Hi Guys,
My attempt to lower the resolution of the mesh fails because of triangles (see screenshot). I tried MergeTris button inside modify topology but that doesn’t help.
Can you help me?
Hi @Mirko!
This means that ZBrush cannot reconstruct any further subdivision level, because the geometry cannot be cleanly divided by 4.
To reduce polycount further on that mesh you will have to remesh it, either with ZRemesher or other. Once you have a new low poly topology your’e happy with , you can subdivide it as necessary, and project the detail from the original onto it, resulting in a new tool with a low poly base and multiple levels of subdivision.
1 Like
To clarify, you can only Reconstruct Subdivision levels if the geometry you currently have was constructed through subdivision in the first place (or at least could have been in theory). The presence of triangles means that this isn’t the case, as the nature of subdivision would have turned them into 3 quads each the very first time it was subdivided.
Merging the triangles into quads will very likely not work, as high chances are it will just leave you with an all-quad model whose topology still can not possibly be the product of subdivision. Basically its a specific operation that only works on specific cases.
Retopology will be needed to further reduce the mesh, and this can come in many forms depending on your needs. Zremesher is a good automatic solution if you wish to continue sculpting on the model. Manual retopology might be the way to go if you have specific needs such as animation. Or if you’re satisfied with the sculpt and are just looking for a way to lighten it up for export to another program (or perhaps printing) then Decimation Master would be a better route to take…
Thanks for the reply. I think I got trapped into exactly what you described. But I am not sure.
The ZRemesher worked fine in case of reducing the polygon count. As shown in the screenshot it seems also that there are no triangles anymore. But still I can not execute the Reconstruct Subdiv in Geometry. Now the message even does not report the reason.
So does that mean I have to be careful in using geometry tools since I could mess up the mesh without any chance to use this Reconstruct Subdiv anymore? Or is there another way? Maybe the answer is already in your reply but I just did not get it.
No, you won’t be able to reconstruct the subdivision level unless the current geometry was originally subdivided from a lower level of subdivision. It is not a reliable way to reduce polycount. Cyrid listed some alternatives above.
The re-meshed mesh becomes the new base subdivision level in an entirely new mesh with multiple subdivision levels, so aim for the polygon target you want at your lowest SubD level. This is the form you want your mesh in to do things like sculpt ultra fine detail, pose, or create textures/displacement for export. If just trying to get the polycounts down for export, see Cyrid’s post above.
Thanks for the hints. I will try a few things out. I have the feeling there are too many ways so I have to fiddle out what is the best.
Now for my point of view the mesh looks like it has enough polygons to sculpt. But now when I dynamesh it again some triangles appear and even worth the part of the mouth that I messed up by inflating and doing wired things now appears to be totally twisted.
This is a bit frustrating. Anyway. Thanks for your help. I guess I will have to read some more documentation. :-/
Now for my point of view the mesh looks like it has enough polygons to sculpt. But now when I dynamesh it again some triangles appear and even worth the part of the mouth that I messed up by inflating and doing wired things now appears to be totally twisted.
Personally, I would just recommend Zremeshing it with a low value/resolution to create your starting basemesh (SDiv 1) and then add new subdivision levels only when you’ve pushed the existing geometry as far as you can and absolutely need the extra geometry each subdivision level would provide. You’ll be able to step up and down subdivision levels this way too, with no need to reconstruct anything.
Dynamesh is not something I’d recommend using when you simply want to add more vertices for detail. Dynamesh is handy when you are first starting to sculpt something from complete scratch (such as turning a single sphere into a human body) and need to pull out large new forms such as the arms and legs (doing this would normally stretch the existing polygons of the sphere if you were to try and pull these forms out without dynameshing). But it works by automatically retopologizing the entire model, meaning it will completely destroy any existing subdivision levels and will give you a resulting topology that absolutely can not have been created through subdivision (meaning reconstruct subdivision won’t work either). It will also potentially fuse areas that are too close together (such as the lips, fingers and toes). If you’re not going to be pulling new large shapes out of the model then keep dynamesh turned off and stick with subdivision levels instead.
I think I got it. The thing that I am wondering is that I thought dynamesh means like throwing a new even mesh on my tool. But then why there are these triangles around the lips of the tool?
Another thing is how to fix the mess of polygons between the lips? I was thinking of using a trim brush or something for that. Or is there anything that you could recommend?
Regarding the triangles. The hint about the adaptive slider helped. Before it was something like adaptive 50 and then I had this mesh mess with all these triangles. Now it has become a nice quads mesh.
The occasional triangle that Dynamesh spits out shouldn’t be a problem. The screenshot you posted doesn’t look remotely typical of a dynamesh result however, it looks more like you were using Sculptris Pro mode or locally Tessimated the lips instead.
you might be right @Cryrid. It is always when I had the feeling now the lips are nearly perfect then I tried to polish it and it became totally messed up. It is like a Sisyphos work (you know that term?). What brush would you recommend for the bump and flat parts of the lips ? And how can I remove the polygons in between the lips?