ZBrush Character Creation - Advanced Digital Sculpting 2nd Edition

312 chapter 9 ■ Normal Maps, Displacement Maps, Maya, and Decimation Master

Generating a 16-bit map in ZBrush is simple. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Step down to your lowest subdivision level in ZBrush. Make sure the mesh has UVs that
   do not overlap. You may choose to generate UVs directly inside ZBrush using AUV or
   PUV tiles at this time.


2. Select Tool → UV Map and select the 2048 button (this value can be higher or lower,
   but multiples of 2 are recommended, as in 1024, 2048, or 4096). If you do not have UVs
   already on the mesh, click the AUV or PUV button to generate automatic UV coordinates.


3. Under Tool → Displacement, set your DPSubPix to 1 and click Create And Export Map
   (Figure 9.28).


4. The map will generate and export to the selected location on the disk. To do this man-
   ually, click the CreateDispmap button. The map will generate and appear in the Alpha
   palette window under Tool → Displacement when it is complete (Figure 9.29).
   Keep in mind that at this stage the map cannot be exported; you must click
   CloneDisp to clone a copy of the displacement map and make it appear in the Alpha pal-
   ette. Once you complete this step, you can manually export the map from ZBrush. While
   the map is in the displacement swatch, it can be saved with the ZTool and accessed later.
   Remember that if you do not intend to save the displacement map with the
   ZTool but simply want to export and render, instead of clicking the Create DispMap
   button select the Flip V button and click Create And Export Map. This will generate
   the displacement map, flip it in the V direction, and save it to disk. This process will
   bypass the stage of loading the map into the Alpha palette.

Figure 9.29 Once the map finishes generating, you will need to press CloneDisp to make it appear

in the Alpha palette.

If you click the Create And Export Map button, you will get a 16-bit map if you do not

have the 32Bit button enabled.

You may notice that ZBrush will attempt to display a displacement map on the surface

of the model when it is loaded in the displacement slot under Tool → Displacement. This can

be helpful when checking maps or troubleshooting render issues if you want to make sure

there are no visible artifacts in a displacement map you have generated inside ZBrush. You

can turn this off by clicking the Disp On button. The Mode button will determine if the

map is displayed as a bump map or if it will displace the surface of the model when you click

the Apply DispMap button. This can be useful for reconstructing ZTools from a base mesh

and a displacement map if the original ZTool has been lost.

Figure 9.28 The
Displacement
Map options