ZBrushCentral

Answered: Zremsher question (spirals instead of loops)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi ZBC! I hope you can answer this one for me. I am trying to get Zremesher to do what I want but with no luck so far. For example if I use the default adaptive size and curve strength settings I get a really good form of the original mesh but my edgeloops are not loops really but more like edge twists or hexes, whereas if I bring the adaptive and strength to zero I ger onle loop per row, but poor distribution and not as good original form. Is there a way around it? So far Zremesher doesn’t give me the animation ready asset but rather a bit advanced Qremesher and still I have to resort to an external retopology tool or do it in zbrush by hand (zspheres). I thought it was supposed to be revolutionary and a game changer, so can yomeone please help me find out how? :frowning:

Cheers
Dmitrij

#2

It has to do with the math behind ZRemesher. Apparently it’s extremely complex to get true loops rather than a spiral. Math can be funny sometimes! This will only affect long cylinders such as arms and legs. It also something we’ll be working to improve in future releases, provided that we’re able to maintain high quality and speed.

I’ve seen a user report success by the following:

  1. Make a copy of your model.
  2. Use a brush with tight parameters to carve a line where you want your edge loop to be.
  3. Use ZRemesher.
  4. Project the details from the original mesh to the new one.

The reason this works is that your “bracelet” is seen as a significant change in topology, requiring edge loops. So that area gets built first, with the desired loops.

#3

By the way, one way I just did that worked a treat was to (on the copy of the model) use a higher resolution DynaMesh and the CurveTube brush with a small draw size. Since dragging off the model while drawing your curve tells ZBrush to make the curve into a “bracelet”, I was able to very quickly add three such rings to a character’s arms. One ring was at the wrist, one at the elbow and the third close to the shoulder. Unmasking the model and doing a quick remesh gave me enough change in shape at those places to dictate true loops along the entire length of the arm.

#4

Good thinking. Hopefully, we’ll be able to mask areas to detect and preserve edge loops at some point. Or possibly it will just auto detect them at some point… baby steps I guess. Still… there’s a lot of cool stuff that keeps happening in ZB :slight_smile:

#5

Hello,

i tried the method with curve tube snap brush to make clear loops on the standard dynamesh-sphere (128) and with a dynamesh-resolution of 300. I tried different sizes of tubes but only occasionally I get really loops and not spirals, although I tried to make real round circles of tubes.
Is there any other method to reproducable get loops instead of spirals when zremeshing ?

mawag01

#6

Can someone make a video tutorial of it? Or an illustrated manual in small steps?

#7

This technique tends to give better results for me:
http://youtu.be/9HWIMtEtDwY?t=14m37s

Basically just slice the mesh up with the crease curve brush, and use the curve functions to frame the mesh based on creasing. It can still help to modify the mesh first (such as by smoothing out details which aren’t necessary for retopology), and adjust the curve strength and adaptive settings.

#8

sorry, wrong thread please delete this and the below…apologies for the mess up.

#9

That’s the very technique I use as well. Learned from the same video.

#10

Pssst, everyone else is using ZB4 R6 P2.