Autoseams, Pack, ZBrush import export

Excellent questions Remi, glad to share more on that workflow anytime .

One of my current workflows is (for concept art), before I used Unfold3D;

Start in ZBrush, create model, create UV's with ZBrush's UV Master > export .obj files at highest resolution > Import into Mari , do texture work, etc. > export all texture, files, etc. > Import all parts into 3ds Max, and render with Vray.
Sometimes I would send the .obj files to 3D Coat to do the UV's in (for games & animations, I would need to create a low poly version, etc. different workflow).  Using Mudbox for the texturing would also work, unfortunately it seems that Mudbox is just about dead (maybe Mudbox 2018 has been released?  A number of user's on the CG Society forums are guessing most of Mudbox will go into Maya.  A good bit of Mudbox is in Maya already, ...hope that gets done well).  

But, I'm always hoping to find a better/faster/etc. UV process, so one of the first items I wanted to test was how the Unfold3D beta would do with lots of polys.
I grabbed the largest mesh, at highest resolution, from my dragon head model, and exported it out of ZBrush as an .obj, without doing any UV work, no special settings, but I did keep the mesh somewhat 'clean,'  then  > under Unfold3D, I used the "File->Load" command, and loaded just that one .obj file., created one large seam going down the bottom middle of the model, and Unfolded.  It worked great, ~ less than 30 seconds to do.  And the in-viewport performance was good too, very little lag for rotating around, zooming, etc. 

Next step would be to export out of Unfold3D at near default settings, changing the Width & Height from 512 x 512 to ~ 4K. I would then take that .obj into Mari & texture it, after that > import all parts into 3ds Max (or Maya, or Keyshot), and render with Vray (or RedShift / Keyshot).  I typically would not send the UV'd mesh back to ZBrush, -but, with really good high res UV's, if wanting to send from ZBrush to Keyshot (using Fibermesh, etc.), game/animation pipeline flexibility needs, etc., sending back to ZBrush could be very nice to have.  I haven't test that yet, but I will .

I'll try merging/combining all of the Subtools in ZBrush into one exported .obj file (and one .fbx, to test how the .fbx formats are working between Unfold3d & ZBrush), and load that into Unfold3D, then give each separate part it's own tile/patch in Unfold3D.  Mari supports UDIM (the multi tiled objects), so once I finish the UV work in Unfold3D, I should be able to use those files in Mari.  

I'll be glad to post up screenshots, feedback, my progress, etc. as I go .   Happy to answer questions, take suggestions, etc. anytime.

With the decimated Dragon Head mesh (372,000 pts, not a 'clean' mesh), loaded, and using default settings (no additional tiles created), I ran the AutoSeams > Cut > Unfold, 
and here's the result;



No Packing, no Fitting, no Optimize, etc. 
The 'AutoSelect Edges' settings can be seen in the screen capture.
For a fast, automated process, on a messy decimated mesh, I think these results are great  !

Created some additional tiles > moved parts to their own tiles > Pack;

(the bottom right tile = UV's from super tiny 'junk' polys, messy mesh)
I left the default tile empty.

I selected just the main head mesh (top left tile) > ran AutoSeams with 'Branch' (hoping to refine / improve the UV solution) > Optimized, 
and got this result;


You can see how the UV's on the main head mesh have improved .
AutoSeams, Optimize, Packing, etc. all worked very fast, less than 30 seconds at longest.

Unfold3D still has tons of options I haven't touched yet / need to learn.

Testing the AutoSeams on the high res version next.

Hi Josh,

That's awesome !

Thank you for this detailed description of your workflow and your feedback. That's really appreciated.

A tip: I noticed that you used the autoseams feature set (Hierarchical or Mosaic). You'll probably get better results by:
1- Adding some "Unfold" iterations when you have some distorsion like that. Unfold3D will reduce the distorsion when clicking on "Unfold". Or as a post process, I mean, once the mesh is flattened you could run the "Optimize" algorithm by selecting the island that have distorsions and press "O". Or simply place the mouse pointer over an island and press "O".



2- Activating the distortion control option (named "Disto Control" on the Autoselect Edges Panel), will create additional cuts on your mesh so that Unfold will directly flatten your mesh with far less distorsion. On a heavy mesh like this one it could take computation time, but the good thing is that you can go take a coffee will Unfold3D works for you.

Cheers,

And thank again for such a great posts !

quick note, installed latest beta, worked, no issues, no problems, etc.

Hi Josh,

Thank you for sharing this. Yes, it looks like it worked perfectly on the biggest island. That's nice !

1. You can re-run autoselect "Hierarchical" or "Moïsac" on already cut islands, that is perfectly valid. However it is designed to work better on non cut geometry.

2. There is no option to save edge selection set. However you can deselect path of edges using the feature "deselect path". Using the Unfold3D mouse interaction preset, press SHIFT+CTRL+ double left mouse click on a path you want to delete. Important: if your mesh is dense, you'll have to zoom close to the selected edges so that the selection mechanism work well.

Starting out with the decimated Dragon Head mesh (no UV work done on it yet, etc.), I've been testing the AutoSelect Edges on on non cut geometry .
Started with this;


I used Branch, and Disto Control at .75 settings;


Result;

It took a little longer, but under ~ 4 minutes was not bad at all.
 
(cont. in next post)