I like the way blender smooths the polygons and makes it look much better even at a low poly count. Zbrush doesn’t have this, sadly, it’s so useful.
But is blender good enough for rendering with the textures I bring from Zbrush?. Zbrush is the first 3D software so I have no clue about others.
If blender is not good enough, which software would let me do this (with the smooth shade option)
Btw, I know about the Zbrush DSmooth option but that’s not what I’m looking for.
Thanks.
I think you’re talking about rendertime subdivision instead of shader?
Well, render subdiv in blender is basically just subdividing the mesh, just like in ZB when you click divide to add subdivision level. It smoothes the mesh by default, although you can switch it off if you don’t want it smoothed.
I don’t think that’s it. It’s the smooth shade option. Mudbox also has this.
In blender when I activate it, and then render. It’s all very smooth. And the polycount remains intact.
Edit…
So when you turn off Quick. Then use Dsmooth (you mention) and that other slider next to it, it doesn’t work the way you want?
I only used it when the model was already high polygon, but just needed it smoothed further to remove the visible polygons and edges made from the cavity of the material. Worked perfect for a toon project I did, where the surface needed to be super smooth.
I don’t know how it acts with lower polygon stuff.
Yeah it just subdivides. And changes the model.
Blender does this but I’m not sure about it’s rendering capablities. I wanted to know if there was a good stand alone rendering program. All I see is plug-ins for Maya/3Ds and I have no access to that.
It’s not a big deal, but I just wanna know. :D. Most likely I’ll stay rendering with Zbrush. Because of 2.5d options too.
Using dsmooth as described above does not subdivide the model. It just smooths like polygons like in blender.
It subdivides it. It’s like a fake subdivision, if you sculpt with Dsmooth on, you will see the polys being edited at the real subd level you are in.
Yeah it doesn’t add polygons to it, but it’s just like subdividing. If you have a low poly mesh without properly creasing it, it will distort it, just like subdivisions do. Smoothing in blender or mudbox doesn’t do this, it’s just a smooth look and you can actually work real time with it.
So you are not per say looking for subdivision modeling, where it’s being overall subdivided while editing the base mesh, but just a shader that blends the polygons togethor to make them less noticeable as you work? And that the Dsmooth is changed the overall shape too much, when you just want it to stay the shape it is, but smooth surface looking?
Don’t know if there is a way around that. I mean in Zbrush a lot of times I want to be able to see the polygons to know how detail I can try to add. Best thin would be to try and use a shader that doesn’t have much cavity that really makes low polys jump out. Is it effecting your ability to model, or is this for render?
Because Zbrush is not an opengl application and it works different than any of those software. it can handle more poly-detail count than those you mention , the drawback is what you are complaining about. It is not a problem for me, I actually enjoy it to certain degree. I am sorry that you do not feel comfortable with it. I think that you are focusing on wrong technical issue here. Possibly it is a big deal for you at the moment because Zbrush is first and only real 3d application you have started with.
Blender is fabolous application and it is free. A lot of people successfully transferred dispmap from Zbrush to Blender. So yes it is a great application and can be a good companion for Zbrush.
Yes it is only for rendering. I can work perfectly without the smoothing effect. Just that I would prefer to render with that option. Why? because sometimes like I said before, with either Dsmooth, or adding more subd levels, sure the mesh looks smoother but some parts change a bit too much. Yes you can sort of prefent this by using creases, or just editing the mesh after the subdivision. The smooth shader just makes it so you don’t have to do that extra stuff, so yeah, it’s handy.
But still, tranferring stuff to another software just to make use of a smooth shader might be a bit too much, and some of the benefits of rendering images with zbrush, such has the 2.5d stuff you can do, will be lost. So I’m probably just gonna stick with zbrush :D.
What the author is looking for is a Phong or Gourand shader (similar effects different math models)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phong_shading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouraud_shading
some packages (including Blender) call it ‘smooth’ shading.
LetterRip