ZBrushCentral

Crap, not enough polys in the mouth @_@

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey guys:
I ran into trouble in a model due to my poor planning. :confused:

I forgot to add a proper mouth bag and in the end had to stretch the inside
row of edges in the lips to make a mouth bag, this looks fine at higher SubD levels due to the # of faces but in lower levels it just looks like crap.

Iā€™m thinking of fixing it with the poly retopology tool, is there an easy way to do this?
Can I go into retopology and import my level1 mesh and just re-work the inside of the mouth?

Thanks for the help, much appreciated!

#2

Yes you can. Load a ZSphere and then load he level 1 of your model (tool>rigging>select mesh), then click Topology>Edit Topology and sweep over the model holding down the shift key, this will bring up the existing topology. At this point you can edit it as normal.
Video tutorial here:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showpost.php?p=484734&postcount=73
In my experience it is convenient to scale the model until itā€™s very small on the screen and with a large brush sweep the model in one stroke.

When you finish unclick Topology>Edit Topology and in the Riggin palette hit ā€œdelete meshā€, switch tool to your unedited model, up the subdiv to the highest, go back to the ZSphere with the low res topology and load the high res mesh in, select projection in the pojection tab and hit A, if all has worked correctly youā€™ll have all the details back. You may still get awkward results, in that case try moving the projection range in the projection palette, usually -.10 works for me.

#3

OMG thank you! Thatā€™s perfect! And much easier than I thought it would be.

#4

If you already have edgeloops for your mouth, you can a few more by hiding all but the loop of polys at level 1 and using the Edgeloop button on the geometry panel. If youā€™re using a Mac, be sure to add a subtool temporarily to your object to activate the buttons on the Geometry panel.

-K

#5

I donā€™t have enough loops for the mouth so I had to use the retopology tool,
but Iā€™m now stuck at the last step which is reprojecting the new topology onto the old mesh.
It gives me absolutely no surface detail when I set the projection range low, but when I turn it up a little it screws up the mesh with inter connected polys everywhere and still no detail, thereā€™s no in-between either!!
Any ideas?

#6

Try with the negative values.

#7

Hehā€¦ never knew about this one! Great tip! Thanks Kerwin! :smiley:

#8

A tip born of my own natural laziness :D, though I now usually ensure I have at least one good edge loop for mouth, eyes, ears, etc in my base meshes so I can quickly add more density as needed without the retopo & project method (which I find both time consuming and error-prone in the mac version due to strangeness in the adaptive skin algorithm which seems to get messed up at branches too often for my liking.)
-K