ZBrushCentral

LowPoly Meshes vs. HighPoly Meshes

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, All.

You have been so much help in the past, I wonder if I might impose on you once more?

I have a few questions about mesh design that I would like to ask, if I may?

As I understand it, I need a LowPoly mesh and a HighPoly mesh in order to generate maps for export to Maya.

My basic question is: What is a LowPoly mesh? I mean, how low is too low?

I think I need an ‘extreme’ LowPoly mesh to work out basic silhouette, shape and volume but I need a higher poly mesh (than that) to carry maps into Maya.

I am working on a student project, a tortoise character with 2 basic meshes: the body and the shell.

The body has enough polys to capture the major anatomical features but since these features include facial elements as well as paws and claws, the density appears much greater than the shell, which is a static element.

My 2nd question is: does it matter that a subtool is less ‘dense’ than the master tool?

I have sent a zipped ZTool file for your kind examination.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you.

~Tim.~

#2

Tim

You should check out the Thread DID YOU KNOW THAT

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=61676

It may help a little. There are videos in there about Normal, Displacement, Cavity Map producing in ZBrush and the last video is on Rendering in Maya with Mental Ray.

You want to have a low poly mesh that can capture a silhouette if using Normal Maps, but if you are using Displacement Maps then you can have a pretty low mesh.

No it does not matter if subtools are less dense then the main one. That is the great thing about subtools you can have so many different levels.