WIP- King Asterion

[slickytom]

Here's a wip of a model I'm working on. I'm bouncing back and forth between Max and Zbrush, correcting the edgeflow in Max, sculping away in zbrush. Because my base mesh toplogy is changing as I'm figuring out the edgeloops I'm not going crazy with the detail in zbrush . I just wanted a taste of what this zbrushed model will look like in the end. So far so good.

King_Asterion.jpg

[Beowulf]

Can I ask a possibly retarded question?

How are you correcting edgeflow in Max w/o loosing your sculpting history in ZB?

If I export division 1, and so much as turn an edge on my lowpoly in Max and reimport it, my vertex order changes, upward divisions and changes are lost, and I have to start over from division 1 with sculpting.


Mark

[slickytom]

Hi Beowulf. Yep, you are correct... I am loosing my sculpting history when I make changes to the base mesh in max. But the base level model from zbrush changes slightly ... and so I've been working with that. Not really an efficient work method since I lose all the work on the higher sudivisions in zbrush, but it's sorta helping me understand where to make cuts and edgeflows on the model in max.

[pixelsoul]

I don't know anything about max.. but if the base mesh can't be changed can\t you just store a morph target and when done restore it?

[Beowulf]

Slickytom- I see that you go a lot further than I'd probably work myself- thats a lot of work to lose! Normally, if I am testing mesh flow like that I'll just divide a few times, bring it in and look and make sure nothing is causing too many headaches.


pixelsoul- Not sure precisely what you mean, but you can pose meshes in Max- rotating, moving, scaling verts, but cannot modify the vert or poly count in any way before reimporting to division 1. If you do you experience the dreaded exploding mesh as the displacemants in ZB are based relative to vertice numbering. I think a morph target also relies on the vert count remaining constant. So it sounds like slicky is just starting from ground zero again if he has to change edge flow in Max.

This brings up a feature I think would really help Zbrushe's current workflow. That is the ability to re-arrange quad relationship with a spin edge tool ala Lightwave, allowing mesh modification w/o loosing upper displacement. That tool alone, along with the edge loop tool already in ZB, are about all I need to seriously rearrange the edge contours on a mesh.

Mark

[slickytom]

Yeah, I agree with you Mark. It is alot of work to lose, I'm refraining from detailing too much in zbrush since its a start over once I change the mesh again in max. But I knoticed having nice edgeloops makes all the difference in the world. The actuall time I spent sculpting in zbrush was 20mins compared to the 4-6hrs building it in max.

The next release of zbrush should change the way I model completely. By having the ability to re-draw your mesh on top of your sculpted model I see no point in going back and forth between modeling packages. Untill then ...its still just a learning process.