What to know and why

[ES.DEK]

I was wondering what everyones workflow is as far as what programs are used in what order.

[Mrpearlzildjian]

Everyone has a different workflow - Mine:

Maya(Base Mesh)>Zbrush(Sculpt)>Topogun(Retopo)>Roadkill(UV Unwrap)>Zbrush(Sculpt again, finer details, etc)>ZMapper or xNormal(Baking Normals, Diff, Spec, etc)>xNormal(Ambient Occlusion Bake)>Photoshop(Map editing)>Maya or UED(Render)

[Lamont]

Maya or Lightwave for basemesh>Into ZB to sculpt up> If lower sub-divs are not suitable for a lower res mesh, then into 3DCoat for retopo and then LW for UV mapping and back to Maya to export.

If it's a hard-surface mesh, I just do it all in LW or Maya...

[Positivity]

Zbrush(Zsphere) or maya for Basemesh>Zbrush to sculpt and add more Details>Retopo in Zbrush > UV layout in Unfould3D> Uv corrections in Maya> Polypaint in Zbrush > This step http://eat3d.com/free_zbrush_xnormal_pipe > Xnormal TO bake All the maps > Map Corrections in Photoshop > Render in Maya or Marmoset Toolbag or Unreal Editor 3

[cookepuss]

ZBrush (ZSphere) and/or Cinema4D for the base mesh & accessories
3D-Coat retopo
Roadkill and/or Cinema4D for UV layout
ZBrush detailing
ZBrush to layout a basic polypaint
XNormal for my maps
Photoshop for texture finish & touch-up
Cinema4D to paint out any texture seams

[ES.DEK]

Wow there is a lot more I need to learn. I really only know maya and photoshop. I know this is a very general question but can anyone fill me in on what i need to know. Like the different maps and/or programs I will need to learn.

[Shadownami92]

Wow there is a lot more I need to learn. I really only know maya and photoshop. I know this is a very general question but can anyone fill me in on what i need to know. Like the different maps and/or programs I will need to learn.

Well here is the basics that I can break down...
-------------------------
Low-Low poly meshes (Probably from the lowest amount of tris to maybe 2000-3000 tri on average, depends on what your working on):

Modeling the mesh: You will use Maya or any other 3d application for this.

Unwrapping UVs: There are quite a few programs for this. You can use for 3d modeling application such as Maya, but many like programs such as Roadkill that can cut down on the time it takes to unwrap a model.

Texturing: You can use photoshop or gimp or anything of this sort, But photoshop is the standard. There is also stuff like Bodypaint and Deep3D and projection painting in the 3d modeling apps.

-------------------------

Any poly meshes that use normal maps (most higher poly models nowadays)

Modeling a base mesh: Use a 3d modeling application to model out a mesh that doesn't exactly have much detail, after all it's just a base, keep this in quads rather than tris, and if you really need to use tris, tuck them away behind ears or something where people won't really be looking.

Making the High Resolution Mesh: This is done in one of many programs. Zbrush and Mudbox are the industry standards to my knowledge. This is where you really shape your model into what you want. Hard-surfaces can be done in a sculpting program but there are times when hard-surfaces can be done well in a 3d modeling application using Sub-D modeling. Either way you will either sculpt organic models or model hard-surfaces in high resolution for this step.

Retopology: This is normally done back in a 3d modeling application. Although it can be done in Zbrush and some stand-alone programs. Many also like to use special plug-ins to make the job easier in a 3d modeling application. This is basically when you create the mode you will be using for the game. So making sure the geometry is well organized for deformations (for characters.)

Unwrap the Low-Poly Model: This is when you set up your UV coordinance for texturing. This can be done in a 3d modeling application for with a program/plug-in like roadkill. Granted with a little bit of work the automatic uvs in Maya aren't too bad. I prefer planar mapping though, you can find tutorials online for the specifics.

Bake the Normal Map: This is when we put the hi res mesh to use. Basically you bake the surface properties onto the low poly mesh. This can be done in a 3d modeling application, but programs like XNormal I found work better, and XNormal is free.

Bake other maps: There are other types of texture maps you can use on your models. Ambient Occlusion can be added as multiply layer in photoshop for your diffuse texture to get some more depth. A link above shows how to use different texture bakes for you model.

Texture: Basically this works just like in the low low res meshes. Paint your texture using a UV Snapshot of some sort as reference (usually as a layer of your photoshop file). Projection painting or Body paint can be used for 3d painting but you will generally want to work on it in photoshop at some point though since you generally have more control over what's going on.

Side Notes: If you want to be really cheap you can retopologize static objects like rocks using Mesh Lab or Zbrush's decimation master. It won't be as controlled as retopoligizing it manually but the results aren't horrible. And it's fast.

Overall though I think it's best to get start with basic tutorials, then you can experiment, find for advanced tutorials and really just build up.

[ES.DEK]

Thank you so much. Just a few more questions (Im full of them!). I can set up an automatic map instead of unwraping and it will get the same result right? Also could you please explain a little bit more on what baking and r0etopology are. I really appreciate all of your help. I know im asking a lot of questions but I am pretty determined to know as much as possible

[Positivity]

Automatic maps are not the best way to work you need to try make your UV layout good as possible because on it depends your quality Of Normal map and another texture map

[Shadownami92]

Automatic mapping is basically Maya making an automatic UV layout, to be honest its not the best, but sometimes its a good place to start if you don't know what to do, but it generally leaves you with a lot of lose faces scattered around but you can usually experiment and figure out which ones are missing from where and weld them back into place. But like I said, I prefer planar mapping.

Planar mapping is what I prefer.

Baking textures is basically taking specific information from 1 model, and projecting it onto the UV layout of another model.

Retopologizing is when you take your high poly mesh, and you make a new version of that mesh that has the right topology (edge flow and whatnot) and generally will have a lot lower poly count.

[ES.DEK]

One more question. Ive tried to work with planar mapping before but i always get an ugly stretch mark down the middle of the model. Is there a techquine that I am supposed to be using?

[Mrpearlzildjian]

If you are going to use the planar mapping route, you have to planar map each side of the model(for maximum resolution), and then sew the UV's together in the UV texture editor to make one piece, and eliminate seams.

I would strongly suggest you learn an unwrapping program like Roadkill or any of the ones these guys have suggested. In todays fast paced studio environment, tedious UV'ing is one of the last things a modeler wants to get stuck doing. We've had great advances in that department which will allow an experienced person to unwrap a model in 30 minutes, as opposed to traditionally unwrapping it, which could take hours easily.

Roadkill is free(not the pro version) and very easy to use, and can save you loads of time in your workflow. I strongly suggest it.

Link (http://www.pullin-shapes.co.uk/page8.htm)

[crazyfool]

personally if your starting out I would stay away from roadkill and similar apps as they will make it so easy you wont want to touch UV mapping. Roadkill is awesome but doesnt work for everything like hard surface stuff as its basically a pelt mapper but UV mapping is a fundamental skill to all 3D artists and should be learnt from the ground up imho.

You should try and mix up your mapping techniques with planar, cylindrical and automatic mapping where you think its needed. for example an arm you could use cylindrical mapping and play about with the envelope to get better results so you got the seams where you want them and it doesnt deform too bad. A good tip also is to apply a checkered texture to your object so you can see where its deforming and if you have any strangeness going on.

Ideally a good UV map has good pixel density to it so you have no blurry textures and more space given to places that need it like a characters face or detailed parts that need more pixels. And try to squeeze every bit of space from your texture sheet so you are not wasting pixels while still giving a little bleed to your textures.

I would have to say reference and research is a huge part of any workflow and should not be overlooked aswell.

hope it helps :D

[Elcura]

I have to agree with crazyfool, after all pelt mapping doesn't completely eliminate the need to manually edit UVs to get the best result. You'd be better off overall knowing each process intimately, instead of having shallow knowledge.

[Mrpearlzildjian]

To reiterate...

It's not that I don't support the whole "back to basics" theory of learning... I still think programs like roadkill are an integral part to modern workflow. Yes, you should know how to edit UV's after the fact, no program is perfect, but I still think even with years of training, I could not get the quality results of a specifically written program like that without at least puttin' in a few hours of work.

I agree you should know the ins and outs of UV'ing before stepping up to a program like Roadkill. It's hard to perform an action unless you understand how and why that action is happening. Using Roadkill or another program, as easy as it is, still requires knowledge of edgeflow and topology, along with assuming how something will unwrap given the seams you put in place.

I have personally never had any trouble un-wrapping hard edge objects in Roadkill.

ES.DEK - The point I am getting at, taking these other guys opinions into account, is to know and understand why something is happening, but don't be afraid to explore your options. We should be grateful for the little tools we get nowadays that streamline what used to be a long, boring, tedious process. But don't take it for granted. Understanding the underlying reasons to a process help just as much as doing the process itself.

[crazyfool]

I agree definitely mrpearlzildjian, but I know if I had roadkill when I was starting out I would find it really difficult to go back to my 3d app and learn through that. Its the whole marmoset/unreal thing all over again where they make it so easy to get nice renders you can overlook the basics of mental ray, Vray etc. which again are essential 3d skills And you suffer from it in the long run. Im only now forcing myself to learn mental ray after marmoset made it so easy for me.

[Mrpearlzildjian]

True. As far as I've come, I am still a novice in lighting and rendering, which I think is a lost art. Many have said that lighting is the last thing standing between a seamless transition to a beautiful render and scene. I know very little mental ray, and am just now learning engine rendering. Up until now, I have just used the hardware renderer in Maya, since it is the closest I can get to a real time render.