Hey!
I have a problem that I can’t seem to dodge, rather than having to redo it, I was hoping to find a solution in how to solve it or prevent it from happening in the future.
The issue is that Zbrush seems to dislike my Zspheres and crashes whenever I try to preview or make it an adaptive skin mesh.
I couldn’t upload the file to the forum, I am assuming it is because I am new here.
download link for the .ztl above.
Thanks for any help I can get! 
Best regards!
//Morgan
I think that you’d buried some of the zspheres and that was what was causing the problem. I’ve adjusted them a little and this version should preview OK. It’s zipped so that it can be uploaded to ZBC - download to your Desktop, then double-click it to unzip it.
When creating a model with zspheres try to make sure you don’t bury zspheres. You don’t need to create the exact shape you need, just get a good start for sculpting. If you want to create something which more form the create a quick zsphere ‘skeleton’ then use ZSketch to build on that.
http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/modeling-basics/creating-meshes/zsketch/
DragenConcept_02rev.zip (10 KB)
I swear I looked all over for rogue Zspheres :o Did you use any specific methods to find the faulty Zspheres?
Thanks a lot for the help!
Best regards
//Morgan
No, I just moved them about a bit. But you really need to avoid scaling zspheres so that they hide the zsphere they are attached to. ZBrush tries to link all the zspheres when skinning, essentially in the same way as you would link boxes in box modelling, so if there are zspheres buried inside (so you can’t see them) it’s going to cause problems.
Turning on Classic Skinning actually worked for your model. But classic skinning doesn’t produce as clean topology.
how do i know if it has buried zspheres? can I get any help, please? thanks! I uploaded the file on a zip
pulpybianco.ZTL.zip (20.1 KB)
One thing you can do is to set the Tool>Display Properties>Size slider to a lower value. This reduces the width of the zsphere chains and it can make it easier to see the arrangement. You can then reset it before previewing the mesh.
In the attached image you can see a portion that is displayed with transparent hatching. This is an indication of where ZBrush may have difficulties creating a good mesh. This bit on your model is actually where the zspheres cross over each other.
I haven’t posted a revision of your model because I couldn’t stop it crashing on preview (*though see below). I think the reason is that there are a lot of zsphere chains [the tentacles] all joined to a single zsphere at the front of of your creature and this is causing problems. It’s better to (for example) group three zspheres quite closely with two tentacles attached to each.
*However, if you turn on Tool>Adaptive Skin>Use Classic Skinning your model with preview OK. The two methods of skinning work in different ways. Classic skinning will increase the resolution of parts of the mesh in order to cope with the arrangement. This doesn’t always give good results for sculpting. The default skinning attempts to create a good mesh for sculpting, so that the topology is even, but this can cause problems with more complicated zsphere models.
i would guess after making the mesh by using Classic Skinning though, one could use dynamesh or zremesh to fix the topology .
wouldn’t that produce decent results?
it’s almost like with those two tools and decimation master you don’t have to worry about topology anymore:)
That’s true, that should produce good results, though you will have to experiment with various settings to get the results you want. However, I think also you will find that zspheres are very good for when you want to create a base mesh for sculpting, provided you are aware of the best working method.
thank you very much I will do as you recommended :], I really want to save it, and if possible not to do it again since it was long hours of work, since I’m new at this, I appreciate your help!
No problem. Let me know if you need further help.