I am extremely new to ZBrush - just started learning it a week ago and purchased my first license 2 days ago. I am struggling with a detailed organic model that originated in 3ds max that I applied a hi-poly dynamesh to. After frequent additions to the model via sculpting brushes, I use the Control + click + drag method to remesh but the thin strands of flowing liquid that are part of the model are becoming too spindle-y thin and will soon disappear if I continue to remesh with Control + click + drag. I wish I could find a method in ZBrush similar to the dynamic tessellation that is used for all of the brushes in Sculptris. For instance, I can increase or decrease poly resolution just by setting these parameters and using the smooth brush. It’s quite incredible - and easy to use.
Dynamic Tesselation requires triangles while ZBrush is based on quads. As a result, dynamic tesselation is unique to Sculptris.
You could start your model in Sculptris and once you have the basic shape blocked out you could then GoZ it into ZBrush. From there you could retopologize to convert it to quads before going on with your detail sculpting.
Thanks for your response. I’ve been searching for the information you have provided all over the place (web searches, limited tech phone support), have read many, many web pages and watched several tutorials and this is the first time I have gotten definitive info on why Sculptris can do it and ZBrush can’t. So once again thank you!
My model has some very intricate parts to it and I after I started to loose detail while remeshing it in Dynamesh I tried turning it into quads with Qremesher and lost even more detail (with hi-poly counts in both situations). Anyway I am now working with the model back in Sculptris which is sort of ironic since I thought ZBrush would be the answer to all my needs. The biggest problem of course is that I have tried to learn ZBrush within a period of 1 week and I know that isn’t enough time to get over the hump of learning any 3D program.
BTW, you mentioned “retopologize” and I have seen that word many times. Did I retopologize with the methods I’ve already used (Dynamesh & Qremesher) or are there other methods in ZBrush that I have not yet discovered?
Hello there,
If you’re losing detail with dynamesh, you could try increasing the resolution, lowering the blur setting, or turning on it’s project mode. Or splitting the mesh into pieces. Personally I try to establish the main shapes first so that I can turn dynamesh off as soon as I can, and then stick with standard subdivision for the rest of the detail. I think it’s more useful when it’s treated as a basemesh creation tool rather than trying to use it to preserve higher levels of detail across several remesh’ings.
QRemesher’s nature isn’t to preserve high resolution detail; it’s to create new topology that is controlled / influenced by the user (so instead of just remeshing like normal, you can use it to create more specific edgeloops). If detail is what you’re after with it, then you’re better off using it on a duplicate tool and then projecting the detail back once you have topology you’re happy with (http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Environmental_Sculpting_Project).
Dynamesh, QRemesh, and Remesh are all forms of retopology. You can also use the new Topology brush, search for ZSphere Retopology, or export/GoZ the mesh to an external program for retopology there (max/maya/xsi/blender/topogun/etc).
Thank you. This is very helpful. I still hope someday that the people at Pixologic will be able to figure out a way for ZBrush to have dynamic tessellation like Sculptris has even though ZB is quad based. It is an invaluable capability.