hey everybody, I’m working on a game model in max and the normals seem to be fine. When I export into z-brush some of the geometry’s normals are flipping. Does anyone know what’s up.
Second question is this model is half motor, mechanical and the other half is very organic. I want to subdivide the models organic parts but not the motor part . Is this possible. If it is can I still add crazy detail to the motor parts if they are not subdivided .
I know this is alot but you guys are the best.
I don’t know why some normals would be flipping and some not, but you can turn on Tool>Display Properties>Double to see the flipped normals anyway.
To divide only part of your model, first hide the parts that you don’t want to divide. They will be ignored by the subdivision routine. However, if they are directly connected to the parts of the model that are being divided, you’re going to get triangles where the two different densities come together.
For your final question, you can’t sculpt details that are smaller than the polygons that they’re being sculpted into. That’s kind of like trying to get photographic quality out of a 128 color palette.
hey i really apreciate your help. I still can’t get a grasp on the idea of how to make awesome mechanical models in z-brush. When I subdivide my non organic stuff it gets messed up. An example of what I’m talking about is gears of war. My boss showed me some models after z-brush and I just don’t understand how they got all the hard edged detail.
One way to get hard edges is to paint something using the Transform palette’s Layer brush. You then use Pinch along the edges to sharpen them.
Another way is to hide all but the polygons that you want to have hard edges. Do this at level 1. Press Tool>Geometry>Crease. This prevents those edges from smoothing when the model is divided.
thanks again, your tips have really helped. I’m going to make sure we stay friends…LOL
hey I’m attaching what my model looks like so you can get an idea of what I want to do. I really liked the idea of hiding everything I want to remain hard edged. My problem is z-brush crashes everytime I subdived the unhidden. The other thing is I’m pretty sure I was experimenting with this idea a couple days ago and when I hit divide the geometry menu would freeze up on me. Basically not letting me go up and down the subd levels.
Depending on how system-intensive the operation is, ZBrush might have to compact memory in order to perform it. Basically, this is writing to virtual memory. During that time, ZBrush cannot interact with you because it’s too busy interacting with your computer. Check the status bar, just beneath the palettes list. If it shows a progress line, then ZBrush hasn’t locked up; it’s simply busy.
What are your system specs? How many polys does the model have? What are your Preferences>Mem settings?