ZBrushCentral

Help with culpting individual parts of a mesh

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi There,

Here’s another newbie question. I want to sculpt one of my game models in Zbrush and I’d rather work on each part individually instead of bringing the entire model in. So I’ve exported the parts as OBJs but the problem is that they don’t match when I import them into Zbrush ( the head is smaller and the rotation would be off). Is there a way to do this, having different parts with their proportions being exactly as they are within Maya? I’d appreciate it if someone could tell me how they usually do it. Thanks!!

#2

Import your whole model and then press Tool>SubTool>GrpSplit. This will split each polygroup into a separate subtool so that you can work on them individually. All will remain scaled and positioned correctly relative to each other.

#3

Thanks Aurick. It worked!!

#4

Hi guys, I have just seen this thread and have a follow on question for this. I have recently discovered the same method for modelling but am a little unsure if I am doing it right.

If I try dividing my entire mesh my system eventually cant cope so I decided to break the mesh up in to polygroups. I then divided the surface of the sub objects and added detail to them individually, meaning my system could stay upright and stable.

What I want to do though is create a normal map for the individual items and then re-construct the normal map in photoshop. Hope this makes sense so far?

I am not sure how to create a normal map without subdividing the entire mesh. Is there any way that you can generate the normal map only for the portion of the model you are working on?

Apologies for my lack of knowledge on this and thanks in advance for any help :slight_smile:

#5

What you would need to do is UV map your model before bringing it into ZBrush. When you split it into the multiple sections, each will have a portion of the UV mapping. So you would be able to later combine the maps in Photoshop. You’ll probably need to be wary of seams, though. I recommend making sure that the group joins are in places where a seam wouldn’t matter.

#6

Hey Aurick, thanks for your reply.

I have already made the UV map in 3DS Max with no overlaps but I cannot create the Normal Map in Zbrush. I can make it if I subdivide the whole mesh but if I hide certain polygroups and sub-divide those parts I then cannot make the Normal etc.

Workflow example: Import obj file, sub-divide the whole mesh, add detail at highest level, drop back to lower level and create normal.

^^^ Like I said, this above method works fine if I divide the whole model but if I apply this method to individual parts it doesn’t generate it.

Thanks again for your help