zbrush to carrara displacement test

[yvan_c]

Hi guys/gals,

Here is a test with ZB polypainting & displacement map. Rendered in C5 pro & HDRI lighting.

Was playing around with a totem pole idea.

Cheers,

yvan_c.

[yvan_c]

... and herewith a render of the smoothed basemesh exported at lowest subd. from ZB after sculpting a highest subd. and exporting displ map.

I found that using the ZB displ. map both as a bump and displ map, you get better results (finer and more accurate displacement/bump). Base mesh originally from Hex 2.2.

There are not many users (seems to me) that use Carrara with ZB. I thought it to be a good idea to share experiences on this forum, especially when it comes to generating displ maps. Not many (if any) "codes" out there for Carrara, as there appear to be for Max and Maya.

Please feel free to comment.

Regards,

yvan_c

[rickei]

cool totum

I use Zbrush with Carrara and Hex. It's actually a pretty good workflow. I don't do a lot of displacement stuff, but texturing is really easy.

I don't think there is any magic formula for displacement settings in Carrara though. I have to do several test renders before i can get the right displacement without banding etc.

[Nate Owens]

Originally Posted by yvan_c

... ...Not many (if any) "codes" out there for Carrara...

That's a really cool totem.

I am learning z and I do my base work most of the time in Hexagon.

I would really be interested in how you set up the displacements, actually the whole works to bring them into Carrara to do the displacement, bumps, etc.

Also, I see all those codes mentioned, but I don't have a clue what they are or how they work, so if you have any info or a link to explain it, I would really appreciate it.

I really need to bring my Z creations into Carrara for finals.

Thanks so much!

[yvan_c]

Hi Nate / Rickei,

Thanks for the comments.

Nate, from your other posts on the forum here and at ZCentral I see that you only recently got into ZB, not so?. To tell you the truth, so have I. So, I do not for one second profess to know exactly what I'm doing. What I am basically trying to do at the moment is to get a workflow going between Hex, ZB and Carrara which in the end delivers acceptable results.

As I pointed out above, it seems to me that many (if not most) of the other users use Max or Maya in their workflow as renderer. I am a hobbyist as far as 3d is concerned and do not have the time (read "money") to get, or to learn Maya, Max or any of the other (more expensive) packages.

I would however like to believe that Carrara (as my main renderer) is more than adequate for my current needs. I know for a fact that I am not using Carrara, Hex and/or ZB to their full potential. Learning something new everyday. I would also like to believe that an expensive 3d package does not guarantee better results or perfect renders. In my view it should just be a matter of optimising your workflow to get the best possible results with the tools that you do have at your disposal.

As far as my workflow i.r.o. the totem pole is concerned, it was rather basic. The aim was not to produce a great texture for the model but rather to get an acceptable displacement thingy going. In the end it was more the result of experimentation than anything else (like careful prior planning). I have beeen struggling for weeks to get proper displacements of objects from ZB rendered in Carrara, and to look even remotely like the sculpted Ztool in ZB. All a bit frustrating, but I suppose part of the learning process.

I guess that what I am trying to say is that it is a never ending learning and experimentation process (at least for me), and I know that the result is probably far from perfect. I will however try to explain my workflow (more importantly provide the settings I used to export the displacement and texture maps from ZB with, and render settings I used in Carrara). I will do this in a follow-up post (soon) when I have time. Unfortunately I must now first go and do what pays the bills.

Thanks again for the replies,

Regards ,

Yvan.

[rickei]

Just to give you guys a starting point.

As a rule of thumb, I do not, export my lowest rez cage from Z.

Most times I will drop the lowest SDiv(original mesh), and use the second or third SDiv...depending on the poly count.
this way the displacement map does not have to displace as much

take note of how many levels of Sdiv there are when you export

example:
your final sculpt in ZBrush was at a SDiv6 and you delete the 2 lowest before you create your displacement map. this leaves you with 4 levels of SDiv.

when you bring your model into Carrara. first go to the vertex room, and "select all" and the set smoothing for rendering at 4 in the subdivision tab(the final level of SDiv in Zbrush)...leave the modeling setting at 1

then in the texture room you can apply your texture map and displacement map. under the displacement tab for the shader, you only need to play with the "amplitude" and "offset" also DO NOT check enable subdivision here! it is does not work for what we are doing.

these are the only 3 setting that you really need to be concerned about (smoothing, amplitude, and offset)

I am not saying this will give you the exact results you are looking for but it's a good starting point. you will have to tweak from here.

[yvan_c]

Hi rickei,

Yes I also have tried that from in my experiments (not using the lowest subd). I did however find that in some cases it is very taxing on the RAM, even though you are only using the "rendering" subdiv 4 in Carrara.

I also agree that you should not enable subdiv in the displacement tab.

In the render I posted I did not fiddle with the amplitude or offset at all - left at default. For that matter I did not even bother going to vertex room to smooth the rendering. I did this by merely under the edit menu in the main carrara scene preview window selected the smooth object option. There I selected 4 times (rendering) and 1 time subdiv. Not really sure what the difference is between this method and doing it in the vertex room like you suggested.

I also exported and used the lowest subd .obj straight from ZB. This gave me the desired result in this case. I do however agree that it is not always necessary to use the lowest subd model from ZB. In my experience Carrara does have a fairly high tolerance when it comes to high poly counts. If it is able to import models with higher polycounts, and this leads to better results at the end of the day, why not use the higher poly model? As you correctly point out, Carrara then does not have to displace the model that much.

All in all I suppose that there are many different ways of doing things. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve. Like you said "you will have to tweak it from here".

Thanks for you pointers.

Cheers,

yvan_c

[Nate Owens]

You guys are tops!
Just what I am looking for... thanks again Rickei as the one who got me pointed to Z in the first place, and also yvan...

I have saved this whole thread to my Zbrush folder that is jam packed with all sorts of tuts and tips...

Boy... do I have a lot to go through!

Then, I too have to take detours to earn my beans and grits.

[yvan_c]

No problem Nate,

I am of the view that we should maybe try to expand the ZB forum on this site with particular reference to users of Carrara as renderer - sharing tips, tricks, tuts etc. Any thoughts on this?

As I said earlier I am sure there must be many users out there using Carrara with ZB and Hex. I just do not see any of them (us) sharing much views, experiences etc. when it comes to this particular workflow. Granted, there is tons of stuff on Zcentral's forums which apply to any 3d rendering and modeling package. However, there does not seem to be anything really specific in respect of the use of Carrara and Hex with ZB. I may be wrong, but do a search for Carrara on the forums and you will see what I mean.

Anyhow, have a nice one.

Yvan.

[Nate Owens]

yvan c

I agree with your idea of expanding the ZB forum here regarding the combination of ZB+Carrara.

I think we need to hear from Thomas on this to see if he agrees - (perhaps you know that this is his forum).

[Nate Owens]

Originally Posted by yvan_c

... ....Not many (if any) "codes" out there for Carrara, as there appear to be for Max and Maya...

I have yet to learn what these codes are and how they are used.

I read the tutorial parts for Zmapper - (I had assumed that the codes would be entered there) - but saw no mention of them. Are they supposed to be entered into the rendering software?

Sooo.... any info or links to info on the "codes" ?

[yvan_c]

Hi Nate,

Yes I am aware that this is Thomas's forum. It was not my intention to hijack his forum in any way. It was merely a suggestion, seeing as this site "promotes" (for lack of a better word) the use of Carrara as opposed to Max or Maya, not to mention Hex and Amapi as modelers. It seemed like the logical place for users to share ZB > Carrara specific experiences. I am not suggesting that it should be to the exclusion of any other workflow, for example Amapi ZB Carrara/XSI/Modo. I also bear in mind that there are subforums for XSI etc.

As far as the codes are concerned I am really as much in the dark as you are on this. I must admit that I was also under the impression that the codes are supposed to be entered/manipulated in ZB before creating/exporting the displ. map. I assumed it was a way to tell ZB what renderer will ultimately be used, and that ZB will then use the "preferred" settings (code?) for the creation of the displ/normal map, particular to that renderer. It seems non-sensical to use/insert a code in a renderer after the map has already been created and exported from ZB, but hey, that's just me.

Haven't really used Zmapper that much. The displ map I used in the totem pole image was created using the "normal" displacement tab at the right hand side at the bottom of the tool menu (the only way it could be done before Zmapper). As far as I remember I entered a setting of 4 in ZB in that tab before creation (just as a manner of experimenting with the settings). It did come out well in the end in this case.

Maybe someone more experienced can shed some light on the codes though.

Cheers,

Yvan.

[Nate Owens]

This link is very informative... tells what the codes are and how to use them
It is part of the Displacement Exporter... haven't tried this one yet - - (Is this thing even in ZB 3.1 ?)

Zbrush Displacement codes

[rickei]

I think it comes with 3. It was a zscript for 2.5

I've never used it, as I have gotten satisfactory results with the standard export from 2.5(remember I Mac so no 3 yet)

I've seen some of the disastrous displacement results from the expensive softwares, and I think thats the reason for the codes. oh and I think it creates normal maps too??? I could be wrong.

I just started a WIP using Hex ZBrush and Carrara CLICK HERE