In that case, my approach to your situation would be thus:
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Import mesh into Zbrush. Duplicate as subtool in the same tool. Toggle visibility to avoid confusion, or use “solo” mode.
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Dynamesh duplicate subtool with projection active at the highest resolution you need to capture the form, yet allow for the desired level of fusion where the leaf petals touch. Turning the res up as high as possible will be time consuming in processing power, but it may be accurate enough to save you a bit of intermediate projection.
2.5) (optional) If the resulting dynamesh looks accurate enough, skip to step 3. Otherwise, you may need to do some projection from the original tool onto the new mesh, following the subtool projection method in the previous link. Now usually, when a mesh is already in the same ballpark as the previous mesh, the process is mostly trouble free. However, from experience I suspect projecting from the original tool might require some touch up because the geometry is so extreme in places, and because it may get a bit confused where the petals fused since they used to be separate geometry. It may require a bit of touch up where errors pop up, and fiddling with the projection settings. That’s why I recommend turning up the res as high as you can get away with on the dynamesh process, and hopefully get something accurate enough to project from.
- You should now have at least two subtools. The original mesh, and an accurate, high density remeshed version. Duplicate the remeshed version as yet another subtool. Now select the new duplicate, and run it through ZRemesher. (You may optionally want to Decimate it a bit first, to save Zremesher some effort in crunching all those polys, but if your system can handle it, you dont mind the processing time, and dont want to introduce another variable, it inst necessary). ZRemehser has settings you can tweak your output with, but the default settings should produce something adequate to your needs here.
4)You should now have a third subtool that is a low poly version of the fused petal mesh, with relatively clean quad topology, well suited for sculpting, polypainting, etc. Subdivide this new subtool as many times as necessary to hold the high res detail, and follow the steps in the subtool projection method in the previous link. I recommend you project from the high density fused petal dynamesh if it’s accurate enough, rather than the original mesh to avoid issues, but you can try with either one to see which gives better results.
- Sculpt as desired, decimate if necessary, and export.
Good luck!
