EdgeLoop VS Divide

[KHAlexander]

Hi!
I’m been going through tutorials and other learning stuff throughout the
weeks. One thing I’ve noticed is that the tuts doesn’t really show if or how
the artist divide or edgeloop certain detail areas for further modelling.

This is the Qs:

When I do a EdgeLoop, for example in the face area. I do it to get more
polygons to work with for the details, wrong? (divide=better?)

What is the difference?
If I hide portions of the polygons and divide instead, they get more
symmetrically divided.

EdgeLoop “only” divides along the edges as it says. Can anyone explain the
difference and most importantly why you use divide or EdgeLoop and when.

I haven’t got the grip of what’s what and when to use it in the
workflow.

Best.
Thanks in advance.

[nebular]

Well, edge loop is permanent while you can togle between subdivision levels.
Also you add an edge loop when you need more poligons (with divide) on certain area.
For instance, you have a lot of faces in the arm region but not too many on the stomach.

Sure, you can divede it several times to get more poligons in stomach, but then your arm will be so dense and most of its’ geometry won’t be used or needed.

Hope this makes sense.

[KHAlexander]

Thanks for the answer.

But if you hide for example all mesh but the hand and subdivide it only
the hand will be subdivided.(?)
The Edge loop will only set a new row of polygons along the edge. His is
what I mean.

The upper, orange part, is subdivided. I hid all the mesh except for this one and subdivided it.

The middle, green/yellowish, are done the same way but with EdgeLoop.
As you can see subdividing a bit of the mesh that you need gets you more
Polys. Also there is only poly at the edge.

So! What’s the workflow and why?
I really want to understand the benefits in the workflow for each of the
procedures.

Best.

Attachments

[aurick]

Edge Loop adds another row of polygons around the edge of the visible area. Another use for Edge Loop is if you partially hide the mesh and then move some points along the edge of the visible area, Edge Loop will construct new polygons to fill the gap between the original position and the new position. (See http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=20370)

When you divide a mesh that’s partially hidden (or masked) then the entire visible (or unmasked) surface gets divided while the other part of the model does not. This adds more resolution to that area. But it also creates triangles where the two mesh densities come together. Those triangles don’t smooth the same way quads do, and so you’re likely to see artifacts when you divide the mesh.

Another way to add polygons to a specific part of the mesh is with retopology. You can activate retopology and draw new edge loops into the areas where you need more polygons. This gives you terrific control, and so you can add polygons without creating triangles.

[KHAlexander]

Hi!
Thanks for the answers m8:s, now I understand better of how ZB works and
how to plan my workflow in this specific area.

Thanks to nebular and aurick.

Best.