Hey all, wondering if someone could help me out. Im trying to find a way to connect and/or weld the verticies between two open ztools (namely a foot and the rest of the body) I have both tools subdivided to 6 levels and the verticies are lined up exactly and are of equal number. This would be a really simple operation in 3ds max but this isn’t an option for me as I need to retain the high frequency detail already sculpted. Im hoping this can be done in Zbrush. Thanks in advance.
You can try the Tool>SubTool>Merge Visible button. Make sure the ‘Weld’ option next to it is on and the subtools are both at the highest subdivision level. This will create a new tool in the tool palette. The welding will only work if all vertices at the join are duplicates - there’s no tolerance that can be set.
If that doesn’t work you could try this:
- Export the lowest subdivision level of both subtools as OBJs.
- Select the Polymesh3D (Star) tool in the tool palette.
- Import the body OBJ.
- In the Tool>Import menu turn on Mrg, Add and set the Weld slider to its maximum.
- Press Tool>Import>Import and select the foot OBJ.
- Append the new tool as a subtool to the original.
- Select the subtool and subdivide to level 6.
- With the other subtools visible and at their highest level, go to the Projection Shell slider at the bottom of the SubTool menu and adjust the slider until the mesh completely covers the other subtools. Press Tool>SubTool>Project All to transfer the hi res detail to your complete mesh.
Also, keep in mind that if you ‘Merge Visible’ your subtools, you will lose all your subdivision levels.
Not if they have the same number of subdivisions.
Originally posted by marcus_civis:
Not if they have the same number of subdivisions.
OK, then what am I missing? It has been my experience that if you Merge the subtools, regardless of whether they have the same subdivision levels or not, the resulting Merged tool has only one subdivision level. The Merged tool will retain whatever level the subtools was merged at and subsequently, you will no longer have the lower subdivision levels.
That’s not my experience. It does matter what subdivision level you are at - to retain all levels you should be at the highest level. Test it with the DemoSoldier - as I just did. Divide each subtool as necessary so that they all have 3 levels, then with all at level 3 do a merge. I get a combined mesh with three levels.
Thanks for testing that Marcus! This is what I get. If you could tell me what I’m doing wrong, I would appreciate it.
Well, my merged DemoSoldier has 185,202 points, so I’d guess you missed subdividing a subtool somewhere. (The kneeguards and wristbands look a bit thin to me.)
Thanks Marcus, your right! I missed those two items. DOH!
But, try this. Draw a sphere and make it a PM3D and append another sphere and subdivide both to level 3 then merge them and see if you still have 3 levels.
Sorry, I screwed up Trist’s thread, so if you want to delete everything from my first post down Marcus, it OK with me.
Yes, that doesn’t work. I imagine it’s because of the poles. The Sphere3D can behave a bit unpredictably.
Apologies Trist for going off a bit at a tangent. zber2, I’ll leave this as it is as others may find it useful.
Thanks, Marcus. I think the Merge Visible operation seems the most efficient. All of my points correspond to each other on both tools, im just having trouble aligning them. It seems almost impossible to get them lined up perfectly with transpose. Is there a better, more accurate way to do this?
This isn’t easy in ZBrush. Frankly, as you are new to ZBrush, I think you’d find it easier to export both low resolution meshes to Max and join them there, then reimport:
- Select the Polymesh3D (Star) tool and import your OBJ.
- Append the new tool as a subtool to the original.
- Select the subtool and subdivide to level 6.
- With the other subtools visible and at their highest level, go to the Projection Shell slider at the bottom of the SubTool menu and adjust the slider until the mesh completely covers the other subtools. Press Tool>SubTool>Project All to transfer the hi res detail to your complete mesh.
This will allow you to use the new topology and get back all your detail.
Thanks for making it simple Marcus. I understand the process now. Im just having some issues with artifacts now, webbing between the toes and a bit on the face (which is strange as the face is identical on both target and source tools). I have been playing with the Dist, Mean and PABlur a little but no real success. Perhaps I should alter the shape of the original source mesh to correspond better with the target? Just to clarify, I havnt actually made any high res detailing to the foot (yet), just needed to alter the topology and shape because it was rubbish. I suppose I could have mentioned this before, but I didnt think it would matter. Have also tried storing a morph target before hand and using the morph brush after projetion to clean up the artifacts with a little success. I just think the difference between the the two subtools may be too great to perform an accurate projection. Any thoughts?
It would actually be better to have the new, retopologized foot without the high detail of the orginal sculpt. Thats why the original question was about actually attatching the new foot to the ankle of the orginal tool. The detail resulting from subdividing the original foot is not any good and is of no use to me. If that makes sense.:lol: Thanks again for your help so far.
I may have solved the problem. This method didnt work the first time, I have no idea why its working now but I wont look this gift horse in the mouth…
What I did was a Merge Visible of the body and the new feet geometry (roughly aligned) without welding. Then did a GoZ to MAX and bridged the borders between the two. GoZ back into ZB making sure to set the Subtool>dist to .01 and presto, my mesh is now connected and without artifacts! It even let me change the silhouette of the mesh. Fingers crossed ZB will continue to let me change the topology if I need to in the future…
Thanks Marcus for your efforts 
BTW: that was meant to be a 
Ah, that all sounds good. The distance slider is an important one for Project All. I’m not sure why I didn’t suggest GoZ in the beginning, but I guess we all have momentary lapses. Anyhow, it sounds as though you are getting to grips with things.