ZBrushCentral

Is there a way to create Polygroups in Wings 3d?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m have encountered an unsolvable Zbrush polygroup issue. It would take way too long to explain why there’s no Zway to do it.

Wings lets you select individual polygons. If I can use Wings to select a group of polys and then polygroup those selected polys into polygroups, so when I export it as an .obj- It comes into Zbrush with that polygroup information.

My problem would be solved.

I’ve spent over a week trying to do something like this with my mesh in zbrush using every trick I know and it’s not working.

So is it possible and if so how do you do it? I’m not very familiar with Wings yet.
I really wish a simple select poly one by one into a group/ convert selected group into a polygrouped mesh feature existed in zbrush. I need this feature desperately

#2

I’m not familiar with Wings but for the benefit of others trying to do this (and in case you haven’t tried this method):

Selecting individual polys is pretty easy in ZBrush using the lasso. Obviously you need to be zoomed in close. The method I use is:

  1. Switch on Polyframe (Shift + F) so you can see the polys. Hide all but the general area you want to work on using Shift+Ctrl+lasso.
  2. Scale the model so you can work on individual polys.
  3. Remove the polys you don’t want by Shift+Ctrl+lasso+release Shift (the area turns red). This will hide the poly you selected. Note that you only need to select a single point to hide the whole poly.
  4. Press Tool>Polygroups>Group Visible.

[attach=205213]Hidden_polys.jpg[/attach]

Notes:

  • Grouping Visible early on can help if you are working on something complex. You can then easily reselect the area you were working on.
  • The options in the Tool>Visibility submenu can be very useful - Grow, Shrink and Outer Ring.
  • Switch on Tool>Display Properties>Double so that your mesh doesn’t disappear when rotating (and you don’t miss polys that have their backface towards you).

HTH,

Attachments

Hidden_polys.jpg

#3

You might try to assign a material in Wings and then in Zbrush-Preferences
Import/Export set ImportMat as Groups. That’s how I do this from Silo as Silo-Face-Groups can’t be properly read by Zbrush.

#4

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll have to try that in wings. Marcus I’ve learned so much from you and I really enjoy your plugins. This new Z4 lightbox better be the shiznit, because your imageplane when it worked with polypaint, was absolutely beautiful. I miss it’s full functionality so much.

I found a strange walk around shortly after posting this. It only solves my issue for this project. It wont work for the others I intend to do later on. One thing I tried to do- was to paint the separate polygroups created from the skinned morph difference trick you showed me Marcus. Clone that object, and then reproject the color info into the new retopo’d mesh, Hoping that color info would go into the new mesh correctly, so it could be converted into a nice clean PG mesh.

It didn’t work well. I plan to morph difference all of my head bust sculpts from now on to make them into skins. So when I seek out rapid proto copies. I will save money on material costs. Since it’s printing out a skinned part vs a completely solid object.

I am working on a Vader sculpt for a friend. We’ve been trying to tackle the teeth issue. I figured if I could include them from extruded polys at the base of the triangle mouth shape area. We could get the results we wanted. So long as they didn’t need to connect to the topology in the top area.

If I could polygroup those rooted teeth, I could hide them or the outer polys surrounding them to work on them without affecting the other parts of the model. This way I could drag them up into place and tack them under the nose area and what not.

Problem was I already did a morph difference trick to the mesh to make a thickened skin, and I wanted to retain these original MD polygroups, but I had to edit the topology in the lower area of the mouth to get my teeth- easy to do in wings 3d with the extrude feature, but once the models imported back into Zbrush. Those polygroups are lost- I want them back and then I want to add a new set for the teeth.

I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to explain it all and have it make absolute sense.

Honestly though. This is going to be a reoccurring issue for me if I don’t find an easier solve. When I do the morph difference trick to low topo human head base meshes. I’m going to want to remove some of the polygons from the inner core area of that mesh difference. Like the polys that make up the ears and the nose areas. Those extra polys are not needed for the inside at all. It limits the divide rate of the model. Now I’m rambling…

Thanks again.