PTex - Mudbox, VRay, Maya 2012 Workflow

V-Ray for Maya V-Ray for Maya :: General
1

Hello everyone,

First time VRay user here. I would like to get the hang of PTex. I am using Mudbox 2012, Maya 2012 and VRay 2.0, all educational versions.

If I understand correctly this should be my workflow:

Make a base mesh.

Import into Mudbox.

Subdivide and add detail to the model.

Once all the detail is there, export the low level mesh, then setup for PTex.

Once the PTex is setup, paint your diffuse, specular, bump, etc.

Extract texture maps from Mudbox from the high poly onto the low poly.

Here is where it gets tricky for me:

Should I extract different PTex maps and apply them to different V-Ray PTex nodes in Maya onto a V-Ray material? (One for spec, one for diffuse, one for bump, etc?) Or, is there a way to extract everything on a single .ptex file and apply it to a VRay material?

If I am missing anything here please let me know.

Thank you and best regards,

Eduardo

2

Pretty sure you have to extract separate maps for diffuse, bump, spec, normal, displacement etc. As far I know, there is no multi-channel support in the Ptex format just yet.

3

I haven’t gotten displacement to work properly with ptex/mudbox yet because the ptex node in maya doesn’t seem to support allow negative colors yet, and mudbox generates a 32 bit image with 0 as neutral.

4

Posted this on the other thread too, but try this:
http://blog.hellobard.com/2011/10/05/v-ray-ptex-normal-displacement/

5

Oh that’s a shame. Wouldn’t having to make different nodes for every channel slow down the render?