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Detailing in Zbrush workflow

ZBrush Usage Questions
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#1

Hello everyone,

I’m a bit at loss in what is a good workflow in order to detail my hard surface model in zbrush.

What I planned was making the model in blender, unwrap then export a copy to zbrush for adding surface details , and a copy to substance for texturing to get the normal details from the finished hi details version from zbrush.

now my models have modifiers on them, namely subdivision modifiers that some of them completely transform my object from a cubic shape to cylindrical shapes. some of my models also are made using boolean ops which leaves unclean topology. when i imported the model to zbrush it was all kinds of mess.

and so, I had to remove most of my modifiers, I also had to triangulate them to import correctly into zbrush. but then dealing with triangulated meshes in zbrush is giving me problems, can’t directly subdivide the models because it gets messed up with all the tri faces, and the zremesher keep the mesh faceted since I exported without subdivision surface modifier.

in short, what is the best way to export a hard surface model from blender(or any 3d package for that matter) to zbrush and add details to them? taking into account modifiers and boolean objects.

thanks in advance.

#2

Hello @dARTillery

The optimal topology for sculpting high res detail or painting in ZBrush is evenly distributed quads, as close to square shaped as possible. Zbrush has tools to help you rapidly change a mesh’s topology to enable better performance. Dynamesh can rapidly resurface stretched polygons to make them adequate for sculpting, and ZRemsher can create better quality low poly topology to use as base level topology in a multiple subdivision level process.

It would be best to have your major form established before starting fine detail work, or it will complicate your process. So your model should be basically completed before exporting for fine detail or texture work. In addition, for best results in Zbrush for fine detail sculpting, painting, UV unwrapping, Texture creation, or posing, in many workflows you want to be working towards a mesh with a clean, low poly base and multiple subdivision levels. So plan on ending up at that point in your process when you’re ready to do that kind of work.

If you have specific questions for how this relates to Blender, these questions should be directed towards other Blender users. You’re likely to get only very general advice here.

#3

Thank you for your answer.