Zbrush Multi Map Exporter - Correctly exporting UDIMs and Displacement

[@rehamjarah2638]

This is the best free software Ive seen. Respect.

[@shillingv6289]

Thanks for the great tutorial. But I didn't find the answer to my problem. In my model 24 UDIM - 6 (horizontal) x4 (vertical) tiles . When it exported from Zbrush it is incorrectly named. the first line is normal 1001,1002,1003,1004,1005,1006 but then 981, 982, 983, 984, 985,986, I found that Zbrush flipped all UDIM vertically and classic button FlipV does not help because this button flips each tile separately in local space, not hole UV set.

[@shillingv6289]

I found what was the problem. When exporting from Blender obj file flip manually UVset Vertically and Zbrush flip it automatically when import OBJ. Correct UVset will not be correct in zbrush. But if you feed to Zbrush flipped UVset it will fix.

[@petriliuhto]

@@shillingv6289 I just came upon this same issue myself. The thing is that i'm using GoB-addon to import/export the mesh from zBrush to Blender and I don't know what GoB does to the UVs. Anyways, I wish there was a more elegant solution than manually flipping uv sets.

[@daggerleon6632]

In maya will the effect be same if i use scale 1

[@WillFalcon]

there is no multimap exporter I don't know why

[@frontfootdipper9262]

perfect vid, the exact answers im looking for when trying to bridge between zbrush and mari, with a heavy character, cheers

[@mediaglitz2023]

when i export all maps and save it showing exported. but when i look the file in folder its not there its empty why.

[@MichaelWilde3d]

I'd check the UV are okay: export your model to your 3d package and see it's UVs are still there. Sometimes merging or other operations in Zbrush can clear them out

[@HDGamingVelocity]

Hi Michael, great video. I have a problem importing them into Mari tho. It catches my udims when I'm importing them into a new channel layer, and the import goes through but the layer is still a flat grey. Could you perhaps explain how you import them inside Mari?

[@adityaprakash1148]

thanks for information..,but when i export disp map in z brush there is noting in that img file only grey clr shows. plz help

[@shaohuachen3080]

Hi, Michael. Thank you for your video. I have a question. Do you do the UV UDIM layout outside of Zbrush and then bring the model in? What's the workflow before the process in the video?

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Yep I always uv inside of Maya! I’ve done a video on it before, my first part of my latest camera series: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4qQmHSwgb2Haq8

[@shaohuachen3080]

​@@MichaelWilde3d Thank you so much for replying to my comment! Yes, the video helped me a lot. Do you freeze the subdivision level before exporting mesh to Maya? What level do you recommend? Thank you in advance, sir.

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Always UV the lowest subdivision

[@shaohuachen3080]

@@MichaelWilde3d Thank you! :)

[@tony_cgivfx]

Didn't realize this exists, so awesome thanks for the video!

[@ArameoDios]

Great tutorial man!! I can't get the Normals!! Any idea?? Thanks!!

[@maxgordon3194]

the Normal maps in ZBruSh Aren't baked properlY do yoU kNow the reASon why thAt hAppens? like the map you just baked apply it in blender or maya or 3ds max it will be extremely low res in terms of detail and get artifacts too. meanwhile same model same high res detail baked in 3ds max, maya or substance painter shows much greater detail. do you know the reason why this happens?

[@ricr8987]

Hi, What is the process to import on substance? thanks for the help. I'm using the workflow marvelous designer - zbrush - substance. I can't get my UV maps working properly, I'm trying your tutorial, but I'm new to substance, so I don't know how to import...

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Import what exactly to Substance? If I was using substance I would just take a high poly and low poly version and bake them for normal, curvature and other maps. I've never imported Displacement into substance, I will always use Mari. It can't handle 32bit, UDIMs and a few other issues which is why it is not the standard texturing software in the VFX industry.

[@syarifuddinsakri7008]

Is it possible to create UDIM tiles inside Zbrush only??

[@MichaelWilde3d]

No I'm afraid not, Zbrush doesn't have a convention UV editor, you will need a 3d package to place them and lay them out properly.

[@syarifuddinsakri7008]

@@MichaelWilde3d yeah that is what I actually did.i used a base mesh with proper UV tiles imported inside ZBrush. it is completely okay at the start but I accidentally messed the UV and I already went far into HD Geometry using the basemesh with crap UV layout. thank you anyway.

[@MichaelWilde3d]

@@syarifuddinsakri7008 In that case I would export the sub div 1 from Zbrush, transfer the UVs in Maya with the transfer attributes to get the proper UVs back on it, then re-export that subdiv 1 and replace it to get your UVs back

[@syarifuddinsakri7008]

Michael Wilde i did try that also but it didn’t work. It replaces the mesh completely. I believe i did not perform it the right way. Any chance for a little guidance 😬??

[@MichaelWilde3d]

@@syarifuddinsakri7008 So go to sub div 1, export that mesh, go into Maya and find the original subdiv 1 with the correct UVs. Select the correct UVs one, then the newly imported Zbrush mesh -> Mesh -> transfer attributes. Click the options for it and make sure only UVs are selected. Assuming the topology is the same then do it via topology, or if it's not working you could try world space or something. Delete by history and export the zbrush mesh again as an obj. Now back in Zbrush, on your lowest subdiv and the correct subtool you import that mesh and it should overwrite. If it says an error message like "topology has changed, must reproject" then something is wrong. You can always just reproject to get it to work, but if you can do it the proper clean way it's always best.

[@rubendrakkar]

I got 44 udims. . . aand its not working I think I need to drop the numbers

[@michaelvaughan2986]

Hi, thanks for the tutorial. I have an odd issue where the 2nd udims are blank and have an odd 3 digit number instead say 1002, have you encountered this?

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Can’t say I’ve ever experienced that. The only times I’ve had issues with blank bakes is because of layers. If you have any try baking them down before exporting and seeing if that fixes it.

[@Domzdream]

*CAN SOMEONE HELP?* I’ve been trying to export a simple basic normal map Ive been working on in zbrush. My steps: I’ve modelled a low poly human in maya. Exported the selection into zbrush. Did the usual details like increase geometry on the model , colours etc. I even started the Morph Target originally, so that it would remember the original placement of the low poly model. To export the normal, I reduce all geometry of the model to 1 (as standard issue), press the Switch morph target, EXPORT now to maya. Here’s the problem: The borders have all shrunk in maya, meaning that the normal map looks like it has holes. I have exported as smooth ON, Tangent. Still it looks crap. How do I keep all the borders of the UVs as they origianlly were. Can you help? THANKS

[@kapilthapa3186]

I'am having a problem i sculpted a model in zbrush and did the uvs in maya and then pasted the uvs in zbrush. I have used UDIM tiles and when i export normal map from multi map exporter it exports all the maps but the details that i sculpted sre missing in the maps except the first UDIM tile.. So is there any solution for that and can i export the each UDIM tile seperately??? Please reply

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Hmm, I’ve had this issue before and I’m not sure I was able to solve it. It was with polypaint though, not normals. My one suggestion would be if you are using layers, try baking them down first? That cause me some issues recently. I’m afraid I can’t be of much more help than that without seeing a scene. I’d maybe set up another test scene and see if that exports properly. Zbrush support pages would be my next step if that doesn’t help.

[@michaelvaughan2986]

does this require your mesh to have multiple subdivs?

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Hey, yes to be able to bake the information down to your low res mesh you will need higher subdivs for it to take the information from. You can tell the multi-map exporter which subdiv you want to bake from, I usually use subdiv 1 or 2, and then export those meshes to which ever 3d package you are using for rendering to add those maps to.

[@gatleonhart]

When I hit export it just tells me the seconds it took (which it seems is calculated in the time it takes me to pick where I'm saving it and then clicking save) but doesn't actually export anything or even look like it's doing anything. I am using the most recent 2020 version. Good instruction btw :)

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Hey Gatlin - so there are a few debugs you can try to see what's going on. Classic CG - it could be one of a number of things. My initial check would be that the object for sure has UVs. If you modelled the base in another program then take it into there and just check the UVs are still there. Often merging and doing operations with subtools can strip the UVs by accident if you didn't enable the UV button. Also in Zbrush using the flatten function of the UV master plugin is a great way to check that the UVs are still respected inside the software. That would be my gut reaction for it not exporting anything or calculating it. I have had issues with blank tiles but even then it still exports a file still, just an empty one. Also make sure you have multiple subdivisons, that could well cause it to not calculate anything - or make sure you are telling it the correct subdivision to export from in the settings too. Let me know if that manages to fix it - those would be my first round of checks!

[@gatleonhart]

@@he.lena21 it's definitely subdivided into millions of polys.

[@Tritoon710]

Great tutorial, many thanks. Can you please talk about how do you prepare your object in Maya for texturing in Substance Painter, how do you align your UVs etc.

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Cheers! Yer I actually want to do a Substance Series next so I when get around to that I'll do a video on UVs :)

[@mdsanima]

very nice stuff here! Now I following you and like this. Keep going!

[@heinoosthuizen423]

great vid , but my maps are just coming out grey for displacement , any thoughts on how to fix this ?

[@BrianLife]

mine also

[@MichaelWilde3d]

Sorry, this slipped through my comment notifications. Did you ever resolve it?

[@MichaelWilde3d]

First thing I would check are that your UVs are there, sometimes when you merge subtools they get stripped. do a quick export and make sure they’re there. Past that Zbrush has so many quirks I don’t quite know what to suggest without seeing a scene!

[@BrianLife]

Michael Wilde no, when I use multi map exported, it makes the Displacement maps solid gray. If Go to the displacement menu, create displacement map, it works and shows black, gray, white details. Also. If I don’t have zb to Keyshot bridge, do you know the displacement settings I should use, to manually plug a disp (texture) node?

[@MichaelWilde3d]

@@BrianLife Without knowing which 3d software and renderer you are using then I don't know the displacement settings, it differs per one. If you want to know about setting it up in Arnold I have a video called: Arnold Lookdev for Beginners, that goes through that. If it's any others your best bet is to just google the renderer and then displacement and there will be info on that specific one, they all handle them differently with different mid points

[@marambaia2002]

how do u import the seperate udims into mari?

[@MichaelWilde3d]

You need to create a paint node then find your image sequence of correctly named UDIM files (1001,1002 etc.) and select that and it will load them in.

[@charithevfx]

thanks brother. I could fix my fucking problem after watching this

[@BrettSimms]

Thanks for this!

[@KarelChytilArt]

Thanks

[@magnushldn2442]

I just wish ai could do these steps for us rather than doing all the fun art stuff

[@oscardipa8571]

god bless u xdd

[@an1_mate]

thx