Combining Zbrush and Mari displacements in Clarisse / by Xuan Prada

We all have to work with displacement maps painted in both Zbrush and Mari.
Sometimes we use 32 bits floating point maps, sometimes 16 bits maps, etc. Combining different displacement depths and scales is a common task for a look-dev artist working in the film industry.

Let's see how to setup different displacement maps exported from Zbrush and Mari in Isotropix Clarisse.

  • First of all, have a look at all the individual displacement maps to be used.
  • The first one has been sculpted in Zbrush and exported as .exr 32 bits displacement map. The non-displacement value is zero.
  • The second one has been painted in Mari and exported also as .exr 32 bits displacement map. Technically this map is exactly the same as the Zbrush one, the only difference here is the scale.
  • The third displacement map in this exercise also comes from Mari, but in this case it's a .tif 16 bits displacement map, which means that the mid-point will be 0,5 instead of zero.
  • We need to combine all of them in Clarisse and get the expected result.
  • Start creating a displacement node and assigning it to the mesh.
  • We consider the Zbrush displacement as our main displacement layer. That said, the displacement node has to be setup like the image below. The offset or non-displacement value has to be zero, and the front value 1. This will give us exactly the same look that we have in Zbrush.
  • In the material editor I'm connecting a multiply node after every single displacement layer. The input 2 is 1.1.1 by default. Increasing or reducing this value will control the strength of each displacement layer. It is not necessary to control the intensity of the Zbrush layer unless you want to do it. But it is necessary to reduce the intensity of the Mari displacement layers as they are way off compared with the Zbrush intensity.
  • I also added an add node right after the 16 bits Mari displacement subtracting the value -0.5 in order to remap the value at the same level than the other 32 bits maps with non-displacement value of zero.
  • Finally I used add nodes to mix all the displacement layers.
  • It is a good idea to setup all the layers individually to find the right look.
  • No displacement at all.
  • Zbrush displacement.
  • Mari high frequency detail.
  • Mari low frequency detail.
  • All displacement layers combined.