ZBrushCentral

Area 51 Alien

Here is a new character I am playing with. He’s coming along ok but I don’t understand why the polys in the head are so big and choppy. I created the character with a large head from the start, thinking the polys would spread evenly throughout. I definitely didn’t expect the head to look like this. Everything else is looking smooth however. I did not enlarge the head after sculpting and subdividing. It was done in the zsphere stage. Any ideas??

hi sub.jpg

Attachments

med sub.jpg

low sub.jpg

z-sphere.jpg

So I guess nobody knows. Oh well, I was hoping for a resolution as I have researched it, but can’t come up with an answer…I had hoped providing the pictures would help spark an answer…guess I’ll just Photoshop the bad stuff out of the final (ugh)

Bigger Zsphere = Bigger polygons :wink:

In the transform palette just increase the values in the x,y,z-res sliders to your needs.

Cool alien you got there:) :+1:

Forgive me but I don’t see any x,y,z resolution sliders in the TRANSFORM pallette. I see x,y,z SYMMETRY buttons, x,y,z INFO sliders and x,y,z MODIFIERS.

Hey.
You could also try “Remesh / Remesh all” under the Subtool palette.
Then you get evenly spread polygons - however you pretty much lose your edgeloops. Even though the edgeloops generated by ZSpheres are not always perfect, they are a whole lot better than having no edgeloops.
They especially come in handy for toposelections…however, since Zbrush4 the lasso and rectangular masking and selection tools are influenced by symmetry as well, so… topomasking isn’t essential anymore to get a symmetrical selection.

Also, you can always do a Retopo to get the mesh just like you need and want it. :wink:

Good luck!

Concerning the those settings - I don’t think you don’t find em in the transform palette - but I probably don’t know that feature myself either.
When a ZSphere is your active subtool, there’s additional palettes on the right side. Similar sliders can be found under “adaptive skin”, I believe.
Then again I think you had more control using Classic Skinning - in fact you might have to activate that again to get those options. Not sure.
Classic Skinning is a lot harder >: More control, but if you’ve no idea what you’re doing, the results are merely mocking you. (at least that’s how I often felt ^^; )

@ MaxLenneper

I tried the Remesh, but it looks weird and I lost detail, even after playing with the resolution and polish sliders.

I usually just create a Polymesh3D after my ztool is in a happy place. So you are saying that I might want to try adjusting the G Radial sliderto get more geometry in the head? By doing that it will add more to the body too so I guess I can’t go too far with it.

@ Santis

Glad you like the little bugger…I’ll like him better after I fix his polys :smiley:

About the detail, you can also “project all”.
That should preserve most detail, but it means a lot of playing around with the damn projection distance sliders to get a satisfying result - and even then it still needs cleaning up. (Morph target recommended)
About not being able to go too far with the resolution, it sounds like there’s really no way around a retopology for you, then.
It’s tedious but it’s the only way to really get the mesh exactly like you want it, with resolution where you need it without wasting it on areas that don’t need to support a lot of detail or deformation.
Of course you could also try a partial subdivision, but that will create really ugly seams and trigons at the borders of your selection…

I’m still a beginner, so I don’t know much yet. However this is a great place to learn by observing and joining discussions :smiley:
So, pardon me if I’m telling you stuff you already know.

MaxLenneper

Nah, we should always keep learning and sometimes relearning. Once you think you know it all, it’s time to wrap it up.

Well, they are there, you just have to look a little closer :wink:

[attach=230020]xyzres.jpg[/attach]

But this has to be done before you make the adaptive skin, so for this project you’ll probably have to go with a local subdivision…

Attachments

xyzres.jpg

Very interesting Santis. Did you hide part of the model, then adjust the sliders, to give it two different poly counts? Never saw this before.

Curious!
But you can only modify those when you’re using classic skinning, right?
It seems to enable those you need to have a ZSphere selected, classic skinning enabled and be in Edit and Draw mode. Only way I can modify em.
Personally I’d probably rather to a quick and dirty retopo than dive into the tedium of Classic Skinning again…

Santis, I opened up my alien ztool to try this out but my sliders are grayed out. your thoughts???

No, you just change the values before you draw the zsphere you want to be affected.
And the best part is that no tris are created in the process, very clean :+1:

[attach=230022]xyztopology.jpg[/attach]

Attachments

xyztopology.jpg

You have to use classic skinning to enable the sliders, so you will probably have to play around with the Mp, Mc, Mbr etc…
Also adding a few new spheres on longer chains to get the amount of loops (that you got for free with the new skinning method).

Thanks, I’ll have to play around a little…

Restart zbrush, draw your zsphere armature on the canvas, under Adaptive skin in the tool palette enable: “Use Classic skinning”.
Now, in the transform palette the sliders should be fully functional.

Okay I got it now…so what exactly are the drawbacks to classic skinning?

You always come to my rescue, thanks…BTW where do you get your cape dry-cleaned???

No problems :slight_smile:

Well, the skinning isn’t as evenly spread out over the model by default, so you have to play around with the Mbr slider and the Mp and Mc. And the topology isn’t evenly spaced over the model either, its based on how many underlying zspheres you have. So on longer chains add a couple of zspheres to get more loops, and a more even topology.

Are we talking dry cleaning now !? :confused: :lol: