ZSphere Xres,Yres,Zres tutorial (sort of)

[Bonecradle]

The X,Y,Zres sliders have been a part of ZBrush I have never payed much attention to, but I finally got around to checking them out.

These sliders can be found in the Transform palette, although as they affect only adaptive skining I wonder if they might be better put in the Tools>Inventory palette.

The Xres, Yyres and Zres sliders control the resolution of zspheres, specifically those that are adaptive skinned. A full explanation of them can be found in the manual in the Transform palette section. In addition to that, if you use Digits Widget (found in the quicklinks) for making zsphere models, this enables you to change the resolution of the selected zsphere in any axis even after it has been drawn.

To get a better understanding of what they do I put together a simple zsphere tool and played with the various combinations; the results are shown in the picture below. The numbers refer to the values entered for the Xres,Yres,Zres sliders in that order and were applied only to the top zsphere. What they effectively do is make it possible to increase the number of edge loops in a particular direction.

When all sliders are increased to the same amount this replicates what the Ires slider in the Tools>Inventory menu does, except that the Ires slider applies the change to all zspheres in a model that have over a certain number of other zspheres attached to them. Using the X,Y,Z sliders you can apply changes selectively to single zspheres.



The thing that spurred me into looking at zsphere resolution was being unhappy at the way I have been doing hands.

My usual style of hand is shown in the picture below. The problem with it is that the edge loop that runs around the base of the fingers also joins the thumb, which makes it really hard and a long job to push vertices into the right place.

I figured that if I could increase the resolution of the 'palm' zsphere where the fingers joined it I would be able to add more zspheres to that side without making a messy mesh and to 'separate' the thumb from the fingers.

After experimenting I found the optimal resolution for the hand I was working on was 0,5,8 (EDIT CORRECTION: I think the resolution was in fact 0,7,5 - damn my memory
). It may look counterintuitive, but no tweaking was done to the mesh before the first skin. It gave nice edge loops, with plenty running from the wrist to the fingers so that details like tendons could be put in. It looks rubbish from the side though, but a quick flattening and smooth fixed that in much less time than it would take to push vertices around.

Here's the hand tool (XYZ res_ZSphere hand.zip) if you want to have a play. If you want to pose it, you'll probably need to add more zspheres in the fingers to help define the knuckles.

I think these sliders could be a really powerful tool when making zsphere models and is certainly something that I have been underutilising. It was great to learn something new too

[andreseloy]

Wow Bonecradle¡¡ I like to thank very much for this tutorial...i think have very important consecuences in detailed modeling¡¡ I will read your tut carefully and make some exercise with it¡¡
For the moment thanks for take your time to help us...as is usually for you.
Congratulations

[kokoro]

thank you bonecradle. i also was ever too lazy to find really out what these are. just used them all togehter. your tut is very clearly showing the advantage of using them single. thank for enlighten me.

[Deadman Walking]

Good on you Bonecradle for this tute.
In the early days of ZBrushcentral many things were discussed and many tutorials were given, it is good to see the newer members searching through the old posts etc. Digits offered many wonderful scripts and techniques and too my mind he should be entered into the Halls Of Fame. Way back when Zbrush was in its infancy Ver0.98 (if memory serves me well.....3 to 4 years ago)there was no ZBrush central only a pack of die hards who believed in the programme....some Like Digits, Zoid, Karisu (sp) Kruzer, CDEdwards(sp?) Gurgler aka Ed The Atom The Saint etc. Help was each other with occasional input from Pix. I have missed out others like Nemo(?sp) Robotalk, Kathy, Winged One and others inside the first 59 members and before then with Karisu's site. We struggled with experimentation, we helped each other, we perservered in our belief that ZBrush was the best ever Application that could ever exist...it was what we bought our computers for, it was the ultimate. I still believe this. Without Pix and his brilliant stubborn ideas, without all the original believers and all their early work, all the newcomers would still be struggling today. What dismays me though is that through all the early works of these people there is little thanks or recognition for their works in the Quicklinks, or recognition as a whole.
However with all the early work done, and the later works I see the same old technical mistakes, the same old unpractised artwork appearing time and time, the same old questions etc. The old timers gave their time and art experience....newcomers now post artwork (while on the whole... not top notch, but leagues ahead of our early attempts, mainly because of techniques posted inside scripts). Nothing seems to change, well until I saw this post. Thankyou bonecradle for taking the time to look and experiment it means a lot. Forgive the writing skill I'm rather rushed at present.
EDITI have forgotten many, for me I think it was Version .95 purchased and left for a year...silly me. And yes the above diatribe is pretty rough....However I vote that Digits for all his early work and scripts, should get full honours and free upgrades for evermore. Go Digits
Its been a great journey.

[ashwan]

Bonecradle, you amaze me! You are so willing to share your knowledge and expertise. I find myself in awe at all the tireless efforts of you and so many other people taking the time to share your discoveries. Thank you soooo much! And did I say thank you?? Thanks a lot!

[Gwot]

Awesome work bonecradle! This is going to make a huge difference when using zspheres. I'm still new to all this, so thanks for the excellent research and sharing of knowledge.

[artboy21]

thanx for the tips! i too am new to zif's, this will really help! thanx agian for your time!

artboy

[Mentat7]

I was just in the process of putting together a few notes on this to post alongside the Mouseketeer Zif when I saw this post. Let me just add a note:

quote:

---

After experimenting I found the optimal resolution for the hand I was working on was 0,5,8 (EDIT CORRECTION: I think the resolution was in fact 0,5,7

---

I concur with Bonecradle on the 0,5,7 resolution. When adding spheres with resolutions that are set at even number values they tend to become asymmetrical. The odd resolution values will result in symmetrical placement. It must be a function of the vertices created when the mesh is generated. Symmetrical meshes must be created using odd number sphere resolutions (0,1,3,5,7). This is what I was dealing with when I created the Mouseketeer because the hand and head spheres were set at a higher resolution (I ultimately set it to 3). Strangely you can not make the root sphere in any other resolution other than zero. I am not sure if there is a reason for this but it would be beneficial if it could be increased in resolution from the outset. Anyway here is a picture illustrating what I am talking about:




I don't mean to co-op your thread Bonecradle but let me add just one more tidbit. You can build your Zifs a specific way keeping in mind that you are going to use Deformations either on them or the mesh. For example you can build the hand with skinny zifs then apply the INFLATE deformation on it in PREVIEW mode. You can get a lot of control over the Zifs by interactively using Deformations on both the raw Zifs as well as their Previewd Mesh. I am putting together some info on this along with a tutorial so I will go further into detail on Zif manipulation at that time. Here is an example of what I am talking about:


MC refers to Membrane Curvature

If I am not mistaken Gwot used something similar to this in the construction of his Ogre Magi.

[juandel]

a very illustrative, didactic and great way to present very very cool insights, bonecradle - and further findings, Mentat and so on! most welcome! i also agree with DMW about the should be hall of fame status of Digits, of course but hey, it was ku+ri+su

- juandel

[Bonecradle]

Thanks for your comments everyone - it's great to hear this may be of use to you

And thanks to the Ancients who conceived and scattered the pearls about for swine like me to happen upon

Mentat: thanks for your additions. This is about knowledge and learning, not ego, so, although mine can be petty and mewling at times, add away . Besides, I have always found discussions to be much more productive than monologues.

You also clarified something I forgot to mention, i.e. that I flattened and smoothed my hand in preview. If it weren't for the ability to do this it would be unposable and next to useless.

I think the reason it isn't normally possible to set the res for the root sphere is due to a procedural issue, rather than an inherent limitation in the root sphere itself; i.e. to change the resolution normally you have to set the sliders before you draw the sphere, but the sliders aren't active until you are in edit mode, which isn't available until you have drawn the first sphere.

Using Digits wonderful Widget, however, you can change the resolution of spheres, including the root sphere, after they have been drawn. If anyone out there hasn't tried this widget, get your hands on it today and revolutionise the way you deal with zspheres.

[PusGhetty]

Bonecradle,
Thanks for the doing this research... I was unaware that you could use different values on each axis. I thought they all had to be the same res. value. Anyways, I appreciate this because it really adds alot of power to the technique that I always use.
my hand technique
Inspiring!!
Great job,
Michael

[rbaumhauer]

Hmmm, I've downloaded Digit's ZSphere Widget, but my first cursory examination failed to reveal how you adjust Zif resolution after creation. If anybody could give a quick example, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance - it seems like there's some new amazing thing that ZB is capable of discovered every day, even with the next version imminent.

[Bonecradle]

Hi

This is lifted from Digits documentation on his own site. The quicklinks should have directed you to the thread in which Digits posted the widget. That thread also includes the link to the documentation, which also explains about the other widget functions. I'd put it here but I have the info downloaded to disk and don't have the link handy.

For the currently selected zsphere:

"Adjust
XYZNode and Xr/Yr/Zr - Set XYZ Node resolution together or individually - Slider = 0 to 8 then press "NodeRes"

XYZRES- Set XYZ Resolution together and press "NodeRes" slider = 0 to 4096 (not sure why this is different than the other controls)"


Hey Pusghetty, thanks for the zscript - always handy to see another's style. Looks like I re-invented the wheel, albeit with a few less spokes

[Digits]

Some great research Bonecradle, I am glad you are finding my Widget useful.

rbaumhauer, here is a link to the documentation

Zif-Widget Docs

One tip I might mention is that you do not select a node by clicking on it with the mouse using this script. You place your mouse over the desired node and then press 's', you can select additional nodes to group by then using 'shift'+'s'

Deadman, nice to be remembered! Thanks! You forgot that ole rascal Upham from the past who compiled all those zbrush threads into some incredible useful PDF's.

[rbaumhauer]

Thanks guys - the link in the Quicklinks did take me to the thread, but I may not have dug far enough in to get the latest version. There is a link to a "new version" in the first post in the topic, but it turns out that version is only v2.8, which didn't have the resolution functions. Probably explains why I couldn't figure out how to use them