the export option, the default ones are ok, but if you eventually have a model with UVs, check the "Export UVs" checkbox.

Now, quit Hexagon and launch Zbrush!