Quicker workflow, Topogun-xNormal

[Mrpearlzildjian]

So I've been messing around with Topogun for almost 2 years or so, and once again I'm at that point to where I need to learn something about it that I never even bothered with before.

I am needing a much quicker workflow, this character is taking way to long to finish, and basically I may make a last minute decision to rearrange the UV's. The thing is, since I will need to go through rebaking, I will have to readjust all of the settings for everything all over again(a well known and complained about issue with Topoguns software). So to avoid this in the future, and for the sake of finding a a quicker workflow, I would like to find out how to either a) export my cage from TG for use in xNormal, or b) quickly create my own cage from within' Maya - can't remember how to offset the mesh itself.

I like xNormal a lot, but I like the fact that in TG I can adjust the cage in real-time, thus avoiding any "pinching" or other artifacts. I proably wouldn't be asking you all this question if it had a batch baker/renderer though - which it doesn't.

So the jist of this whole thing is how I can create a folder of the cages for all the pieces of my mesh in case I need to make changes to the UV's or something else in the future. TG's non-saving of the settings has become a time killer and very tedious for me.

[alfalfasprossen]

b) quickly create my own cage from within' Maya

duplicate your low poly mesh
select all vertices
shift + RMB click -> transform component
cleanup single vertices by hand
export

[Beelzeboss]

You can edit your own cage in xnormal using the realtime view tool

[Daelus]

Personally, I just work around baking issues with brute force. Bake out 3 maps of varying search distances, then bring em into photoshop and mask out the errors. Unless my model is really complicated (lots of overlapping parts) this usually only takes about an extra 5 minutes and I get to avoid creating a cage altogether.