Blend Shapes - Low Detail - Simply Maya User Community

# 1 03-08-2012 , 09:26 PM

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Blend Shapes - Low Detail

I have a set of blend shapes (made in Mudbox) for this character that I´m working on. But when I import the fbx file (or obj file) to Maya and aply them to my original mesh and hit the smooth preview (with the "3" key), the blend shapes loses a lot of detail.

I´ve already cheched the inputs in my main mesh and they are in this order (Skin Cluster, Blendshape, Tweak). Even the imported mesh with the blend shape loses detail when I hit 3.

Is there any way to achieve the same detail from Mudbox to Maya using only low poly meshes??

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# 2 05-08-2012 , 12:22 AM

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I haven't used mudbox/zbrush but I assume they use normal/displacement maps for additional detail. These maps don't add geometry, they add shading variations (or, in displacement's case, they tessellate the mesh and add geo at render-time). So unless you're in high quality or viewport 2.0 mode you won't see the effects. I don't know if that's your issue.

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Peter Srinivasan
Producer

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# 3 06-08-2012 , 02:36 PM

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Yes... actually my main mesh has a normal map in the bump node, and it works just fine. But when I import my set of blend shapes meshes for the different facial expressions, they lose a lot of detail with the smooth preview (pressing 3) or with the render smooth.

Is it possible to make blendshapes using meshes, each one with it´s own normal map?

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# 4 06-08-2012 , 04:16 PM

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the only way I know to do that is not that great. It MAY work though. Basically, a blend shape has a 0-1 float slider. You could build a shader network that has all of those normal maps going into a layers or blend node and attach the blendshape sliders to the amount of texture blend. You'd have to use a bunch of multiply/divides to do it perfectly... I don't have time right now to set it up but here are the pertinent threads. If you want a simple solution that is limited in precision, here's this:

https://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showth...l-maps-in-Maya

The first suggestions seem to work for many folks.

Of course, the better way is to include muliply/divide nodes to do some crazy transformations of your normal maps so they can all be combined properly AND kept underneath SuperRGB scales (underneath 1.0/255,256 depending on your color mode). Some of the calculations necessary are contained here:

https://www.rodgreen.com/?p=4

It would take quite an interesting shading network to get multiple normal maps to combine perfectly. If I weren't in the middle of a big project I'd try to build one. But hopefully this'll start you on the right path if you wanna try for the holy grail user added image

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Peter Srinivasan
Producer

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# 5 06-08-2012 , 05:47 PM

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That is indeed the Holy Grail for a little newbie like me... but I'm willing to give it a try!

If you don't mind, I'll like to hear your comments about my plan B and C, in case the "Holy Grail Solution" turns to be a little bit too challenging for me.

Plan B:
Making the facial expressions directy into Maya, moving all the verts with the smooth preview on to see what's really happening. As far as I can see, that would be a lot of work but it´s the only way to see for myself the results I'm actually getting.

Plan C:
Adding polys. My original mesh is about 3,000+ polys. Stepping up my mesh to 12,000 polys mantains all the detail that I already have in mudbox, BUT I'm worried about the UVs going ape on me. So far this solution works perfectly! The texture works, the joints, the skin weights. Everything works! But I'm worried about the UVs AND my PC's performance when I get to the animation and the rendering part.

Thank you... we´re almost there!

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