Hi, I am trying to get into some simple games programming and I have started covering modelling and texturing. I got alot of time to put into this stuff and alot of interest =P I would like the advice of anyone who has used these 3 programmes to point out the strengths weaknesses and incompatablities between these so I dont waste all my time ^_^ I have got to the point where modelling is a little easier/quicker and so I would like to move onto Texturing my models properly. I would like to know if anyone here uses these three programmes together with creating games models successfully? If so what do you specifically use each programme for? What is your workflow? I have only fooled around with Photoshop a tinybit on a friends pc and ZBrush a little more. What I am thinking is using Maya to model, Zbrush for normal maps (and maybe model touchups??? Im not sure if this would be ok for low poly models), then create standard textures with photoshopCS3. The Final Model I would need to be able to import back into Maya! Maya contains the plugin that will export to my 3D Engine format. Are there any problems I need to be aware of? I see certain people would rather stick with either Photoshop OR ZBrush when it comes to texturing as opposed to utilizing both programmes. Is this just because its a pain to learn both programmes? I believe ZBrush may have the ability to automatically unwrap UV's of a model to make your life easier, however it may also not be compatible with other programmes if exported? Would my best option be unwrapping by hand and keeping as many of my models mirrored as possible? I heard somewhere that if your UV coordinates double up on eachother and you paint on them in that respect, that Zbrush will only apply the texturing to one half of the UV's. Thanks alot

Model an all-quad "cage" with proper geometry distribution for subdividing in Maya.

Import into ZBrush, do your high-poly sculpt. Export your high poly and a reduced-poly version (50-200k).

Build your low poly mesh in Maya on top of the reduced-poly version.

UV your low poly version.

Normal map your low-poly version in Maya, ZBrush, xNormal, etc. Get an ambient occlusion and crevice map while you're at it.

Texture in Photoshop and/or ZBrush. The vast, vast majority of the industry and people use Photoshop for texturing, though many use some sort of 3D painting (bodypaint or zbrush or something else) for certain things but is somewhat unncessary because of normal maps. A few rare souls use ZBrush exclusively for texturing but its very uncommon.

This describes most of the workflow and pipelines you will find in the industry and is what you and your artists should be doing. Generally you will find at least one version of these three tools (modeling/sculpting/texturing) in a content production pipeline as they are all meant to work together.

Thanks for the advice =)