What’s the best, fastest and easiest way to create a clean edge loop for this part of the mesh?
Thx a bunch for any ideas and suggestions,
appreciate it!
Hi @FattyBull ,
this depends on your underlying topology. If you have a simple polyloop consisting only of quads, then Zmodeler > Edge> Insert will do the trick. If the target region is not a uniform polyloop or contains tris or poles, this will complicate the targeting.
Alternatives:
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Use ZMod> Edge> Bevel to bevel a target edgeloop into multiple edgeloops. This again depends on how clean the topology is in that area as to whether Zmodeler will be able to identify it as an edge loop.
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Geometry> Edge Loop works with hidden geometry to insert edge loops. May be useful if you have well defined polygroups, but not great topology.
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Ctrl-dragging with Gizmo on a partially masked mesh will extrude the unmasked portion, creating an edge loop in some situations.
If lacking either good topology or good polygroups:
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At low poly ZModeler Multi slice mode can be used to manually slice from any point to point on a mesh. Set the action for all three components (point, edge, polygon) to “slice mesh”.
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For higher res meshes, the SliceCurve bush can be used to cut through any mesh along a path. If you first mask the mesh it will be cut without creating new polygroups.
Please remember in all cases that polygons with > 4 points cannot exist at any time. Zbrush will insert edges to force quads and tris.
thank you, yes, all this makes sense of course.
Sorry for not being a bit more clear about my question.
I was curious if there is a way, to use a Brush, like the knife brush, that would allow me to create a clean cut and automatically creates an edge loop.
What I found interesting, is the ZRemehser.
It creates a mesh that doesn’t seem to have an end for an edge loop.
Sounds a bit strange, but I zremeshed quite often now, and it seems to be in the algo from the Zremesher.
The SliceCurve brush works similarly to the Knife brush. It slices through the mesh but without removing anything.
However, this won’t create a “clean” quad loop if the intersection of the stroke with the existing edges creates a triangle or pole any place. The resulting edge likely won’t be recognized as an edge loop by Zmodeler functions.
Retopologizing would be required. One way to do this is to use the Slice Curve brush as mentioned above. This will 'slice" the mesh into two separate polygroups along either side of the stroke. ZRemesher with “Keep Groups” active would result in ZRemesher redrawing the topology to respect that polygroup border, and draw edges that align to it.
Depending on the situation, separating the mesh into two polygroups that way will also allow you to quickly hide or mask one of those polygroups, and create an extrusion of polygons using one of the methods I mentioned in my first post. For instance in the following example I’ve sliced the mesh into two polygroups then used Geometry> edge loop to extrude a quad loop between the two polygroups:
That’s known as a “spiral”. If you’re using an older version of the program you may encounter these more frequently. ZRemesher has been improved in more recent versions of the program to create spirals less frequently, though they can still happen occasionally. In these situations you can use polygroups or Zremesher guides to direct the flow of topology, or manually correct the topology with ZModeler. Zmodeler functions like the following are useful for spot touch-ups:
Point> Stitch
Point> slide
Edge > Spin
Points> Bridge> Two points
The Spiral effect. Exactly. I am using the latest version, subscription always up to date.
The sprial, yes. How can you avoind that with the techniques you mentioned?
The manual way I do understand, but I was hoping to get away doing this all manually, and there might be a nice handy brush or process you can use to avoid the spiral effect.
A video tut would be cool showing that process.