ZBrushCentral

Hard Surface Questions

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I am diving into learning the hard surface part of ZB and have a few questions I have not been able to track down answers for yet:

  1. If I sculpt a model in an outside program that i want to detail inside of ZB I have in the past preserved my hard surface edges one of two ways:
    a. Chamfers, inset edgeloops or closely placed edgeloops so that when I bring it into ZB it holds the edges when divided
    b. No outside edge preservation and when I bring it into ZB turn off SMT for my divisions

Both of these methods have a downside in my experiments so far:
a. Method a produces an insane amount of tiny polygons that are very tightly placed which will cause detailing to have problems in levels of detail if a flat side needs to be detailed accross a sharp turn because of the tight polygon placement
b. Method b works better inside of ZB, but there is another problem - now the polygons are more evenly placed and sized, but I have to smooth the flat areas again to get rid of the hard edges that were preserved during the divisions without “smt” turned on - this works unless I accidentally get too close to an edge that I needed to preserve and then it gets deformed

My question dealing with this issue is whether there is a way to select certain areas to preserve certain edges based on polygroups or some other such selection process?

  1. My second question is just a general inquiry as to what experienced hard surface people find the most useful brushes? So far I have had mixed results with the polish brushes as I have not really nailed down their purpose since they seem to “cut” into even a flat surface instead of truly “polishing” the surface and am just now exploring the flatten and other related brushes.
#2

You can just set up your model to have different polygroups then use the “mask by polygroups” option in the brush palette. Turn that up to 100 and turn on the backface masking where applicable on thin areas and you will have less worries about distorting geometry. If you set up your polygroups correctly you have no worries anymore about needing tight edgeloops.

Zbrush sets up creases for you as well. Make creases around edges you wish to preserve by making your polygroups, hiding what you don’t want to have a crease, then hitting the crease button in the geometry tab. You can also uncrease using this method. With the new mask by polygroups I find it’s usually unnecessary to crease anymore but it’s there should you need it.

Take the time to learn the polish brushes even if you don’t understand the need for them or how to use them at the moment, they are the cornerstone of the hard surface technique. Don’t disregard them because they don’t feel right at the beginning as they are key to getting those planes worked out and edges refined. So my advice is keep pluggin away with those polish brushes until you get the feel for them. If they’re cutting into your model, try softer polish brush variants or set your tablet to allow for a softer touch. With just the Hpolish brush and Trim Dynamic Trails brush I can take a blob of a base model and turn it into something wonderfully hard edge and mechanical, just with those two brushes since they’re so powerful, don’t neglect them!

Oh also, Layer and Layer Const are good workhorses for the hard edge stuff everyone is up to these days. Store your morph target and go to town adding and subtracting with the Layer Const brush for some really fast and effective edits.

#3

Thanks so much for the tips - will start by exploring the crease function - had not seen that before so I will locate it and give it a whirl:). At the moment, I am working on my first fully completed character and there are both organic and hard surfaces so there is much learning taking place in this old brain, heh.

#4

Well, I can say without a doubt that I am totally in love with the crease button, can’t believe I overlooked this for so long - now to just figure out how to get displacements to work properly in 3ds Max and I will be set … but that is a battle for another day:).