Poser to Zbrush and Back, Extracting Clothes and Assign UV Map

lannabulls

Hi,
here my beginner question hoping I can make you undertand:
I would like to make a simple clothes for Victoria 4, I export her to Zbrush, I extract a mesh from her body, a simple shirt really tight just to learn how to do it.
I'm already able to bring my new shirt props back to Poser, give a proper rig in setup room trough a blank cr2, correct problems in joint editor window, etc.
What I would like to ask is about make uv coordinates for my shirt:
Once it's extracted in Zbrush I must import it to Poser as a props, as an obj, with all the polygroups on so I can rig it in setup room thanks to Poser 9 and pro 2012 new futures; if I export as a single polygroup I must reasign polygroups first by a 3th party application, "polygroups editor" and, if I can, I prefer to pass that, do not buy another application.
I said that cause, before go back to Poser I tried to import my shirt obj done in Zbrush to 3ds Max obviously ending up with an object, my shirt made by many split polygroups with unwelded overlapping vertex where polygroups meet.

So before exporting the shirt to Poser I would like to texture it, could you be so kind explain to me how to make uv coordinates?
Explain to me please your work around, if you would like to make a clothes for Victoria 4, extract it as exp in Zbrush, then, before go to Poser for the rig, what you do to make uv map? Do you asigne uv map in Zbrush then eventually do the texture too or you move to another application, Exagon, 3ds Max, Maya,etc?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Richard Haseltine

I do need to note that you can't use this method for making clothes you wish to share or sell, though it's fine for your own use. Both ZBrush and 3DSMax have UV mapping tools so I would suggest looking for tutorials on those - the fact that it's going to Poser in the end shouldn't matter for that part of the job.

lannabulls

Thanks Richard,
The clothes are for personal use only, I'm a beginner, just learning,
I'm interesting in learning and use my mesh for personal stuff.
Reading your unswer I Obviously did not make you understand so:
I'm already able to use uv master in Zbrush and I know much better 3ds max with its modifiers, in this case uvw unwrap, I'm not asking how to do uv map!
Please remember that I dont have experience, just learning, so my silly question.
My concern are the polygroups, as told I need them to proper rig my clothes in Poser in the set up room.
As the same time, as soon my shirt is extracted in Zbrush,
before go to Poser, let say as exp that I want go to 3ds max first for generate the uv map, then move to Poser to rig the shirt and do final render.
So I end up in Max with an object, my shirt, made by many objects, the polygroups, how can i uv unwrap it? It is not a single mesh, we are talking about many mesh, the polygroups that I need after in Poser to rig properly.
I could export my shirt from Zbrush as a single polygroup, go to max, do my uv however I dont want do that for the above mentioned reason
Hoping now I made you understand,
Thanks for your help

Richard Haseltine

I suspect that that's a limitation of 3DS. I don't have it, and I'm surprised it hasn't changed, but I know that someone using an older version of 3DS always had to split the mesh into separate parts - which meant redoing the mapping and morphs every time he updated the base mesh. You may need to look at using another tool to do your mapping - if you can unwrap it in ZBrush, and just need to tidy up the result, even the free UV Mapper Classic may suffice.

lannabulls

Thanks a lot Richard,
kind as always!
So there we are,
Now you understand what I was asking.
First of, for my shirt uv map I can use Zbrush uv mapper, it is a very simple shirt. For more complex clothes, Zbrush UV Mapper is an excellent plugin, however doesnt allowed precise controls of seems, etc as 3ds max modifier or other modellers do so, it could be possible that there is not another work around?

I need my shirt with polygroups on cause it must be rigged in Poser, from Zbrush I move to 3ds max (2013) cause I want make uv map, I end up with an object made by many mesh, one mesh for each polygroup, all those mesh overlap each other where they meet, vertex are unweld with overlapping, how can I make an unique uv map for the entire object? I cant!
Same thing happens with cinema 4d (r14), from Zbrush I export my shirt to cinema 4d for uv map propouse, same story as told for 3ds max, I end up with a multy mesh object.
What about Maya? I dont have it, probably it's the same story too.

A work around could be:
export the shirt from zbrush as a single polygroup, obviously we are going to loose all the polygroups, go to 3ds max, do the uv, export my shirt obj and, before go to Poser, redo the polygroups using as exp "Polygroups editor", (I dont have it)
Finally move to Poser for rig, make my shirt conforming and final render.

Come on, there is not another work around?
I ask that cause as a rookie as I'm I have everything to learn however, could be possible that there are not any other solution except the one above mentioned, redo polygroups?

Thanks a lot!

Pendraia

Hi lannabulls, if you're interested in zbrush for clothing you may want to visit the zbrush section over at hivewire there are some interesting challenges happening at the moment on learning how to use it with a focus on clothing.

lannabulls

Pendraia said:

Hi lannabulls, if you're interested in zbrush for clothing you may want to visit the zbrush section over at hivewire there are some interesting challenges happening at the moment on learning how to use it with a focus on clothing.

Thanks Pendraia for your kindness,
I'm following your suggetsion however, what do you mean by: "visit the zbrush section over at hivewire", do you mean Link to Commercial Site removed If yeas thanks again, that's a web site that I dont know jet.
Learning how to use Zbrush with a focus on Poser clothing is what I would like to learn properly.

In the main time I found a proper work around that solved my matter:
Zbrush UV Master works on Clone. So I can export my shirt as a clone with a single polygroup on. Now in Max I finnally get a single object, a mesh that I can transform in an editable poly and apply UVW Unwrapper modifier, obtaining so my uv map. Once I'm done I reimport my shirt clone to Zbrush with UV Map on top of the original shirt. With UV Master I can now copy and paste the uv map to my original polygrouped mesh. Now I have my shirt with polygroups and UV Map too, ready to go to Poser setup room, rig it trough a blank cr2, correct deformation, poke trough problem, texturing and render.
I'm happy, now I can go on, thanks a lot for your help!

Pendraia

Yes, that was where I meant. I wasn't sure that I could link to the forum as links have been removed in the past. Glad I was able to help...

lannabulls

Poser Pro 2012
Hi,
I would like to export Victoria 4 to Zbrush to make custom mesh clothes trough the "extract mesh" or "ritopology" command
(I'm learning how to do it, my cutom clothes are for personal use only).
So I export Victoria 4 as an obj, Open it in Zbrush, I get a warning that tells me about unused vertex, would like to delate them or not.
Back one step, still in Poser I'm exporting Victoria as an obj, one of the export setting is: "weld body parts seams"
As well while importing obj in Poser, one of the import setting is: "weld identical vertices"

Could you explain please about the above mentioned 2 obj import-export setting and how to proper use them?
For making conforming clothes as Victoria as base mesh, how I must export her?
In Zbrush I must delete unused vertex or not?

If my custom clothes must follow Victoria Morphs, how I must use the above mentioned setting as I'm exporting Victoria as base mesh?

Sorry for the big confusion I'm learning rookie, I export Victoria as an obj to cinema 4d as exp, export with default setting:
only ""weld body parts seams" and "import body part names in polygroups" settings are cheked.
I end up with Victoria object made by multimesh, divided in many polygroups as normal, each polygroup is a single mesh,
all the polygroups overlap with unwelded vertex.
I read Poser manual however, cause I'm a rookie I dont understand how to proper export a base mesh.
Could you please explain how to proper export as obj as base mesh with the goal in mind to make custom conforming clothes that can follow morph.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Richard Haseltine

Merged the new thread on Poser>ZBrush>Clothes to keep everything in one place.

If you want to make clothing it makes sense to merge the seams, otherwise the model will be in separate pieces in ZBrush which may lead to gaps where you don't want them as you manipulate the mesh. Since you are changing the mesh anyway, by cutting bits out and perhaps adding bits on, you aren't going to be able to apply Victoria morphs directly whatever you do - you will need to make new morphs in ZBrush, part by part, and import those into Poser.

lannabulls

Thanks !
So links to commercial sites are not allowed, sorry I did not know!

So Richard,
final goal is to make custom clothes, in Poser obj export setting I must export my base mesh, Victoria, with "weld body part seams", setting able, it must be tick, right?

In Poser obj export setting there is another option "as morph target", what this setting stends for? I read the manual however practically i dont understand what this setting does.

Once I end up in Zbrush if I receive the worning "unused vertex, weld them or not" Imust say yes,weld them, do I understood right?

Thanks a lot for your help and patience!!!!

Richard Haseltine

As morph target exports a plain obj in the zero position ready for morphing - it ignores any posing applied, which makes it simpler for crating morphs later on in scene creation. It doesn't rally matter what you do when you are creating your clothes, as long as you end up with a usable mesh, as you aren't going to keep morph compatibility with the base mesh anyway.