Displacement maps

[paintedthorn]

I've seen other posts that people have problems with displacement maps from Mudbox to Maya. I'm still having them. Can someone tell me how to do this. Attached is a picture where you can see in Maya how the displacement map didn't work to well coming from Mudbox into Maya

[dan]

Hey paintedthorn,
Try checking out the Pipeline Integration with Mudbox and Maya to learn some tips on how to get maps transferred over.

[paintedthorn]

I've seen all videos from mudbox side and maya side. I'm still having issues.

[justin_m]

Hi paintedthorn,
Would you mind posting the steps you went through for baking your map and then applying the map? Any information will be helpful. What type of map did you create? What levels were used in baking the map? How did you connect the displacement in Maya?

[paintedthorn]

Maya
A. Sculpt general
B. Layout UV

Mudbox
Bring in model into Mudbox
A. Sculpt and paint (I’ll just focus on sculpt for this)
a.. Level 0 low target
b. Level 4 high target

B. Vector Displacement Map
a. Extract texture maps > Vector displacement
b. Select 0 level for low target model
c. Select 4 for high level target model
d. Image size: 2048 x 2048
e. Antialias Off
f. vector space: Object
g. Save as OpenEXR 32 bit floating Point

C. Select object > File send to Mudbox new Scene

Maya
A. Make sure plugins – MayMotr, Tiff Float Reader, Open ExlLoader
B. Make sure Mental Ray is setup
a. production quality
b. Color Management: Enable Color Management

C. The maps don’t usually work so I hand do them
1. Assign new Lambert to object
2. Create New Displacement node. Go into shape > Vector Displacement Map > Select vector displacement file
3. Connect Displacement node to shader
4. Go to displacement map file
a. Color profile: Linear sRGB

D. Select Mesh
a. Shape Node: Bounding Box Scale = either Calculate auto or put in 3x3x3

E. Mental Ray Approximation Editor
a. Select object
b. Create
c. Edit
i. Approximation Method: Spatial
ii. Min Subdivide: 0
iii. Max Subdivde: 5
iv. Length = 1.0
v. Check View Dependent

[paintedthorn]

Recently I've gotten this warning in maya
Warning: Render view: Selected region is too small //
// Warning: (Mayatomr.Geometry) : BodyFBXASC032L0Shape: subdivision surface does not support separate displace approximation, ignored. Tune primary tessellation / approximation for displacement. //

[justin_m]

Two things to check off the top of my head would be the scale of your model in Mudbox. Bring in one of the default meshes and see if it is roughly the same size. Sometimes models in Maya will be too small once in Mudbox. This can disturb some tools and calculations. i would also check the UV layout and make sure you have enough space allocated for your map. You can also try using Absolute Tangent instead of Object Space. Relative Tangent is used for stamps inside Mudbox, Absolute tangent would be for something that will deform (character), Object for something that may move but not deform, and World for something that will neither move, nor deform. As far as the displacement goes, I'd recommend you check out the Mastering Displacement Maps in Maya course here:
http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/trai...661&autoplay=1
and the above referenced Mudbox course if you haven't had a chance to view it all.

[paintedthorn]

OK my body in Maya is way Bigger than mudbox so I scaled it down to fit the normal size..I set absolute tangent but now I'm getting no displacement at all. What do you mean by make sure you have enough space allocated to your UV map? Do you mean in Mudbox? Do you mean don't have any UVS touching the border of the map? I've seen all of video thanks.

[paintedthorn]

I'm not getting any displacement now ugh

[justin_m]

With your object open in Mudbox, add the default human object that ships with the software. Are the sizes comparable? Often when bringing geometry over from Maya it will look correct, but be much too small in Mudbox. This causes many tools and some calculations to miss because of the very small size. This could affect the displacement calculation. Make sure to increase the size in Maya and freeze the transforms so that it comes into Mudbox the proper size. As far as the UVs, just make sure that the mesh takes up as much space in the UV tile as possible. And areas that require more detail can be given more space on the tile (larger head than body for instance)

[paintedthorn]

I have done both of what you suggest and still run into problems yet not as noticble. Is there a way I can post my folder files online and you can look? I know this is asking a lot. I'm supposed to teach this very soon and really want to include it rather than just using Maya. It would have the maya scene and the mudbox scene as well as the textures.