Mudbox 2009 to Maya 2009 Displacements

[solbester]

Tutorial on how to export a displacement in mudbox and make it work in maya... and it renders fast.

- Once your done sculpting in Mudbox, bring the model down to its lowest sub by pressing page down, and Go to Maps, Extract Maps, New Operation.

- Make sure to select Displacement map and name the operation what ever you want.

- Make sure to click best guess and if your doing anything thats not HD i recommend 2048X2048. If your doing HD 4096X4096.

SIDE NOTE: 2048 reads up to 6 million pixels. 4096 reads up to 18. So you do the math.

- When you go to save the map, name it what ever you like but make sure that you save it as an "Open EXR[32 bit Floating Point, RGBA](*.exr)"

SIDE NOTE: It should be the third to last choice from top to bottom.

- Then hit Extract

- Make sure to export an obj of the lowest sub in mudox that we will import to maya.

NOW ON TO MAYA

- In maya even if your character is rigged its important to have the same mesh. So Import that obj of the model that we exported and add it to the original model as a belndshape.

- You do this by selecting the imported copy then the original and apply a blendshape.

- Once thats done get rid of the blendshap node and also get rid of the imported copy.

SIDE NOTE: if you have weights on the model, export the weights do the blendshape and then re-import the weights.

- Now make sure that in maya you go to Windows - settings and preferences - plug-in manager

- In there make sure you turn on and auto load Open EXRKoader.mll ( this is important the dis.map wont work without this)

- Now what ever shader you have on the model go to the SG node of it click on the checker box and select a file node.

- Load the EXR file you exported from mudbox

- Select the character, go to Windows, Rendering Editors, Aproximation Editor

- Once again make sure you character is selected, create a subdivision node and edit it.

- In the edit, change it from Parametric to Spatial.

- In spatial leave the min and max as is it should be 0 and 5.

- Change the length to 0.1

- And Render.... ( on my computer i have core i 7 and six gigs this took 35 seconds on an extremely high res model, also i used a regular blinn)

(My render setting were 640X480, with the quality set to Prodcution Fine Trace, and Filter to Mitchell)


IMPORTANT FACTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want finer detail and really great quality then you need to change a couple of things...

- In the Approx. Editor, change it from Spatial to Length/Distance/Angle

- Make the max sub 6 or 7 tops, make length 0.3, distance 0.1, and angle 45, and make sure to turn on view dependent

- This will add about another minute or two to you render but it makes it look a whole lot better.

*QUICK CHECK* = I tried to turn off Feature Displacement but it didnt seem to make a difference

If you guys have any question regarding this tutorial let me know. Hope it works out for you guys and keep an eye out for Mudbox 2010 and Mudwalk its awesome!

Cheers!

[Sunji]

Hi Solbester
First thanks so much for your post! These instructions are the closest Ive come to achieving the mudbox look in my maya. I have two questions.
1. Did you resolve the problem you were having regarding the color map ( you posted on vimeo) . I am having the same issue everytime I use the length in the mental ray subapprox. However if I dont use the length, my displacement map does not show.

2 Can you point me to place to find a way to transfer blendshape from obj to a fully rigged character.

3. Have you found a better workflow.

Again appreciate your posts on vimeo and here. Really could use you help...

[solbester]

Originally Posted by Sunji

Hi Solbester
First thanks so much for your post! These instructions are the closest Ive come to achieving the mudbox look in my maya. I have two questions.
1. Did you resolve the problem you were having regarding the color map ( you posted on vimeo) . I am having the same issue everytime I use the length in the mental ray subapprox. However if I dont use the length, my displacement map does not show.

2 Can you point me to place to find a way to transfer blendshape from obj to a fully rigged character.

3. Have you found a better workflow.

Again appreciate your posts on vimeo and here. Really could use you help...

Check your email

[WalksWithSky]

Awesome, and so simple! I've watched videos from Digital Tutors that only showed how to work it with the normal map, not the displacement, so this was extremely helpful and easy -- thanks! I just wish I came across this sooner.

[solbester]

Originally Posted by WalksWithSky

Awesome, and so simple! I've watched videos from Digital Tutors that only showed how to work it with the normal map, not the displacement, so this was extremely helpful and easy -- thanks! I just wish I came across this sooner.

You are very welcome!

I still cant seem to figure out the export of Mudbox so that it gives you a perfect displacement map, but I hear they fixed that in 2010.