Normals maps for SL?
Hi all.
I had a experiment project in mind to create a sculpty head/face, import to zbrush and create a more detailed model (better facial features than can be achieved with the sculpty limitations) by subdividing as required. Then to create a normal map in Zbrush of that detailed face and try to apply that onto a sculpty in-world. Admittedly, I have no idea if this is even a viable process for an SL sculpty.
I rezzed an 8X8 sculpty cylinder. I loopcut in additional edges concentrating horizontally at what would be the eyes/nose/mouth areas and vertically also at the front or what would be the face where I anticipated needing more geometry. The cylinder ended up with 1008 faces and 1044 verts. I formed that into a rough head shape, baked a sculpt map and, test, rezzed that in SL. Unfortunately I did not define seams and unwrap the model at that time creating a UV map.
I exported from blender and imported the .obj into Zbrush and completed the model eventually subdividing to level 6 in Zbrush. I then tried to create the normal map and at that point, after several unsuccessful attempts, came to the realization that I should have imported that .obj with the unwrapped UV's. Or at least I think I should have.
So I tried exporting the, now multi subdivided, model as an .obj to Blender to try and unwrap a UV map. I realized then that that imported high poly model cannot now be reduced in polycount with any process I'm aware of, such as mutires in reverse. So, in Zbrush I backed up the polycount levels back to the original 1008 and brought that into Blender as an .obj. The Zbrush upper geometry levels do not import with that .obj. I tried to 'sculptify object' to get that back to a usable sculpty unsuccessfully.
Can someone let me know: 1) Is it possible to use the normal map process as I described in SL on a sculpty? 2) Where did I go wrong? Was it in not transferring the original 1008 model into Zbrush with the UV unwrap done? and 3) Can anyone explain why 'sculptify object' wouldn't work on a model that (prior to taking into Zbrush) I was able to make a viable sculpty of?
I'm attaching the 1008 .blend file (that I cannot get 'sculptify' to work on) and the .blend of the higher poly model (not the highest poly model as the attachments here only support 2MB. I'll include a screenshot of the high poly model.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Base Head Model.blend | 255.88 KB |
| F 2 Face.blend | 1.86 MB |
| White Face.PNG | 95.64 KB |
Q: Can someone let me know:
Q: Can someone let me know: 1) Is it possible to use the normal map process as I described in SL on a sculpty?
A: My first guess was also to use normal maps to create high resolution textures for low resolution sculpties. I think that is even possible. But i learned that (in blender) baking a texture from a high poly mesh to a low poly object is a common practice and there is a way to do it "officially". That is what you most probably will want to achieve. It needs a bit of know how though. I know how to do it meanwhile, but i still was not able to make good results. But this due to my own lack of knowledge at the moment.
Q: 2) Where did I go wrong? Was it in not transferring the original 1008 model into Zbrush with the UV unwrap done? and 3) Can anyone explain why 'sculptify object' wouldn't work on a model that (prior to taking into Zbrush) I was able to make a viable sculpty of?
A: I tend to say the "Sculptify Objects" is not fully developed yet. At least from all my own attempts to use it i only was 100% successfull in very rare cases. THe only sort of objects which i could reliably sculptify was NURBS. I tried to remove the sculptmap from an "original sculptie" and then redo it with sculptify objects. That worked as long as i did not manipulate the mesh. And it often failed as soon as i modified the mesh beforehand.
All in all i can just say, that Sculptify Objects tries to create a square shaped UV map. It almost ever produzces UV maps which only partially cover the full UV map. And i have no idea how i would have to readjust the resulting UV-map in order to get back my sculptie.
I might be completely wrong concerning the sculptify objects issues. Domino should tell what's up here
Thanks Gaia, I sort of felt
Thanks Gaia,
I sort of felt the same way about 'sculptify'. I've had similar experiences with it failing to create a viable sculpty even though the perameters of the subject mesh were well within the the SL sculpty format.
I've already created another base mesh for the head, unwrapped it and created a UV for it in Blender. I'm now working on it in Zbrush and I'll eventually try making the normal map from what will be a high poly model to apply to the low poly 'sculpty' here in world. I believe that there may be a way to get this done as I've seen sculpies in-world that seem to have so much detail that that would be the only way to have accomplished it in my own opinion. It's all a two-fold experiment anyway, one to see how well I can actually sculpt a human face and second to see if I can get the normal map of the high poly details to work in-world on a low poly model. All just fun and learning and fun at learning. If I can figure out the normal thing it would certainly expand what I'm able to produce with sculpties.
Normal maps
SL doesn't support normal maps, you can use them as part of the material in Blender for baking textures though.
Too many seams for sculptify
Sculptify only supports single sculptie objects at the moment. As you've marked seams on the head, it's trying and failing to do it as multiple sculpties. So in edit mode, select all and do (ctrl e) clear seams. Select a single column of vertices down the back of the head and mark it as a seam. Now delete the UVTex layer. Sculptify should now work as expected on this mesh - I just needed to rotate the UV map and image size afterwards in my test.
Normal maps.
Oh, that clue about using the normal map as part of the materials sounds promising. Maybe. If you have a chance to expand on that it may be interesting information for all of us that are not so great at the texturing tools in Blender.
That explanation of why I could not sculptify that head makes a lot of sense. Great to know to check for that.
Ezra
New sculptify attempt, unsuccessfull again
Hi all,
I created a profile of verts, used the spin feature and now have exactly the object I wanted with 1024 faces. I've tried placing the single seam in different ways and, still, each time I try to 'sculptify object' the resulting sculptie is either one half of the object (different depending on where and how I position the seam) or is deformed in some manner if no seam.
If you, Domino, or anyone that understands this better than I do would take a look at this .blend file and let me know what I've done wrong.
Thank you in advance.
Ezra
Hi all, I've ben working on
Hi all,
I've ben working on this wheel using a profile with 32 verts and the spin feature in Blender with 360 degrees and 32 steps. I get the mesh exactly as I'm hoping for it to look, 1056 verts but only 992 polygons. I've redone everything (redone the profile) several times from scratch. But no matter what I do I can't seem to get the resulting mesh 'sculptified' with out significant deformation when I bring that 'sculptie' mesh back into Blender from the sculpt map image for preview. I've included the .blend file with the profile and the spin set up. If someone could take a look and let me know where I'm going wrong I would greatly appreciate it.
Nevermind, I finaly got to
Nevermind, I finaly got to work. It was a case of operator error. Thanks all.
imported high poly model can be reduced in polycount
Try the decimate modifier.
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