Mudbox displacement maps in T2

[TheBadger]

Does anyone else work from mudbox? Can you subdivide parts of the mesh, and how?

If you mean half the mesh and not the other, than no. It is all or nothing.
However, you can freeze parts of the mesh while sculpting so that the area you want to effect is effected, but no other part.

Mudbox and Z are different in this way. You should be able to get up to 10-20 million polygons in Mud with little or no problems if you have a good graphics card and memory. So you should not need to worry about limiting subdivision to one area.

here are some links that contain stuff you need to know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TG-xPgOh24
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Mudbox/ct-p/area-c3
http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials?word=&where=1&software=11&tutotips=&level=40
http://www.mudboxlive.com

^^ all free.

Ulco, you can also work in non destructive layers just like photoshop.


Also, don't worry about the key code. THey WILL send it to you. IF you download from registering a student account, and the download worked, then you were approved and they will send the key. Otherwise re register online for a immediate response.


Also, I like the image above of the rocks in the sand. Some good color there too.

[TheBadger]

Also,
if you just google "mudbox terrain", and go to images, then click on an image that interests you, you will also find a ton of info that may help.

[Dune]

Thanks Michael!!

[pfrancke]

You guys have been producing some fantastic work.  I've been playing with zbrush a little but am object challenged.  It always comes out wrong, I think my base plane object is no good -    j meyer, if you could upload one for me, it might set me straight.

I've always wanted to be able to apply TG surface shaders in their fullest glory to objects, and the idea of capturing the vector displacement of the final object against a plane is genius!  I just wish there were an easy (or not) workflow that would allow any given object to be converted to a vector displacement exr file (where you could pick the direction of displacement, top view, front view, etc).. 

And I imagine that it would be possible to stack multiple exr files on top of each other (by bringing them in one at a time in TG) - that would likely produce even more interesting (though unreal) shapes.

Anyway, enough sad rambling from me and congratulations you guys for a super breakthrough!!

Piet

[TheBadger]

Hi pfrancke,

Were you asking for a vector that works the way it should or a Terragen file with a vector in it thats working properly?
If you just need a Z-brush vector that you know was done right to experiment with, Chris posted a beauty a few pages back
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16110.105.html
There are two posts, one link works the other does not

A step by step for vectors created in Mud is on the way, too.

[pfrancke]

Hi Badger -- no, I've got zbrush and was exploring the flat plane object into zbrush,  Sculpt in zbrush.  Create vector displacement in zbrush, exr into tg workflow and just keep getting bad/mixed results.  My suspicion is that my beginning plane object is not up to par.

[mhaze]

You sometimes have to play with the image map size and vector disp settings.  I've found that if you use a modelling program such as max or silo to create your plane you must make sure you use meters as a unit.  Then when you set up Terragen 3 set the image map size to the size of your plane and everything in the vdisp shader to 1 although I sometimes have to play with the final multiplier.

If you started with a 32 x 32 plane, the displaced terrain should be 32 meters square and you may need to zoom in or you can  to scale it up to whatever size you want. You can do that in the vdisp shader or with the transform shader.

I've been using a 128 x 128 plane lately as it allows more detail to be sculpted.

[j meyer]

pfrancke - Do you try with ZBs procedural plane? That definitely has some problems.
               Of course I could post a plane,but at which size and resolution? May be
               it would be a better solution for you to get a free app like Wings3D or
               so,thus you could do it according to your needs,not only now,but for future
               projects also.
               Otherwise let me know the resolution (16x16 squares e.g.) and the size
               in meters.


I've tried to rotate VDisp via transform shader and found that it gets distorted.
Good to see especially the closer you get to 180°.
Could someone confirm,please.
Also found a solution,but first I'd like to make sure that it is not a "my machine only"
thing again.

[pfrancke]

thank you guys -- when I see the terrain in TG, but it is very small.  Probably my plane was not in meters.  I created the plane in blender and am confused easily.  I tried dynamesh on a zbrush primitive also, but ran into a variety of difficulties.  I'm with you about having to modify the multiplier on the vector node and the size on the image shader and the linear indicator.  But my issue is that the displacements that I DO get are just crazy wrong.

My starting plane would almost always be used in a scene like the Mhaze beach scene.  So bigger is better.  I'm thinking 256x256 in meters would be great (unless 512x512 could work).  In Zbrush, since we have to do the morph target switch anyway, it probably doesn't matter how many subdivides we do on the sculpted object (that started with the plane), since the vector displacement is intended to go back to the morph target starting off flat plane anyway.  So I'm thinking bigger is better for "landscape" type work.  J Meyer, if you could upload a starting plane, I would be in your debt.   No question, getting proficient with objects has to be something that I get better at!

[mhaze]

Hi

I can confirm, over 90 there's distortion increasing as you get nearer 180

[j meyer]

Thanks Mick.
I'll say some more in a few minutes.

pfrancke - Here you go a 32x32squares plane set to 512meters.

[pfrancke]

thank you so much!  I'll play with it later tonight and see if I do better.  Much appreciated.

[j meyer]

As for the rotation and scaling of VDisp the solution is you have to use a rotate y vector
node before the transform shader for rotation and a multiply vector together with a
constant scalar for scaling.So for a 120° rotation you'd have to set the rotate y vector to
120 followed by the transform shader set to 120(Y-slot) also.
Scaling:for a half size scaling for example use a multiply vector with a constant scalar set to
0.5 followed by the transform shader with all scaling slots set to 0.5.
There might be other solutions as well.So if you find another one let us know.
Translation works fine just like it is apparently.

And for those who want to make "populations" I've prepared a simple example to show
how you can go about that.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

Of course you have to figure out yourself which kind of distribution you want and set up
the nodes accordingly.
Confusing enough for you guys?

pfrancke - you're welcome.

[pfrancke]

for me, key was using the plane object jmeyer uploaded for us.  Pretty much the only thing I had to do was set the size to 512 in the image map shader.  I'm going to import the 32x32 object into blender and see if I can make it larger and have it still work.  J - a zbrush question..  what workflow/procedure would you use if you already had an interesting object?  Would you append it to the plane and go from there?  Would you work in 2.5 mode and create 3d and then append to plane?  Or pretty much do you need to start all sculpts from the imported plane staying away from dynamesh, etc.  Thank you guys much for creating these workflows, it might be a cool way to get complex objects into TG as terrain.

[Dune]

It's funny that I found the same issue with rotating a map, and also found the same solution as you did, Jochen. Also, if you want to place it elsewhere and rotate, it seems better to move it by transform shader than setting the map location, but I'm not yet sure about that.
But it's a major step ahead if you can use this feature.
Next I will try  to use Sculptris instead of Mudbox, as in Mudbox the pulled out shapes don't update on 'vertex finesse' (it gets lower poly), then load the obj in mudbox to complete the map....