ZBrushCentral

Getting a super clean high poly sculpt?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I see a lot of people take their models out of Max and into ZBrush to sculpt super super high fidelity detail into it, like a super fancy sword hilt or dragon on it or something. Like this hilt and handle from Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ew8lY

Or the Boledoras from this Artstation challenge submission: https://www.artstation.com/contests/feudal-japan/challenges/50/submissions/36601?sorting=survivors

Whenever I sculpt something in ZBrush, I get a lumpy look, even with the poly count at 30 million. I can’t get those super crisp details, those super nice creases and details down in there for fancy renders. I don’t have Keyshot or anything like that, but I’d still like to have really really crisp high poly meshes. Are there any good techniques for this? I mainly make things in Max, but I’d like to start mixing the two softwares.

#2

What I would do first if I create a base mesh in another 3D software then import it to ZB is subdivide it, polish it, subdivide it and polish it (deformation tab). Then I use Zremesher to have a low res subtool, subdivide it as needed and start working on it.

That would give me a very smooth clean subtool to work with, and if you want to maintain hard edges in the model, use crease or turn off smooth when subdividing it.

The downside of this step is that you’ll lose your UV map if any, but it is easy to fix by using UV master or exporting the low res model to Max, UV map it and then bring it back to ZB.