Spotlight blurry even with millions of polygons

[system]

Hello, I am attempting to use spotlight on my character, however when I paint on the character it is blurrier than the actual image. My character has over 13 million polygons, so I do not think that I need to divide more. Is there something I am missing?

I did create a uv map in maya that I brought into brush with the character but it is at 2k. Could this be the issue?

Here is a image with the issue. Notice the first image has the spotlight brush with the hi res image, but after I project it is quite blurry (right image).

Thanks

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[beta_channel]

a 2k image will only support 4million points of information assuming you’re using 100% of your UV space.
and saying a mesh is 13million points doesn’t really matter either, as it is relative.
How dense if your chest? It appears to be much less dense than your neck, which is why it is blurry in those areas. Basically, export out your map…2k.

then try to add a super high level of detail, like the chest hair image you’re using on the 2D flat texture. You will probably get similar results (probably a bit sharper) inside of photo shop. You just don’t have the pixel density to support the level of texture detail you want.

hope that helps.

[Cryrid]

I’d try using projection master + zapplink with the texture applied so that you’ll be working more with the 2k texture resolution instead of the vertex/polypaint density.

[system]

a 2k image will only support 4million points of information assuming you’re using 100% of your UV space.
and saying a mesh is 13million points doesn’t really matter either, as it is relative.
How dense if your chest? It appears to be much less dense than your neck, which is why it is blurry in those areas. Basically, export out your map…2k.

then try to add a super high level of detail, like the chest hair image you’re using on the 2D flat texture. You will probably get similar results (probably a bit sharper) inside of photo shop. You just don’t have the pixel density to support the level of texture detail you want.

hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply. When I mapped my uv’s in maya I tried to make them proportional to the rest of the body, It is only slightly less dense in the chest area. I exported my texture and brought my 2k map into photoshop and simply pasted the projection image I am able to get very clear information in it, so there is room to add detail. (see images)

I also tried to make my uv map 4k instead of 2k, by going to tool>uv map and upping it to 4k, but this does not do anything either when I project. What is the procedure to creating a 4k uv map? I don’t know how to fix this problem in zbrush. Any suggestions?

I’m also finding zbrush has quite a few bugs, like spotlight will not hide the widget and images when I push z.

[system]

I’d try using projection master + zapplink with the texture applied so that you’ll be working more with the 2k texture resolution instead of the vertex/polypaint density.

I will give zap plink a shot, but is there no other way of projecting more detail on the model using spotlight? I rather just use spotlight if possible.

[Cryrid]

I also tried to make my uv map 4k instead of 2k, by going to tool>uv map and upping it to 4k, but this does not do anything either when I project. …, but is there no other way of projecting more detail on the model using spotlight?

The UV Map resolutions will change the size of a texture that zbrush bakes. So after upping the res, you’d have to create a new map (such as tool: texture map: new from polypaint).

Beyond the size of the map you wont see much of a difference however. I’m pretty sure spotlight is using polypaint (vertex colors). As a result it’s not going to care about your texture resolution (which is already more than ample for those hairs), only the density of the mesh will matter when painting. If you want to project color information that is that detailed onto the model using Spotlight/Polypaint, then the verts are going to need to be there in order to support it.

13 million may seem like a lot of verts (and it can be), but like Beta was saying, the number alone doesn’t mean much. It’s quite possible that the bulk of those verts are actually found in the face or hands or some other area, leaving the vertex density/distribution in that chest area more lacking compared to the level of detail that you want to project. So you may need to either subdivide the mesh yet again, consider a unified skin which would have the verts more evenly distributed, or look into methods other than polypainting for the rest of the texturing (an applied texture+projection master in zbrush, or painting the texture itself in an external program like photoshop). If this character is wearing any clothing, you could try splitting the body up into more subtools (the borders hidden by the clothing) in order to let you subdivide the specific area further.

[system]

Thanks everyone, I will give your recommendations a go.