ZBrushCentral

More detail in a small area of the model, without subdividing the entire model at a time

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, I have a small (20% of the size of the whole model) area that I need to subdivide in order to emboss the pattern on it using alpha. Please tell me how I can do this by creating a subdivision only on the part of the model I need, so as not to add millions of polygons where they are not needed? By polygroups, by mask or otherwise? I have just started to study the program and I really need an answer to this question. Thanks in advance.

#2

Hello @Barrel

You have a number of options.

  1. Mask or hide the geometry you don’t want to affect, then subdivide at the base level of topology. This creates a partial subdivision.

  2. Enable Sculptris Pro mode for the active smoothing brush, then smooth the area of the mesh you want. The settings for Sculptris Pro and the brush size will determine the resolution. It may preserve the form of the mesh more to hold down Alt after beginning your smooth stroke. Likewise you can reduce the Z Intensity to zero to keep the form from melting, though this will preserve polygon faceting if performed on a low poly mesh.

  3. Use the “Use Polypaint” feature in ZRemesher to paint the desired polygon density by polypaint, then ZRemesh and subdivide as needed. The increased polygon density in that area will multiply many times when subdivided. This approach has the benefit of creating cleaner topology that won’t need additional cleanup at some point.

Note that most partial subdivisions may create sub-optimal topology that will need to be cleaned up at some point if you are working for a topology dependent output like UV unwrapping, texture creation, posing or painting. Partial subdivision tends to create triangles and ugly geometry at the border of the area that may produce visible artifacts when smoothed. An exception to this would be if you are merely working towards decimation for export, as you might for a 3D print output.

Good luck!

#3

Hi, I’m trying this technique to add geometry to a lowpoly mesh using smoothing and Sculptris Pro (in ZBrush 2022.0.5), but when I hit “shift” for smooth brush then the Sculptris button is greyed out?

I watched a video with Michael Pavlovich where he used this exact technique, but I can’t get it to work… are there any settings in Sculptris Pro (or smooth brush) that I’m missing?

Thanks!

/ Frederik