ZBrushCentral

Shrinking mesh when exporting from zBrush

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi all
I posted this in the old questions and troubleshooting forum, but hopefully I will get luckier in this forum :slight_smile:

I have this issue for quite a while and I haven’t figured out how to solve it.


  1. I export as an obj a simple sphere from Maya. Scale is 1, xyz are 0.
  2. Import it in zBrush. No point of storing morph target as I intend to use it as a blendShape back in Maya
  3. Divide it few times, push some geometry around.
  4. Go back to sDiv 1 and export the result. My export scale is 1, xyz offsets are 0.

When I import it back in Maya, I discover my whole sphere has been shrunk. Not to much, only by an annoying tiny bit.
This is the sphere playblast http://balaurian.ro/tmp/sphere.gif

Does anyone know how to solve this issue? Am I doing something wrong? It’s extremely annoying when one has to do blendshapes. Or when you do modeling and have to go back and forth Maya/zBrush.

Should I just work on the first subdivision level, without further subdivide the mesh?

Thanks!

#2

is there a reason you’re not using goZ to transfer to and from maya?

#3

The reason the mesh is smaller is you subdivided the mesh. Smoothing will always tend to make the mesh smaller. You need to turn off the Tool>Geometry>Smt button before subdividing.

#4

Thank you both for replying.

beta_channel, I get the same result with goZ. Am I doing something wrong?

marcus_civis, yes, I was thinking that subdividing was the reason the mesh got smaller. But shouldn’t zBrush subDiv work similiar to poySmoothFace in Maya? It’s not the same idea? Yet, zBrush is shrinking the mesh. If I keep on switching the same sphere between Maya and zBrush, I’d end up with a tiny piece of geometry. :slight_smile:
I know the Smt button. But I need my geometry smooth in higher sDivs levels, especially when I deal with characters.

I just don’t understand why I can’t keep unaltered the parts I did not sculpt.

#5

Well, it wouldn’t keep getting smaller, unless you kept undoing and re-subdividing. :slight_smile: There is a way round it, by using the cage function, but as it is several steps it it easiest to make a macro that does the job with a single button press. I have posted one here:

Proportional Subdivision macro

#6

Sweet! Seems to solve the issue!
Thanks a lot!
:+1: