Hi guys,
Im new at zbrush, have sculpted a basic human body and wish to add a belt around the waist… am facing major problems trying to get a clean natural result.
I wonder what is the best work flow?
Mesh extraction gives me unatural results while masking and adding clay gives me horrible uncrisp edges.
How do I get a simple belt with nice clean cut edges?
Thank you once again…
Retopology would be your best bet for a nice, clean mesh.
Now, just click and make topology where you want the belt. Use ‘A’ key to preview your new topology. When your satisfied, go to ‘Adaptive Skin’ submenu and click ‘Make Adaptive Skin’ which will put the new skin in your Tool palette. Click on ‘Append’ in Subtool palette and add the belt to your mesh.
Hi there 
I don’t know about zber2 idea, but it sounds really good.
But I like to use other 3D soft in my workflow to get Low Poly objects on my characters, then sculpt it in Zbrush.
If you wanna do a belt, you can simply use another 3D software like 3DS or Maya to create a belt from a plane.
You extrude the edge multiple times to give it the shape, length and width you want, and put it manually all around the waist.
(In order to do that, just export the LowPoly of your character and import it to your 3D Soft.)
Then you just extrude the whole mesh to give it thickness and here you go with a nice clean belt
The good thing is, you’ll have the belt already in place when you’ll import it back into ZBrush 
Cheers
Thanks guys, for the great advice. Will try them out first thing tomorrow morning and see if it works!
Thanks zber2… Retopology worked liked a dream. Ive done up a belt and headband effortlessly.
However, now I have a new problem.
I tried to use the same method to create pads on the sides of the face on either cheeks… But I can’t seem to. Does your method only work for objects that close in the centre?
How may I get around this?
I need to create shoulder pads as well.
when i draw the shape of the cheek pads and press a to preview the mesh, nothing shows up — i think its because the shape does not close in the centre — anyway to get around this?
I just tried it and I see what you mean. It looks like there is a “display” bug with retopolgy and when you preview the skin, it only shows it on one side. It is, however, making the skin properly on both sides. If you press ‘A’ key and put your cursor over the ZSphere in the Subtool list, you will see both sides are there (See image below). When you click ‘Make Adaptive Skin’, it does make the skin properly. Good thing it is a display bug only. I will post this in 4R3 Troubleshooting thread also. It doesn’t have anything to do with it being joined in the centre. If your using symmetry, it doesn’t have to be joined in the middle.
After experimenting a bit more, I noticed it doesn’t do it all the time. Sometimes it works OK. If your Adaptive Skin Preview isn’t displaying properly, just check in the Subtool palette to see if the skin is indeed there by pressing ‘A’ key and holding your cursor on the ZSphere subtool.
edit: After experimenting even more, I can not for the life of me get it to do the same thing again. So far, it seems like it was only a one time thing.
edit 2:Well it’s back again. See my post here. Obviously, and sadly, Retopolgy is still screwed up.
If it gives you too much trouble, there is something else you can do. Don’t use Symmetry when you edit the Topology. Instead, do your part on one side, make it an adaptive skin and append the skin you just made. Select it in the SubTool palette then go to Geometry subpalette and click ‘Del Lower’ to delete the lower subdivision levels, or higher ones, whichever you want. Then, in SubTools, click ‘Duplicate’. Then go down to the ‘Deformation’ subpalette and click ‘Mirror’ button to mirror the duplicate over to the other side. Once you get the hang of it, it goes quick and easy too.
Sorry, I didn’t notice this post until now. You might have just not set the skin thickness in the Topology subpalette. If the skin thickness is 0.00, then you won’t see it unless you turn Transparency on (‘Transp’ button on right shelf).
Thanks man. Ive got it sorted out, able to create the cheek pads fine.
But Ive run into yet another problem - I can’t seem to get crisp, sharp edges off my object - I want it to be like armour.
After Ive retopologized and create the cheek pads, they always end up rounded, esp at higher subdivisions.
Appreciate your help once again!
Can you post an image (large size) of what your talking about?
