ZBrushCentral

Subdiv Crease Edges

Hello everyone.

I’m making allot of clothing and metallic objects these days and since I can’t have subdivision creases in zbrush, I’m wasting a good deal of time. I’m either “re-creasing” clothing edges after smooth - or I’m manually smoothing the non-crease areas because I’ve left the smooth modier off. Either way, this is a major bottleneck in the zbrush workflow. (I think this may be one of the reasons we see so many bald, naked, beltless characters here. :wink: )

creases.jpg

I think I have an easy to implement solution:

when importing an obj to detail, the user should be given an option to treat all the creased normal edges in the model as subdiv crease edges.

since creased edges are currently not supported inside zbrush, this “creaseable” subdivision would only be availiable on import. To do this, it makes sense for the obj import to be extended to have some additional options, like levels of subdivision, crease-using-normal-informantion boolean, subdivsion edge hardness (100% is acceptable) etc.

whatdya say ofer? doable? any advanced users agree?

-bay raitt

Hi bay:)

I gather that your current workflow is a variation of the one bellow…

  1. Create low-res mesh and apply creasing-tags (or smoothing groups) in the other application.
  2. Export the mesh from the other application.
  3. Import the low-res mesh into ZBrush.
  4. Manually reapply creasing tags to the mesh.
  5. Subdivide the mesh multiple times in ZBrush.

The above workflow may be improved by executing the following steps…

  1. Create low-res mesh and apply creasing-tags (or smoothing groups) in the other application.
  2. Subdivide the mesh multiple times in he other application. (Since you are using the same application to apply creasing-tags and to subdivide the mesh, you are guaranteed to have a correctly-creased high (or mid) res mesh )
  3. Export the mid/high res mesh from the other application.
  4. import the mid/high res mesh into ZBrush.
  5. Use the “Tool:small_orange_diamond:Reconstruct Subdiv” and then switch subdiv-level to the newly reconstructed one. Repeat step 5 as needed.

If executed successfully, you will now have the low-res (reconstructed) mesh as well as the correctly-creased high-res mesh without having to manually reapply edge-creasing tags in ZBrush.

Hope this helps,
-Pixolator

Resize of ZBrush Document.jpg

Perfect. you’re a clever fellow as usual. thanks ofer.

-bay

Resize of skull_nazi002.jpg

thanks again ofer.

-b

uhmmmm! :slight_smile: very good Harryhousen inspiration on this one Bay.I love it!

skull_nazi_lo.jpg

thanks!

skull_nazi007_lo.jpg

played with the applink to slap some rough textures on my test model.

:eek: WOW thats Awsome!!!

Lovely tip for future reference.

skull_nazi006_lo.jpg

next up, baking the ambient occlusion into the map (another app) and then combining it with the zbrush cavity pass. Thanks ofer!

-b

Awesome skull spiraloid.

Very cool scary model, cant wait to see it on its motorcycle riding along an highway…hmm…or not…but still very cool scary model. :smiley:

Very cool character !

I like the last picture (I prefer the render on the right I d’on’t really like the close up on the left)

Keep up the good work !:+1:

Gopher

yeah its funny how working with an ortho camera means it always looks better in the ortho render. hopefull we get pespective zbrushing in windows soon. :wink:

-b

Yes, maybe even by next weekend…or not…:smiley:

Hi Bay,

I´m sure you don´t need clothsimulation to knock out a
nicely folded cloth but since you are doing alot of belt and
buckles, clothsculpting and such, how about trying that trick
on highly subdivided (quad) clothmeshes?

E.g. solving a cloth using a somewhat interactive syflex solve,
importing a highrezmesh into Zbrush and reconstructing the
subdivision? Could be a great start as well?

Cheers

tim

P.S: I´m playing around with this currently, that´s why I butt in.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showpost.php?p=271207&postcount=30

Never understand why people don’t like modelling in the ortho-view !
It’s the only way to get your proportions right !..right ?
A proportional-model -technical or organic - is measured by its relation of the components-arms and legs or pistons and rods- and these spatial relations are best depicted in ortho-view !..a model that looks good modelled in perspective with a 28 wide-angle lens looks just as funny if you see the model
with a, lets say ,45 lens ! …and you can’t have perspective without a camera/eye of a certain size !

jantim

Tim, like your cloth example. I’m moving onto clothing next. I’ll show it when I get something.

Jantim as for ortho. we see in perspective. even the most beutifull person looks weird in ortho. if you were trying to sculpt her by eye, not by measurement, then you’de be “flying blind” so to speak if you sculpted only in ortho. I’m definitely not a paint by numbers kinda guy.

Hi Bay,

here´s a 160kB *.obj samplefile, the solved clothpiece for the arm,
I tried the reconstruction in Zbrush, allows stepping back one
subdivision but isn´t perfect. Had insufficient memory warnings
thrown and also crashes. I guess it´s because I didn´t use an
evenly laid out quad to create the cloth from but subdivided
a somewhat messy mesh to start the clothsolve with…
http://www.hafenlola.com/downloads/Leydecker_highrezclotharm.zip

I guess Pixolators workflow will produce better results if you
start with a regular quadmesh, maybe even do the subdivisions
in ZBrush, export, solve on that and then later swap out the
highersubdivisionsteps (affected through the solve) instead of
trying to reconstruct?

Cheers

tim

P.S: I´ll mirror this post in my thread and´ll add a link to your
previous posts with Pixolator, for the great info provided.

We see in perspective, true…but the best portrait-photo’s are made with a tele-lens to eliminate most of the perspective distortion… and great looking nazi-skull you made, and it’s a bonus that Ofer reacted in this thread …i must be a good thing for us ZBrushers ,waiting for a certain update, if he has more free time :wink:

jantim