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Export HD models to zBrush

dannychapman079dannychapman079 Posts: 0
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I just learned of DAZ and it could be an awesome tool when combined with zBrush. If I purchase an HD added on for a model, how do I export it to zBrush? I'm thinking of getting Michael 7 with the HD and exporting the HD version to create a cool morph in zBrush to then use back in DAZ.

Can someone explain the process of exporting the HD version of a model?

 

Thanks!

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,062

    The import of HD morphs requires a special plug-in that is not available to most of us - only those making content for the Daz store have it. You can bake to displacement or normals, or a mix of both, for the higher-resoution details of a shape.

    Not that it is really reelvant since the creation tool isn't available, but the HD morphs morphs are applied to the base mesh not a special HD mesh - the trick is that they are applied to the SubD vertices rather than being limited to the base SubD cage vertices as standard morphs are.

  • IsaacNewtonIsaacNewton Posts: 1,300

    You can't export your HD morphed figure to ZB with the HD morphs at present and probably never will be able to unless DAZ3d release the plugin to do this... or a third party developer produces a similar plugin (assuming that DAZ3d will allow such a plugin).

    However you can make some morphs in ZB at higher than base resolution then revert back to base resolution for the export back to DS. This at least makes it easier to get the shape you want.

    To avoid unwanted side effects of this process such as unmorphed verts being changed in the conversion process you should use the following work flow:

    1) Import your figure (e.g. via GoZ) and select Edit in the main options bar

    2) Go to the Geometry Sub Tool and deselect the "Smt" button.

    3) Sub-divide your figure using the "Divide" button or  press CONTROL-D.

    4) Although nothing appears to happen, if you now morph your figure, only those verts which you morph will be subdivided.

    5) When you have finished morphing you can return the figure to DS via GoZ. (Although you don't need to return the "Sdiv" slider back to 1, this is good practice and may be necessary if you export the figure without GoZ.)

    The new morph in DS won't have all the fine details which you could place in ZB, but it will be a low rez approximation of what you did and for many purposes it is easier to morph in HD and accept a low rez version of the morph than to try morphing in low rez.

    I can only hope that DAZ3d (or a 3rd party) will take pity on us amatuer morphers and release a plugin to allow HD morphs to be passed between DS and ZB using GoZ.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,062

    The HD figuire can be exported to ZBrush, so for a still image in wich yiou had finished posing you could do that and just bring the result back as an unposable prop.

    Another work arounf for the issue with ZBrush smoothing it to load the base mesh, dividie it (with SMT on), reset to base, and send that back to DS as a morph; then do your morphing and when you sent it back to DS have the SMT morph set and check Reverse Deformations in the loader dialogue to subtract the distortions.

  • IsaacNewtonIsaacNewton Posts: 1,300
    Richard Haseltine said:

    ... reset to base, and send that back to DS as a morph; then do your morphing and when you sent it back to DS have the SMT morph set and check Reverse Deformations in the loader dialogue to subtract the distortions.

    Hi Richard,

    I assume the morphing is done on the Subdivided figure.

    Also, does this produce the same result, i.e. a low rez version of the HD morph made in ZB?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,062
    IsaacNewton said:
    Richard Haseltine said:

    ... reset to base, and send that back to DS as a morph; then do your morphing and when you sent it back to DS have the SMT morph set and check Reverse Deformations in the loader dialogue to subtract the distortions.

    Hi Richard,

    I assume the morphing is done on the Subdivided figure.

    Also, does this produce the same result, i.e. a low rez version of the HD morph made in ZB?

    Yes, if you sculpt on the base resolution mesh then the issue of the SMT changing the base mesh in unwanted ways doesn't arise. No, it doesn't allow HD moprhs - it's still necessary to go back to base resolution - but some people like to sculpt on the divided mesh and it is then possible to bake the higher resolution detail to a displacement or normal map.

  • IsaacNewtonIsaacNewton Posts: 1,300

    If DAZ3d don't want us mere mortals to have the plugin for making HD morphs, how about making all this baking to normal maps an under the hood option in GoZ? So after sculpting the morphs and hitting GoZ in ZB, GoZ offers the option of automatically creating and applying the normal/displacement maps required to recreate the morphs that were sculpted in ZB?

    It's not that I'm a lazy git, or anything.... no... I er... I just want to improve the ...er.. work flow, yes that's it... it's all about improving the work flow!

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,062

    For normals or displacement it will be easier to vias OBJ export/import as that way you ahve access to the surface groups, at least when handling figures that use multiple overlapping maps such as the daz humans. GoZ in DS doesn't pass grouping across.

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