ZBrushCentral

How do i work with Meshresolution? (Hard Surface)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

so i ask myself how i should work with resolution,
to keep clean edges when i do some hard surface modelling.
I saw some people starting with dynamesh and slicing stuff up,
without caring much for retaining clean edges.

So i tried to imitate that (started from a 128 dynasphere),
and then Zremeshed it after i cut it into form. Z-remeshing it

Or do i really have to retopologize every single (and complex) part of my
tools and subtools again, to get a clean topology back (in the end)?
I think this will be hard for very thin models, like when making a gun with
thin planes.

#2

I’m not that great at it either but here’s what I found out. Fist of all working with models and resolutions is not a easy thing having said that there are many ways to do it. Bottom line is you want to have lower res as your model is in rough cut and increase res as you add details, and you have to figure out your won progression and what works. Try also to play with the blur and polish buttons on dynamesh. The divide button also have the smt button which will when off will maintain hard edges on the mesh as you divide. Hope this helps…

#3

It sounds like your workflow is a bit off to me. If your highpoly mesh holds all of your information, you don’t need to worry about your low, or any edge flow. The only time those things come in are if you’re building meshes for games.

Typically we we high to low. Not low to high to low. This is the beauty of Zbrush, we don’t need a low to start from, we just sculpt, create as we see fit, and then build a proper mesh for whatever outside application you need.

I hope this helps to clear things up. But, maybe I missed the mark completely as well.

#4

Well, im trying to build some stuff like a simple spaceship, weapons or biomech-stuff.
I saw the example insert mesh IMM-gun. Which is made only of hard surfaces and
i wonder how the meshes are made, they are very clean, with no unnecessary topology.
Some primitives are added here and there but the big tools are designed clean.

Im not sure about my workflow yet, i think i dont know from which mesh i should start from and
how to build up from there.

For example i start from a dynasphere 128. Cut the round edges of,
so that there is a cube left. When i clip away now parts of it, the edges will not be clean enough.
to extrude a mask or polygroup (by moving) from it. And when i slice now some polygroups
onto the dynamesh, select them and move them, its not clean and very messy.

Same would happen when i start from the default cube (and deleting its higher subdiv levels).
When i apply a (rectangular drawn) mask on a single face, the mask does not solely fill the face,
it bleeds out to other faces, so i cant select a single face, or a group of faces to make a polygroup out of.
Same with the select-lasso. I select a group of faces, and mask them. The mask gets blurry and inherits other
faces.

#5

What is the end result to be? For a render, it does matter. For game meshes, things matter. What do you need to get OUT of the software?

#6

Atm. for rendering only.

#7

i would make sure dynameash’s blur setting is set to zero. it’s set to 2 by default, so if you clip a corner or edge and dynamesh, it will round it off, but set to zero will keep the sharp edge.

#8

Hi, for Hard Surface I usually work in higher resolutions, its better for clean edges. While being in Highres Mode I cut and sculpt hard surface stuff freely. If I like the concept, I cut them apart into individual sub tools and retop them individually with zspheres retop tools.

As an alternative for midres you also could use panel loops, using a smoothed concept sculpt as an extraction plate.

At last you could make your start in a traditional modeling program blocking out the base shape and detail it with Zbrush:)

Hope that helps
Best
C

#9

Thanks to all who replied me so far, very friendly.

In this tutorial:
http://www.nioncapul.net/zbrush/zbrush_extrude.html
you can see that when drawing a mask on a surface,
that the mask cant fill a single face only, for extrusion.

Im not sure if there is a better/another method than masking.
I tried it with a polygroup applied to the single face (or a group of faces),
but i feel its very random if the extrusion works or not as expected, plus
it would create a crazy topology.

So far i use panel loops (with append option enabled to avoid holes in my surfaces),
group loops for a very clean extrusion from masks-> polygroups, backtrack etc. on higher
subdiv levels.