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Dragon wings with zsphere topology issue, mesh is too high

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#1

I’ve followed this tut for years How to create dragon/bat wings in Zbrush on Vimeo and it has never failed me before. It always gave me a crisp and clean topology that I can easily do and move on to the next stage. This time, however, creating the frame was a chore. when I went to make an adaptive skin the polycount was through the roof and that was on 1 resolution! I don’t know if it makes much of a difference but the dragon is still a zsphere mesh so I can make adjustments here and there but it is in adaptive skin mode. This should not make a difference.

In all my years of zbrushing I’ve never came across this before. Id really hate to redo this in Blender, as it would normally take about 3 times as long. Here’s my screenshot of before and after. Keep in mind I have used the same exact tequnique a dozen times but never came across this

This is the topology

zbrush 1
zbrush 11747×702 60.9 KB

and this is adaptive skin
zbrush 2
zbrush 21738×673 44.6 KB

I dont know what I am doing wrong. ive tried messing with the dynamesh resolution but that led to very choppy results. I even tried unified skin to similar results.
Any suggestions?

#2

The link you provided is to one of your images not the video Is this the video you are referring to? How to create dragon/bat wings in Zbrush

If so, then the author is using the ZSphere Topology brush and the Topology palette in the Tool menu to create low topology wings with ZSpheres They are not using the Adaptive Skin function.

If that’s not the correct video then post a proper link and we might be able to help further. Cheers.

#3

errr, it seems to be the same video. So, how can I get the polycount down and why does it do that to begin with topology is supposed to low polygon version anyhow.

#4

Hi @Zanden,

You’ll want to reduce the Dynamesh Resolution slider to zero. This in combination with a density setting of 1 will create the lowest possible polycount topology.

:slight_smile:

#5

oh, how could I have missed that setting, ah well, thanks!

Edit. While I was awaiting a reply I used the same technique in Blender and had a working model in minutes so doing it in Zbrush is obsolete but I still use zbrush for character creation. :grin:
Edit 2 lol Blender may be faster at blocking it out but overall it’s not better at the wing curves, unless I want to do it all manual. Nothing sculpts like zbrush!