Greetings,
I’m trying to add wrinkles to this Modo mesh and first wondering if the mesh resolution needs more edge loops since the Standard and Damien Standard tools are not giving smooth indentations. I’ve increased the Geometry to level 4 and then 5, so any advice is appreciated, thanks
You may at some point want to increase mesh resolution further (sculpting in the millions of polygons is perfectly normal in zbrush) to do especially fine wrinkles and folds, but from what I can see in the pic you should be able to sculpt larger folds just fine at that res.
I think it’s just a problem with technique. You may want to watch some basic sculpting videos to see the basic sculpt/smooth workflow people tend to use. You may also not be making the best use of Lazy Mouse. Select the Standard Brush, and go to Stroke > Lazy Mouse > Lazy Radius, and increase that to 30 or so. That should give you a fairly long guide tether to draw out long, smooth strokes.
Thank you,
I’ve watched a few videos on sculpting wrinkles and will try adjusting the lazy Mouse. It looks like I just need to increase the level to 6 or 7, but gradually first building wrinkles in lower levels
Ok, the third pic does show a surface that could stand to be subdivided one or two more times. The polygons also look slightly elongated, though not too bad. For ideal results for sculpting and painting, you want evenly distributed polygons, as close to square shaped as possible.
The first 2 pics you posted show a “vest” garment that should be sufficiently subdivided for medium detail sculpting. The only thing Im seeing there is a bit of abrupt, un-confident stroke making, which could be addressed with Lazy Mouse.
Unless working for 3d print (which will not capture fine detail, anyway), the mesh doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth for sculpting, and some facets are to be expected. Thats the benefit of mutliple subdivision levels–it allows you to sculpt broad form at medium rez, that would be difficult to sculpt at high res. You only need the highest resolutions for fine detail sculpting, painting, creating normal/displacement maps, or rendering.
Thanks again,
I’ve tried learning ZB a few times and find it to have a steep learning curve, and dealing w/ importing meshes and making displacement /normal maps adds to it. I’ll try your suggestions, but what settings are best for displacement/normal maps- just use the defaults? I tried sculpting in Modo but found it limited compared to ZB, which almost offers too much. Thanks again for your help!
I work mostly for print these days, and can’t advise you on the best normal/displacement workflow for your third party renderer, other than to mention it varies with the programs being used. Every tool does things a little differently.
As far as sculpting, though, something that trips people up when coming from a traditional modeler to Zbrush, is that those programs tend to use a normal smoothing effect to make even low polycounts look smooth. But that comes with a performance overhead (as well as an inaccurate view of the surface) that would be crippling to the kinds of polycounts Zbrush works with, which dwarfs the polygon potential of most other programs while still performing well even on modest hardware. So Zbrush doesnt do this…everything is real polygons. When working at low or medium res, you should expect to see some faceting. If you subdivide further that faceting will go away, but it is often useful to work at low or medium resolution, rather than high, because it is easier to sculpt form at that res. Dense meshes are resistant to easy changes in form, and work best for fine detail.
As far as learning curve, that’s true of any complex, major software tool. I picked up Zbrush in about a month of dedicated, focused study. I struggled for months learning XSI. You can’t study something halfheartedly and expect the best results. You have to dive in and focus, and set daily learning goals. I promise if you do this, after a month or so you’ll be much more comfortable.
Just to illustrate what Im talking about. Loaded the demo soldier from lightbox, and easily sculpt long flowing strokes on his chest garment, even though it still appears faceted. Notice the long Lazy mouse tether (radius) I have set for my lazy mouse guide line, which aids in long, smooth flowing strokes. At high subd (millions of polygons) this faceting goes away, but it is still useful to do the sculpting at lower res, because the mesh is more responsive.
Thats why you keep multiple SubD levels, so you can work or accurately preview the model at whatever resolution best fits the situation.
Thanks again,
I’m fairly happy w/ these results but of course I have more to learn- I basically want to use ZB to embellish my Maya/Modo meshes for more realism and organic feel